River Spey- Delagyle 2nd Trip
We awoke to a wintry scene outside. There was at least an inch of snow on the ground and much more on the surrounding hills. I was not sure whether I was dreaming or had consumed too much red wine the previous night! The day before, we were sitting on the banks of the River Tay enjoying a cup of coffee basking in the glorious sunshine. We were staying in a beautiful cottage in Glen Livet, high up in the Cairngorms. So perhaps it was not surprising that we had an inch of snow outside, in spite of it being the end of April.
We awoke to a wintry scene over the Cairngorms
We had travelled up to Speyside the day before and were going to be fishing the Delagyle beat. We had fished the Delagyle beat earlier in the month. We were so taken aback by its beauty and potential that we had booked another day towards the end of the month after our first days fishing. On our second day, my wife caught a lovely eighteen-pound salmon and I finished empty handed. I was in the mood for revenge and determined to set the score straight this time.
When we got to the beat, the river was looking in good order. The water was around a foot lower than when we had last fished the beat. The beauty with Delagyle is that it boasts a great variety of pools, each with their distinct character. This allows the beat to perform well in all heights of water. David the ghillie was quietly confident. The beat had already produced fish earlier in the week. Thankfully, the water was settled and crystal clear.
It was good to enjoy a warming cup of coffee in the hut before we started, as the North westerly wind had a real bite to it. We both decided to use floating lines with a sinking tip. I picked an inch long gold bodied Willie Gunn as my weapon of my choice, while my wife opted for an inch long Cascade bottle tube. David suggested that we fished the lower half of the beat in the morning. This gave us a wide array of pools to explore. We decided to head towards the bottom of the beat and fish the Delaygle and Gean Tree pools first.
It was great to see the pools from a different perspective as we walked along the river towards the bottom of the beat, as the water was much lower than our last visit. We were now able to fish pools that we had not fished before. I chose to fish the Delagyle pool as I knew my wife would be keen to fish the Gean Tree (the pool where she caught her eighteen pounder).
Fishing the tail of the Delagyle pool
The Delagyle pool was looking in great order. The fast flowing current at the head of the pool ran close to my bank. Because of the high bank behind me, I had to Spey casting over my left shoulder and I was doing this badly! I would loved to have blamed the swirling wind but to be honest I think it was to do more with my poor technique. In spite of this I felt I was covering the pool adequately. I was trying to get the fly to land in the quieter water towards the far bank at a forty-five degree angle and then let it swing around slowly in the current. I could see my wife fishing away below me and casting well. I covered every inch of the pool. The tail of the pool felt particularly fishy as the fly swept over the glassy pots and boils. Unfortunately, I did not get a pull. I decided to go and have a chat with my wife. She had now fished down to the tail of the Gean Tree pool and had covered it well. My wife decided to go up and try the Delagyle pool and I started fishing at the head of the Gean Tree. I waded out and started casting a decent line towards the far bank. The fly was swinging around nicely in the current. The tail of the pool fished particularly well especially where it narrowed, but I did not get a touch. It was coming up to mid-morning, so we decided to go back to the hut and fish the Pol Ma Cree pool for the final hour before lunch.
As the water was clear, I decided to change my fly to something smaller and a bit more subtle. I picked out a half inch Cascade bottle tube that was thinly dressed. As the fly had a longish wing, it was almost an inch and a half in length. My wife started fishing at the head of the pool and I started half way down. I had just started fishing when hailstones started to fall. I looked behind me, to see my wife on the balcony of the hut enjoying a cup of coffee with David. She obviously had much more sense than to continue fishing in the inclement weather. As I fished towards the tail of the pool the current picked up. The Pol Ma Cree pool has some lovely big boulders at the tail, which create big glassy boils. David wanted me to try and cast a long line and let the fly swing through the boils. With a downstream wind, I was just about able to do this. Thankfully the rain had stopped and the sun had come out. It was rather pleasant. I was soaking up the beauty of my stunning surroundings when suddenly I felt my line tighten ever so gently. I lifted the rod and felt the weight of a fish. I had hooked my first Spey salmon of the season. I started walking towards the bank. The fish decided to run very quickly towards me. I had difficulty in keeping the tension on my line as it was hard to reel fast enough. I shouted to my wife. The fish then stopped and started to headshake. It was at this point I started getting nervous. In my experience head shaking can be an indication of a lightly hooked fish. To my relief, both David and my wife had arrived by this time. The fish then took a long surging run towards the far bank and sat sulking in the middle of the river. It was almost like I was stuck on the bottom as I could not move the fish. However, inch by inch I managed to coax the fish out of the strong current. We then got the first glimpse of the fish as it broke the surface. It was a lovely fresh fish, its scales sparkling in the spring sunshine. The fish then started to headshake again on the surface of the water, close to my bank. I managed to bring it over to where David was standing with the net. Unfortunately, the fish was not ready and took another run into the depths of the pool. I managed to turn the fish and get its head up and steer it towards the net a second time. The fish swam over the net and David did the rest. It was a lovely sea liced spring salmon of around nine pounds. After a quick photograph, the fish was returned to carry on with its journey. I was delighted. I had felt that I had worked hard for the fish. My wife was over the moon as was David. We decided that it would be a good time to stop for lunch.
The hot soup and sandwiches went down well at lunch time. It was good to hear that the other guests who were fishing the top half of the beat had seen a few fish. This filled us with optimism for the afternoon ahead. After some delicious Walkers shortbread (baked on Speyside) we were ready to go again.
David kindly drove us up to the top pool on the beat, Dallbreck. The Dallbreck pool looked quite different with a foot less water compared to the last time we fished it. The tail of the pool looked especially good. We would be fishing the Dallbreck and Broch pools in the afternoon. My wife started at the head of the Dallbreck pool which is lovely and narrow and a real salmon ambush point, while I fished the tail. We both fished hard but to no avail. We then walked down to the Broch pool. We did not fish the Broch pool during our last visit as the water was too high. Today it looked perfect.
The Brock pool is a lovely long pool and it is quite wide by Spey standards. It has a fast run at the head of the pool that runs close to the near bank. The far side has calmer quieter water. The current then spreads out evenly through the main body of the pool. The tail of the pool is very deep and like many pools on the Spey has a number of large boulders. We had just started fishing when we began to get pelted by hailstones and buffeted by a howling upstream wind. My wife did the sensible thing and stopped fishing and took some shelter under the branches of a large Oak tree. I either being silly or keen, depending on which way you look at it, continued to fish. In the course of five minutes the hailstones stopped and we were bathed in beautiful sunshine again. We both fished hard down the Broch pool. I concentrated most of my efforts at the tail of the pool, where David had said there would be a good chance of picking up a fish. I saw a nice fish close to the far bank, but it was playing hard to get!
Fishing the head of the Broch pool
It was now after four so we decided to fish the Pol Ma Cree pool in front of the hut for the final hour. The run at the head of Pol Ma Cree is mouth watering. The river is shallow towards the far side with the deep channel running close to the near bank. There is a lovely concrete walkway to fish from, so wading is not necessary. My wife started half way down the run and I slotted in behind her. The fly was swinging around in the current through the deep channel like a dream. I was convinced I was going to get a pull. I tried casting at different angles so the fly would fish at different depths, but all my efforts were in vain. We finally decided to call it a day around half past five. We had both fished hard and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. One of the other guests had lost a fish earlier in the afternoon, so there had been a few fish around.
After a quick coffee with David we drove back up to or cottage in Glen Livet. The morning’s snow had all melted and the valley was now bathed in beautiful late afternoon sunshine. That evening we sat in front of a roaring fire and I could not help but gloat in front of my wife. It was the first time this season we had gone fishing and I had caught a fish and she ended with nothing. She was quick to remind me that my fish was half the size of the one she had caught from the beat three weeks earlier. This did not matter to me, as I keep telling my wife size is not everything! I remember David telling me that “Pol Ma Cree” is translated in English as “the pool of my heart”. After today, it really had become the pool of my heart!