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A Year on the Spey

Our March 2004 contribution from Ian Neale

In the first of a series of articles for Fish & Fly, guide and instructor Ian Neale describes a typical year on the River Spey

The River Spey catchment area consists of the Grampian, Cairngorm, Monadhliath, and Badenoch Mountain ranges making it the second largest catchment in Scotland.

The river rises high in Badenoch in the Southern part of the Monadhliath Mountains, on the slopes of the Corrieyairack Forest and close to its source is little Loch Spey.

Nearby is the River Roy, which drains North and West into the River Lochy, far on the West Coast of Scotland. The Spey has a very long watercourse of some 100 miles and a drainage area of some 1,100 square miles. It flows Northwards through Newtonmore, where it joins the River Truim, noted for its excellent brown trout fishing. From here, it flows into Loch Insch at Kincraig. Just below Loch Insch a major spawning tributary, the River Feshies joins the Spey. This spectacular Highland stream is known for its run of spring salmon; and I have read stories of fish being caught here in March at 2000 feet, imagine!

From this point the Spey runs through Aviemore and Boat of Garten onto Grantown on Spey. The river here tends to be of a slower flowing nature with long deep pools. It is on some of these beats at Kinchurdy and Kincardine that I have spent some wonderful short June nights fishing for the runs of Spey sea trout. These fish often appear in the River system in May, but by June and July many Spey pools abound with these fish averaging around 3 lbs. with fish of up to 9 lbs. being caught regularly. Pools like Kinchurdy, The Long Pool and The Bay Window bring back memories of some spectacular sport.

From Grantown On Spey the river begins to quicken its pace and is joined by two other important tributaries being the Dulnain and Avon (A’an). The well known beats from here to Spey Bay being Castle Grant, Tulchan, Ballindalloch, Pitchroy, Knockando, Laggan, Carron, Wester and Easter Elchies, Arndilly, Rothes and Aikenway, Delfur, Orton and Gordon Castle.

It was on The River Spey that the Speycast was first introduced and is by definition as famous Worldwide as the whisky distilled on its banks! The Speycast basically does away with the need to overhead cast, thus avoiding any obstacles such as overhanging trees, bushes or high banks behind you. The fly line, therefore, has no need to travel behind the angler, but is switched upstream across in front of the caster by way of forming a large D loop of line, which momentarily anchors on the surface, whilst the rod is loaded into a forward cast and shot high. The single Speycast is really a roll cast with a switch of direction and has to be the most satisfying and rewarding of casts.

My fishing season begins on February 11th on the Spey and closes on September 30th. During this long season we see a great variety of runs of salmon, grilse and sea trout. We should not also forget that the Spey is also an amazing brown trout fishery, which is hardly exploited by salmon anglers.

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The Spring Run

To many anglers the large multi-sea winter salmon known as the Springer is the finest prize of all. These beautiful silver sea liced fish can be caught from opening day right through the spring months of March to May. At this time, we are often dependent on mountain snow melt to keep river levels sustained, therefore, inviting these fish to enter the river on their final journey with each and every high tide. This winter we have seen more than our usual share of snowfall here in the Highlands. We are hoping that this bodes well for the visiting angler over the next 3 months or so. Indeed the Spey has already got off to one of its best starts for many years, with a number of fresh fish being caught up and down the river from Castle Grant downstream.

At this time, water and air temperatures can be very cold in February and March, thus slowing these early running fish down considerably from moving into the upper beats. However, in a mild winter I have seen fresh Spring salmon taken as far upstream as Kincardine in early February!

The best method for our early season approach is generally fishing full sinking lines or sink tips with either brass or aluminium tubes or Waddingtons giving the best opportunities. Fishing deep and slow is the method at this time of year. I would suggest using a rod of at least 15 feet in length and a fly line rated #11 AFTM. My own choice of rod would be the Bruce and Walker Norway Speycaster #10/11 which can handle say a Windcutter Spey fly line #11 and a largish tube fly with ease. I generally prefer a 1-inch tube and favour these Norwegian style hair wing flies, such as the Templedog and Sunray Shadow patterns. Fishing with larger and heavier flies becomes hard work and totally unnecessary. These flies vary in colour according to water clarity. If the water is very high and dirty, then try a fly which will at least show up in the water as best as possible, say hot orange or yellow tied in. Generally, if the clarity is good, then I tend to prefer a black and orange or black and red pattern of fly.

Be prepared for changeable conditions in February and March. The weather can change very quickly here in the Highlands. One minute there will be a pleasant early spring sun and then followed by a blizzard and gale force winds. Water levels often change quite quickly too with the onset of melting snow. A part of the secret to getting results is to be prepared to change tactics and flies from day to day and pool to pool. I personally love fishing these early months in the hope of connecting with a gleaming bar of silver still smelling of the salt water. The river is, of course, still full of kelts which are last years surviving spawners; and these fish, if they continue to live, will eventually make it back out to sea on another feeding run. They are often in good condition and can be very well mended and becoming very silver once again. They are very keen takers of the fly and can be very deceptive by giving the angler some good sport. These fish should be treated with care and returned carefully if they are to survive their next feeding expedition. Watch out for their teeth, which have re-grown and are as sharp as needles. Take a good pair of forceps or pliers with you to remove the hooks.

My friends and I have often had a really enjoyable day on the river with sport from nothing but kelts. Just feeling the line pull away and the reel scream out is enough to get the adrenalin flowing on a cold winters’ morning! But, as you play that fish, the question runs through your mind right to the net, is it or isn’t it? It is always interesting to find that very often where you are catching kelts, then that is often where you may well pull out a Springer. The kind of water we are looking for is usually slower in pace and very often tails of pools can be very productive at this time. Be very careful wading the Spey or any river for that matter, as a fall could end in a very cold and wetting experience or sometimes disaster. Always take what I call falling in clothes, a large towel and most importantly a bottle of single malt whisky, just in case!

The Baggot

Apart form from catching numbers of kelts and of course the Springer, there is also another salmon that we occasionally hook at this time of year, the Baggot. This is an interesting salmon which is basically a very late running female or hen fish which for one reason or another has not been able to spawn and therefore is still full of eggs. These fish would appear to the untrained eye to be clean fresh Spring salmon and indeed are often still sea liced. However, in the past when these fish were killed mistakenly for fresh fish, the colour of the fish would change and she would often shed her eggs when picked up (see illustration).

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Ian Neale has been professionally guiding and instructing since 1980 when he owned and ran a fishing lodge on the Isle of Mull. He spent 5 years as head guide on the Ponoi river on the Kola Peninsular in Russia looking after clients from all over the World fishing for Atlantic salmon. He also spent 3 years as head guide on the Rio Grande river in Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina. The quarry here being huge sea trout that averaged 10 lbs in weight. During his time here the World record sea tout was caught, a massive fish of 35 lbs.

Speycaster.Net

Ian now runs his own guiding and instructing business back in the Scottish Highlands. He runs many fishing lodge parties and holidays acting as host and guide to his clients. He also instructs and guides clients on a daily/weekly basis teaching the art of Speycasting on his local rivers of the Spey, Dee and Findhorn.

The site offers a variety of information for beginners and experienced anglers alike. The site is updated regularly with information of catches and fishing conditions. These updates are usually reported every two weeks throughout the fishing season. For more information on details of Speycasting instruction and cost please contact ian@speycaster.net