Well here are the pics of my trip last week. I'd never been salmon fishing before but as it was something I had been longing to do I did loads of research and bought a rod, line and reel (thanks for the advice on this forum).

We fished primarily the Upper Arndilly Beat, just below Craigellachie. The river was gin-clear all week and the level dropped from about 8 ins to 4 ins from Monday to Friday. Monday was sunny but the rest of the week was overcast and dry. Conditions could not have been better!

However, on Monday I got the chance to fish the beautiful Ballindalloch waters with great service from Ghillie Steve Brand.

Here the view upstream from Boat Pool


And the view down the pool


In the afternoon I fished the Junction Pool, where the River Avon joins the Spey.

Upstream


Down


However I had no luck and on Tuesday I was back at Upper Arndilly, with far more promising angling weather. At about 1000 that morning, about to lift off after a dreadful cast, my line went tight and the reel started clicking. I stopped lifting, and was about to strip off some line to try and roll cast off the rock I had clearly snagged when the line started moving again. Fish on!!! 40 minutes later, and after 5 attempts at beaching him, this was the result, netted by our fantastic Ghillie, Iain Kelly. At one point he had my whole line and about 30 yards of backing out - I was pleased I had checked my knots when I spooled that line!



Oh my God!! Here are the stats: 26 lbs, 41 ins long, 21 ins girth. Caught on a size 6 copper bodied Ally's Shrimp.

You couldn't wipe the smile off my face for days


You'll be glad to know I did not at any point adopt a Geordie accent and start screaming "Yeah Man, this is what we came for!!", "That's what I'm talking about, look at that fish!!" etc etc

Look at that tail


Anyway, the rest of the week passed uneventfully, apart from my smart:dumb equation levelling incident on the Wednesday



That hurt and meant a little trip to Elgin A & E. Lovely doctor removed it though And the receptionist couldn't resist asking why I was there!!!!!

Anyway, some more pics of beautiful Upper Arndilly:

Heathery Isle seen upstream from the hut


The hut with Iain's great fishing-mad dog Jess


Looking down into Red Craig


Proof that the Spey is a great trout river too. There was a hatch of these every lunchtime and the Brownies went crazy!


Challenging wading


Me fishing (I knew the goretex hat with ear flaps would come in handy after Wednesday's mishap!)


Couldn't resist another!


Thanks for looking!

Well I didn't catch again all week, and neither did the other 3 guys I was with. With a start like that to my salmon fishing career it can only be downhill from now and I felt a little guilty for having been so damn lucky (but not that guilty).

well done bumps! and even after a trip to a + e it was all worth it! congratulations!

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http://www.animatedknots.com/indexfishing.php

Well done, that is one hell of a fish.

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Around the steel no tortur'd worm shall twine,
No blood of living insect stain my line;
Let me, less cruel, cast feather'd hook,
With pliant rod athwart the pebbled brook,
Silent along the mazy margin stray,
And with fur-wrought fly delude the prey

Superb salmon Bumps..looks like a dream week to me..except for the earache!

Cheers Diarmid.

Great post Bumps and a wonderful fish

Many congratulations

Andy

Check that fish out!



im not at all jelous....

fantastic mate , enjoyed reading that . Nice earing !

Re the Gillie at Ballindalloch, Steve Brand rather than Steve Brown?

Niice fish.

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Malcolm
<')\\\\\<<
Quot homines tot sententiae

Think you're right - I'd been getting that one wrong all week

Wow Bumps what a fantastic fish, well done sir.
To start your Salmon fishing career off with a monster like that is fortuitous to say the least.
Superb condition as well. Bet that ear was sore for a while.
Some lovely photos as well, thanks for showing them to us, mind if it had been me I think I would have shown every one as well.

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"A glint of sun has warmed the air,The flies will soon hatch out, To lure and tempt from their deep lair, The bonnie speckled trout." SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.