Nothing to write home about would be the general opinion of how the river fished during March, nothing more than average. Some beats have shown an increase on this time last year, whilst others are showing a slight decrease.   All in all, it would look like the run of fish to date would not be quite that of last year.

The most consistent beats were those below Craigellachie, with both Delfur and Rothes producing nice weeks of between 10 and 20 fish.   Good spring fishing by any standards! Craigellachie itself has also fished well, although not as prolific as the afore mentioned beats, still, I am informed by the Ghillie, Mr Douglas Ross, that catches here are up by around 40% on this time last year.   The last day of the month saw Mr Peter Kyte and Mr Bob Steele catch four typical little Springer’s of between 8 and 9lbs in one days fishing. 

Further downstream, the Brae Beats have had mixed fortunes, with the beginning of March producing a few fish all five beats, then slowing during the final two weeks.   Water conditions here are often the factor which determines whether or not fish stop, and although the temperature has, for most of the month, been cold, water height has been generally too high and fish continue a few miles up-stream before resting.   Having said all this, the Brae Water would be slightly up on this time last year, Swings and Roundabouts spring to mind!! 
Fishing between Craigellachie and Carron has been “Average”. The hill is certainly not being set alight, but sport has been fairly constant throughout the month. 

Dr David Sneddon had a Saturday to remember whilst fishing Carron. Having joined the Party of Mr Jim Terris for the day, things looked fairly bleak until one of the rods; Mr Ben Somerville, finally landed the first fish of the week, a nice little Springer of around 6lbs.   Dr Sneddon, not to be outdone, carried on fishing right to the death, which, it has to be said, was a prudent thing to do!   Whilst the rest of the team were dismantling their equipment, a loud shout was heard from the far side of the Carron Pool.   Fortunately for the good Doctor most of the advice, which was being frantically shouted over the river at an increasingly higher volume, was being lost through excitement and also the noise of the river.   After a major struggle, the Doctor finally beached the fish to wide applause from the now hysteric team on the far side of the river. A lovely specimen of around 20lbs.   The story does not however stop there. Having fished a fairly small fly all day, the Doctor had decided to, against advice, though caution to the wind by going deep and big.   The fish was taken on a 2” Cascade Tube fished on a fast sinking line, enforcing the theory – “in the spring, if all else fails, go deep and big”! But, the story is still not quite complete. Having landed the fish the Doctor noticed a green tag on its dorsal fin, interesting, because no Spey fish have been marked with such a tag! Any tagging carried out on the Spey, I am assured by the Biologist, is done with yellow tags.   So, where did the fish come from?? And, what was it doing in the Spey?? 

Radio tagging has shown that such fish, although not common, do end up in the wrong river, and research, albeit very limited, would point to most actually returning to sea and ending up in their natal river.   However, because of the very limited nature of this research, no firm conclusions can be drawn. In simplistic terms, it would make a lot of sense for fish from other rivers to mix, after all, too narrow a gene pool is well known be to the detriment of every species, all it would seem, except Salmo Salar!!  Interbreeding on a grand scale reminds me only of “The Banjo and no Teeth”!   I would be very interested to know if any reader has ever came across the rare “Jelly Sucking” salmon playing "Duelling Banjo’s!!" *

Fishing up-stream of Carron has been patchy to say the least, with only a few fish taken during March.   Knockando, which would normally get into double figures before the end of March, is not quite there yet, and both Tulchan and Castle Grant, it would seem are much in the same boat. 

May Prospects -
I have heard it said by so many old experienced Spey Ghillies – “It’s best to have a slow build up of small and not so many large fish in the early part of the year. This usually leads to a better run of fish during the main months of May and June. Time will tell, but, as someone who has always valued the opinion of experience I would be confident of good runs of fish during the summer.

Ian Gordon
Speycaster