End of season recap 2024

Well hello there! I guess it’s been a minute since my last post. Due to some technical difficulties with the infrastructure that hosts the blog, I have been battling to migrate the site onto some new kit and I think we are finally there! Admittedly I haven’t been posting as often as I’d hoped but now that we’re back in action, I hope to be bringing you some more stories and updates from the water more regularly.

With the trout and salmon season wrapping up here in Scotland I thought I’d take this opportunity to share some thoughts and recap my own season.

It’s been a season of two tales, depending on which angler you speak to and which species were in their sights. 2024 has undoubtedly been one of the better seasons in recent years for migratory fish, especially for late spring and summer runs of salmon. We had a much wetter, cooler spring and summer this year and I firmly believe this contributed to the increased action we saw, especially on rivers like the Tay who had a superb summer run. Even on my own local water, the river Ayr, I heard of more catches right up and down the river.

Brown trout on the other hand, well that’s a different story. A lot of trout anglers I met, spoke of a noticeable absence in the amount of rising fish spotted this year with the majority of their fish being taken on sub surface approaches like streamers or nymphing. Dry fly sport was almost exclusively limited to short sessions at dusk. I’m no entomologist but I do wonder if the change in weather pattern this year had anything to do with fly hatches.

For me personally, I had a few OK trout over the spring then I quickly turned my attention to salmon in the early summer. I didn’t get out as much as I’d liked although I believe I am now becoming guilty of waiting for the perfect conditions instead of just getting out and having a go. That’s something I will definitely be mindful of next year and give myself a stern talking to if I find myself strenuously looking at water levels every hour.

I had a couple of nice sea trout and salmon this year which you can see in the picture above as well as many lost. One of the salmon that I did land on the Dee has been my PB so far weighing in around 14lbs. More importantly, I was able to explore some new water including the wild and rugged river Orchy in the highlands and meeting some new faces along the way.

For now, I’ll turn my attention to the autumn/winter months where I’ll be out on the river for a go at the grayling, visiting some local stillwaters for the rainbow trout and getting the fly boxes topped up for the 2025 season so keep your eyes peeled on the blog for more on that.

Below is a link to my YouTube vlog where I was lucky enough to land my PB salmon to date on the beautiful river Dee.

Tight lines!

Robert