River Information 2015

Salmon and Sea-trout season-  11 February 2015 to 31 October inclusive.
Brown trout season  15 March to 6 October Inclusive.
 
CASTING INSTRUCTION
 
We can now offer tuition to anglers on a one to one or group basis from a fully qualified instructor.
 
Learn to Spey cast, cover that spot where fish are -but is always just out of reach or just brush up on your skills.
We can arrange it for you or if your beat gillie has no objections it can be done on your beat at a time to suit you.
Please ring Frank on 01888 562428 to book a slot- it will improve your "luck"

We can also provide shooting instruction for both rifle and shotgun- again from a fully qualified instructor- again contact us if interested.
We have some interesting developments in this area so keep looking back for the exciting news -hopefully around March/April time.

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Update 16 October 2015

With a couple of weeks left the river has began to yield a few decent fish. A rise in levels last week and this have seen a few more fish being caught on some beats and Castle Water Huntly, Avochie and Upper Netherdale all reported fish with each beat also landing an 18 lb fish.
To cap it all this week Craig Wyness caught and landed a fish of 30.5 on a size 12 fly.

Update 5 October 2015

Conditions and the fishing remain a challenge.
We continue to be predominately dry and any rises in levels drop away very quickly.

August 25 saw a rise in levels to just over two feet . By The next day this was down to plus 9 inches and a few fish were caught , mainly in the middle and upper river as the fish moved upstream.
Kinnairdy, Stobiehaugh and Netherdale picked away with fish to 12lb. A few fresh grilse were tempted in by the Thursday and lower beats picked up a few but most fish caught were coloured.
Boat of Turtory reported a fish of 22lb and this would be the front runner for the Morison Trophy.

September opened with a few fish throughout the river being reported but with low levels it was hard work. September 3rd was the best day of the week and a fish of 16lb was reported off Mountblairy.
Friday opened with the river rising after rain in the high hill and it peaked at two feet.
Northerly gales saw huge breakers at the river mouth and in effect fish in the system moved up and nothing fresh came in from the sea due to conditions and the lower river suffered. Beats further up did well with Mayen, Coniecleugh all reporting fish. Castle Water Huntly landed over 20 fish- a mix of sea-trout and salmon and as many lost in two days – the best being a 14lb sea-trout.

Week of September 7 saw upper beats have no water left and the fish gone through and lower beats began to pick away with clean fish making an appearance . Turriff reported a salmon at 18lb Ferry Cottage and waterside Lodge at Upper Netherdale reported two salmon at 14lb and many other beats saw grilse catches close to being in double figures for the week.

As we continue through September things have gone off the boil for most and beats are reporting single figure catches for the last few weeks. As September ends and October begins cloudless skies and temperatures of 23 degrees have set in . Overnight temperatures are in low single digits so fishing first thing is the best option, or wait until the sun gets lower and a few fish have come off between 5 and 6pm.
There are also a few fish coming off between 20 and 23 lb but they are rather black. Cleaner fish seem to be around the 13lb mark.

The forecast is for some more rain in the next few days so with the crop off we should see some more water reach the river.

Update 5 August 2015

Despite three rises in water- over the last three weeks conditions continue to be challenging on the Salmon front. Sea-trout are still around and are coming off to 4lb on many beats. A few salmon are around on the middle to higher beats as the increased water has allowed some movement within the river. I was away at the CLA last week and do not have all the reports in yet but  one fresh salmon at 12 lb came off Upper Netherdale and two grilse and two salmon came off Corniehaugh. A visitor at Turriff landed a sea-trout and lost a grilse at around 5lb.

I have some late availability as follows-
 
Corniehaugh- 6 rods  week of   28 September
                                                   12 October
                                                   26 October.
 
This beat comes with a gillie and a boat (its double bank) and is only £48 per rod day and accommodation can be taken at www.theoldsteadings.com if required.
 
 
Upper Netherdale   Ferry Cottage  4 rods  week of 18 October
                                                                    week of 25 October

This beat is offered out for these weeks as an encouragement at rent the cottage and two rods and get the other two rods free- enquire for details.
 
Montcoffer     week 10 August
                       week 17 August

Again Gillie is around to help and it has two rods only each week at £400 per rod.
 
 
Mountblairy   Week 9 August      2 rods and cottage
                      Week 4 October    2 rods and cottage
                      Week 25 October  4 rods and two cottages.
 
Muiresk         Week 14 September  3 rods and cottage   
 
Avochie       Week 19 October
                    Week 26 October

A Flat is available if required. The fishing is for up to 5 rods and cost is £336 per week per rod.
 
All the above is prime stuff and remember despite poor runs last year and so far this year over 1000 salmon came off the Deveron in the last two months last year.

Update 28 July 2015

Cancellations now make MUIRESK available for 3 rods and a cottage week 24 August and week 14 September.

Update 25 July 2015

July kicked off with a few fresh salmon around including a 10lb sea-licer off Muiresk. Week of July 6th saw most beats below Turriff continue to land sea-trout around the 4lb mark. Wednesday saw a rise in levels to just over a foot and upper beats began to see more fish. Castle water Huntly saw grilse on the Wednesday at 5lb and by Thursday with levels holding around a foot at Turriff, Avochie landed five sea-trout to 4lb and lost nine. They also returned a 3lb Brown Trout. Upper Netherdale saw 4 sea-trout come off in two hours  and by Friday Upper Netherdale took more sea-trout ,Marnoch Lodge had a 10lb salmon and Junior angler Chloe Totten landed her very first fish- a 5 lb grilse. Once landed and released the very next cast yielded another grilse of a similar weight.

The week of 13 July was a little slower for lower beats but Forglen landed a few sea-trout and a 12 lb salmon by mid week. Most beats reported around 5 fish for the week – a mixture of sea-trout and grilse with an odd salmon amongst them. Heavy rain on Friday July 17 up in the catchment saw a 2 foot flash flood come down the river  and it was extremely dirty.

The dirt was still in the system by Monday 20th when levels were back to normal or just below. This week has been extremely challenging for most as fish in the system were able to run up river but a few grilse have been caught. Salmon are absent and there are no signs of any fish arriving as yet.

On a more positive note it looks like the coastal nets will be prohibited in Scotland after this season so they will no longer be blamed for any lack of fish. We have had a great run of sea-trout this season and now looking for a three foot rise to bring in some salmon to set us up for the back end .
 

Update 30 June 2015

The Deveron is often referred to as a “hidden gem”—I think we could say after this June it is a forgotten gem. Our river levels for most of the month have remained between normal and 6 inches below but this has not deterred the fish. Overall our salmon numbers are not the greatest but they are coming off in steady numbers in the 8-10lb bracket. The sea-trout numbers are much better this year as are the returns despite many beats lying empty or half let.

Week of June 8 saw the arrival of them in numbers and 6 rods fishing Eden recorded 29 for the week- and the onset of Northerly winds on Thursday put a stop to the catches.
Christoph and Steff Lucke caught sea-trout and salmon at Mayen , Laithers recorded sea-trout and Grilse. The following week the catches continued and Lower Netherdale recorded a 12lb salmon amongst the sea-trout catches.

With a small rise in levels Monday/Tuesday 22-23 June grilse and salmon made their way up river and Marnoch, Kinnairdy and Muiresk all posted returns. Kinnairdy saw three salmon to 8lb landed and as many lost in a couple of hours. Upper Netherdale saw three sea-trout from 3-8lb landed in two hours on Friday, Eden saw some grilse to 4lb and up river saw reports of one beat landing eight sea-trout and one grilse up until Wednesday.

The week ended with some localised rises in water and this continued over the weekend with Turriff opening at around 9 inches above on Monday- some places up river were less but it moved a few fish and despite some colour Dunlugas posted 2 sea-trout, Muiresk an 8lb Salmon, Laithers lost a salmon and landed 2 sea-trout and a grilse in two hours to one rod and Lower Netherdale saw 4 salmon and 5 sea-trout to 4lb.

Despite only half let for the month, Montcoffer has had its best June in 20 years and those anglers who are here on the other beats are not going away with a blank week
.
Hopefully this trend can continue into July. We have been pretty cold—coldest June for 40 years but this week is looking like the heat will arrive- at least we had some water right before it to help with the fishing.

There is fishing available throughout the season on both a weekly and daily basis— we are trying to get to grips with our new booking system but please ring for the up to date information.
Wrack, Montcoffer and Eden have slots in July and August, Upper Netherdale have slots in July, August and October. Mountblairy have cottages and rods in July, September and October, Marnoch have rods up until August, Kinnairdy and Euchrie has rods until August. The manse pool has rods right through the season, Avochie has some availability until end July and then some rods in September and October.

Castle Water Huntly has rods available weekly or daily right through the season- and August saw them record their best sea-trout catch in ten years last year.

Update 5 June 2015

As April ended we had up to 7 inches of snow on Sunday 26- about the only white stuff we had seen all winter. As this melted we had a rise of around 8 inches.
This brought us or at least stirred up some fish and as we entered May the river went up again to just over a foot. Salmon came off the middle and Higher river.

Monday May 4 saw levels at 1 foot nine inches and dirty and by Wednesday we were at three feet. As this fell again the higher river caught fish.

Things went quiet for a week and we thought that after 3 feet of water any fish would be in and that there were obviously none to come.

Week of 18 May saw a few 8lb fish off on the Monday and on Tuesday the lower river produced a few fish to 17lb and a few sea-trout to 5lb began to come off.
Again the last week of May saw more sea-trout and a steady number of salmon to 10lb coming off .

As we enter June the whole river would appear to have salmon and sea-trout. Sea- liced fish are coming off from Banff to Huntly . Salmon are around 8-10 lb but some are coming off at 3-4lb.
Sea-trout are around the 4lb mark.

As stated before we do have less anglers on and many beats are standing empty on past failure at this time of year but in general we have more fish now than we have had at this time of year for about 5 years. Indeed the Sea-trout last year was up and many of the prime beats and weeks were  not fished for them- it will be the same this year.

There are beats available through out the remainder of the season – some of them prime weeks and if the fish run continues they should fish well. I also have a few deals and offers available on some weeks but you will need to ring me for the up to date ones. However I can say that Ferry Cottage at Upper Netherdale is offering incentives for those booking weeks in July and August.

Update 25 April 2015

The season got off to a slow start and it has just about ground to a halt as April draws to a close.

River levels opened around one foot three inches and fluctuated between 1 foot and one foot 8 inches through February and into early March.

The first fish came off Lower Netherdale around March 5 and weighed 8 lb. Another couple of fish came off around 14-16 March from up river and middle river beats.

As we entered April we were on about 5 fish and the best fish of the season so far came off Marnoch at 12 covered in sea lice on April 3rd.

As April progressed levels fell to around normal and hovered around that mark until reaching four inches below normal by the end of the month.

Total salmon catch stands around 10 for the season so far--- and looks like the worst start to a season since records began in 1952.

With low water and temperatures reaching 20 degrees C along with poor salmon runs on other rivers doom and gloom prevails and anglers have simply not gone fishing.

In fact compared to 2014 we have lost 181 salmon anglers fishing day tickets this year to date.

However we have seen some fantastic trout being taken on a regular basis. These fish are coming off to 4lb on a regular basis and the amount of fish between 1 and 2 pound is phenomenal .

The number of trout anglers fishing the Deveron has increased from 13 in 2013 to  43 in 2015 and May is still to come- traditionally the better month.

We can only hope we see some substantial rain to give us a hope of some salmon during May. It has happened before so everything is crossed.

You can keep up to date with pictures and information on our Twitter and Facebook pages.

Update 23 April 2015

Link to Auction Site

Update 11 February 2015

Opening day saw a bright and crisp start. Temperatures were around –4 degrees C at day break. The river was running clear at one foot six inches and the sun shone all day.
 
Mr Craig brown – former Scotland football manager (longest serving) and past Aberdeen FC manager was our official guest for the day along with the Aberdeen FC Community Trust.
Once again kind sponsors of the day were John Dewar's- through their William Lawson's Brand and ourselves at Turriff Tackle provided the Vision Rod for Mr Adam Woodward who collected the Morison trophy for the heaviest fish caught and returned on fly last year. ( est. at 22lb from Marnoch Lodge).
 
Mr Hay River Board Chairman opened the proceedings and then handed over to Mr Brown to present the trophy to Adam. After I presented the rod the crowd were piped down to the river where Mr Brown blessed the river with a 25 yr old malt and Adam took the first cast.
 

Update 6 February 2015

Welcome to another season.  Let us hope it is better than the last two.

However it is not all doom and gloom. Yes we have had; along with most other rivers in Europe a couple of bad seasons- but the best four seasons ever recorded on the Deveron have been in the last 10 years. Not only that- we along with the Tweed are the only river to up our ten year average. Twenty years ago it stood around 2200 and today that 10 year average has risen to around 3200. That  may be no consolation if you have a poor week but puts a different perspective on the angling.

You will see on our site( should be live by 11 Feb) that we now have an online booking system for  day tickets and weekly bookings. This will be updated as required and you can still book by telephone and in person in the shop if you wish or do not have a PayPal account. It just offers you the customer another option when booking your fishing.

Over the Winter we have set up another string to our bow – 3T Sporting   - most of our customers know us obviously for Fishing Tackle and Trophies- it is in our name- but the shooting side of our business has now overtaken the fishing and many people in the wider area do not know we sell Cartridges , Ammunition and Firearms. This name should help in this regard. This also covers the huge increase in clay pigeon events that we organise and run and we are proud to be the supplier  of this service to the all new-- First in Scotland ladies shooting club—GLAD RAGS AND CARTRIDGE BAGS.

Most of our fishing availability is now up- there is more than usual and some really excellent weeks available—at Mountblairy in June through to October , Wrack in September and Upper Netherdale in August indeed have a look you might get a surprise that the beat and time of year you thought was dead mans shoes might just be available. Online booking of lets is also now available , these can be viewed and selected here.

May I wish you all tight lines for the season .

Craig Brown CBE to open Deveron

The Deveron, Bogie & Isla Rivers Charitable Trust is delighted to announce the opening of the river Deveron salmon season 2015 and the presentation of the Morison Trophy on 11th February.
The trophy will be presented at the river opening ceremony at 10am, Turriff AA lodge, Turriff - the river opening ceremony in association with William Lawson’s (Macduff) will follow. The Morison Trophy will be officially presented by special guest, Mr Craig Brown CBE, the longest serving manager of the Scottish national football team (1993-2001), leading the team to both the European championship in 1996 and World cup 1998 and currently a Non-Executive Director of Aberdeen FC. Mr Brown has also been given the honour of blessing the river with a dram of Glen Deveron 25 years old , where thereafter the first cast of the season will be taken by Mr Adam Woodward, winner of the Morison Trophy for 2014.