Here's a perfect fresh run February Spring salmon which was caught in front of the Park North Beat fishing hut during February by my colleague Russell Kay. Early Spring fish like this can be a real challenge to get your fly in front of but if you do they're always keen to take a fly like this fine specimen. You can see the Park Beat water gauge behind Russell in the shot.

I took this shot of the beautiful Lower Blackhall salmon beat on the River Dee near Banchory. Our River Dee salmon fishing guides bring our Dee salmon fishing trip guests to this pool and they fish it from the opposite bank where you see the sand and then cast their salmon fly across to this riverbank letting the current swing the fly back across the river.

Here's a shot from the famous Lower Blackhall salmon beat of the River Dee which is slightly upstream of the Aberdeenshire town of Banchory. This area of the Dee Valley has some of the best salmon fly fishing beats on the entire river and many of our River Dee salmon fishing guides host our guests in this middle area of the River Dee.

The headwaters of the River Dee in Aberdeenshire have some of the most amazing natural beauty where they merge with the Cairngorm Mountain range. The towns of Braemar & Ballater are located in the great fishing area of the River Dee Valley. This is the traditional stone bridge on the lovely Crathie salmon fishing beat.

Heres the River Dee Monkey & Copperass tube fly patterns. If you need only 2 salmon fly patterns to fish through the higher water levels of Spring then these are the only 2 you'll require. As a professional salmon guide I don't deviate from these 2 fly patterns during early Spring.

River Dee Salmon Fishing

By Jock Monteith 12th February 2019

The beautiful Aberdeenshire River Dee opened its doors recently for the salmon fishing season.

Already 15 perfect Spring salmon have been caught in the middle & lower river despite frozen river conditions so over all a good enough start to the new season.

Huge River Dee Salmon Guide Catches

As an example of the difference between a skilled salmon fisher and a fisher that just goes through their perception of the motions of salmon fishing one of the River Dee professionals I'm fortune to work with some of the very best Dee guides and one of them had over 120 salmon to his own rod last year and the season before! While River Dee salmon fisher numbers have not fully made it back following that salmon stock 'blip' this is a great example of the quality of sport this perfect Scottish salmon river still has to offer if you truly know how to approach and fish the Dee salmon pools. There are plenty of beats all over Scotland that would welcome 120 salmon as their entire annual catch!

Understanding The River Dee Salmon Runs

Don't make the mistake of trying to treat a wild Atlantic salmon as some kind of time keeping expert as you'll be in for a rude awakening. Only a salmon decides when it's ready to come home and no one else and that plays a big part in the intrigue of this amazing pursuit. When the fishers 'spat the dummy' that year and bailed out there was minimal rod pressure to survey the River Dee's perfect salmon pools so the whole thing became a self fulfilling farce as to what salmon stocks were actually present during the following fishing seasons.

The Fickle Nature Of Salmon Fishers

I remember a few years ago when a few thousand salmon didn't show up in the Dee on schedule which had a detrimental effect on the catches that particular year for most of the River Dee salmon beats. During the following fishing seasons many anglers didn't come even though the salmon were clearly back. This was a great example of the nonsense of Scottish 'catch stats' salmon fishing marketing and how it can drastically effect all rural economies during 'cyclical' salmon stock low points or when the river isn't in optimal water condition. Neither low catch recording or low (or high) water means salmon are not present or cannot be caught and if you're waiting for perfection in this business you can wait a long time!

Fly Fishing On The River Dee

Personally I've fished many of the Scottish rivers and while I'm a River Tay man at heart the Dee is simply awesome from a salmon fly fishing & 'ease' of pool coverage point of view. The Cairngorm Mountain snow melt water supply and the perfect Deeside villages that are scattered up the Dee Valley take you into a completely different salmon fishing dimension. The professional River Dee ghillies are indeed 'top drawer' and some of the most dedicated and respected salmon men in Scotland are based on this amazing Scottish salmon river.