Artloch Trout Fishery - Aberdeenshire

While the later half of the week has been really nice, the wind has still be from the East making it feel a bit chilly.
The fishing has been pretty good for most anglers with a good basket of 15 rainbows, best at 3 lbs. Another said the 3 1/2 lbs brownie was the best he'd ever caught. Best rainbow was circa 5 lbs, while other in the 3 to 4 lbs range have also been caught. One successful angler managed to catch a blue trout that gave him a bit of a tussle.
Early in t...he week the most productive fly was the damsel and Cats Whisker, However, with the warmer weather came an increase in fly activity, so a number of anglers were successful with a variety of dry flies. For the dry fly angler the most successful colour has been black. A few fish were attracted to a buzzer (no pattern) mentioned.
Today, Fri 17 May, we took advantage of the wind to do a bit more weed cutting, but this time concentrating on the bay in front of the hut. You can see for yourselves how successful it's been. This weed has been cut around 12" from the bottom, thus leaving the "good" weed. We couldn't help but notice how many bloodworms we saw.
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I'm sorry to say that, once again, the A920 from Huntly to Dufftown is going to be closed between 20 and 24 May.
From the Aberdeenshire Council website some work is going to happen along a small stretch of road from the road entrance to the windfarm/sub-station and the entrance into fishery and beyond. That's probably around 150 to 200 metres.
I would have thought a traffic management system could have been put it place, but it's not. So visitors should use the single... track road that runs past the Falconry Centre. Take care, because it is a single track and, despite being told not to, logging lorries will no doubt be using it. Furthermore, some drivers will invariably drive too fast. Be careful.
It's not that long ago that this stretch was completely resurfaced?
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The free Family Fly Fishing Day took place at Artloch Fishery on Saturday 11 May, organised by The Deveron, Bogie & Isla Rivers Charitable Trust, as part of the work with the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative.
In 2 x 3-hour sessions, young anglers, together with some adults, received fly fishing instruction from David Mateer, a fully qualified Scottish Game Angling Certificate (SGAIG) holder - ably supported by experienced volunteer anglers.
From the comments from both ...the young anglers and adults it was deemed a great success, particularly as fish were caught in both the morning and afternoon session.
Hopefully, the event will have encouraged young people into both fishing and the environment.
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A reminder that this coming Saturday is a Families Day, so there will be no casual angling.

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks regarding the weather with almost a heat wave, today sleet and snow and an almost constant easterly wind. I mention the wind because we usually have a westerly, so that’s been very unusual and, at times, cold. Still despite these conditions’ anglers have, in the main, continued to see fish both moving around the loch and feeding off, or very near, the surface. With the unusual wind, the most productive part of the loch has been t...he far bank, but that’s not too surprising with the wind going into it. With these conditions it’s therefore unsurprising that a number of anglers have reported using various dries and attracting and catching trout.
For a while the most successful flies were either a Red-Hot Damsel or a Diawl Bach with either red varnish or a red flash that dominated the catch returns. However, shortly before we had this cold snap, there were a wide variety of flies that caught the trout’s attention including: CDC, Klinkhammer, Cormorant, Olive Fritz, Daddy, Buzzer, Nymph and Blob.
We’re also had some more brownies caught, circa 1lbs to 1 ½ lbs and a Blue, again around 1 ½ lbs.
While there have been a number of rainbows around 3 to 3 ½ lbs caught, the best rainbow was 5lbs 7ozs. This was caught during the Troutmasters Fish-Off that was won by Neil Scowen with 28 fish and runner-up was Gaenor Berkin with 6. Neil continued to fish-on after the competition ending the day with a quite remarkable 44, the majority taken on an Egg or Wormy App.
Finally, we restocked on Wed 1 May and managed to obtain a few more blues.
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Congratulations and best of luck in the Troutmasters Senior's Final to Neil and the Junior's Final to Alex.

The result of our first session running in the new engine.

With our new outboard, a little trip to run it in with our weed cutter running behind. Worked well. Very happy

The improved weather in recent days has been a welcome relief from the cold wind, with a couple of days with some sunny and warm weather. While this might be of benefit to the anglers in some respects, the opposite is that with the clear water the fish have been not as high in the water as they were before. Still, it’s nice to feel the sun on your back and, with a ripple, the fish have not been that deep. Once again, as in life, some anglers have been more successful that... others. Some good bags have been recorded over with 10+ fish for the angler’s visit, while other have, sadly, blanked; twas ever the same. Best bag to date has been 19, but we think an angler today may have exceeded that. While the majority of fish have been in the 2 – 2 1/2 lbs range, fish up to 5 lbs have been recorded. We’ve also seen a good number of rising fish and those anglers wishing to test their dry fly skills have been rewarded. A couple of 3lbs brownies have also been caught and returned. While Buzzers have not been particularly successful in recent weeks, it would seem that this changed in the past week. However, the most productive pattern has been a damsel, particularly with a red bead, this has been followed by a red head Diawl Bach. We re-stocked on 10 Apr 19 and apologise for the photographs showing the re-stocking, but the battery died while taking the photos. Still, you can just make out some of the fish!
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The weather has been a bit of a mixed bag in the past few weeks, with some really nice, warm days, while recently we've had snow, sleet, rain and wind. The later not being suited for fly fishing. Despite these changeable conditions, a number of anglers have had some good visits. With baskets of 15, 11 and an evening bag of 9 when we experienced our first proper evening rise. In terms of weight, the majority have been circa 2 ½ lbs, but some excellent condition fish in... excess of 3 lbs have also been caught and returned. While some anglers have been tempted to use intermediate fly lines, the majority of trout being caught have been on a floating line. If the trout are down, then adjusting the fly has been more successful than changing to a heavier line. We've seen a variety of successful flies with some anglers persisting with their favourites. However, in the past week or so, a Red-Head Damsel, Bibio and Red-Head Diawl Bach have been particularly successful. Other flies have included Hot-Head Damsel, Shrimp, Buzzer (sorry colour not recorded and I’ve forgotten if I was told) and a Klinkhammer for when the fish are rising. With the weather forecast to improve in the future and if we get some light winds, or rather not the blustery gusts we’ve experienced recently, we should expect to see more rising trout. I would again recommend keeping with a floating line, but if unsuccessful if the higher water, then use a heavier fly and to count it down to around 3 feet. That seems to be a good depth. Finally, we saw the Osprey for the first this year on 1 Apr - no it's not joke - and thinking back, it would be around a week or so earlier than last year. Do you think he/knows something?
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As Norman's video rightly portrays, "Spring is in the air"

Please note that Artloch Fishery will be closed between 17 and 20 March.
In addition, the A920 (Huntly to Dufftown) will be closed from the junction with the A96 (the Tesco junction) to just before the Artloch Fishery turn-off between the 18 and 29 March for road repairs. Visitors travelling from Dufftown will not be affected. However, those approaching from the south, (Inverurie, Turriff, etc) or north, (Keith, Banff, etc) will be able to use the road that goes by Drumdelgie and the Falconry Visitors Centre. This is a single track road with passing places, so if you intend to use this, please drive carefully.

Please note that Artloch Fishery will be closed between 17 and 20 March. In addition, the A920 from the junction with the A96 (the Tesco junction) to just before the Artloch Fishery turn-off will be closed between the 18 and 29 March for roadworks. Anglers travelling from Dufftown will not be affected. However, those approaching from the south, (Inverurie, Turriff, etc) or north, (Keith, Banff, etc) will be able to use the road that goes by Drumdelgie and the Falconry Visitors Centre. This is a single track road with passing places, so if you intend to use this, please drive carefully.

Despite restocking in late February after the ice cleared, we were disappointed that more fish weren't being caught. We suspect that prior to the ice forming we had a couple of visitors that, despite our best efforts, kept returning until the ice formed and helped themselves to breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper! 😌 We therefore decided to restock and this took place today. Apologies for the photograph, but after looking at those that were taken, we kept missing the fish going in and this was the best one!

The weather has been good recently and the trout have been seen rising and moving close to the surface; we’ve even had a hatch! A variety of methods have been reported, but it seems that a buzzer under an indicator or dry has been the most successful. I was particularly pleased to learn of an angler who tempted a trout on a small black dry, while another tempted a 3lbs brown trout. Restocked today to freshen up the water.

Restocking 22 Feb 19

At last.... Artloch is ice free and troot being caught.