The deadly RS Cascade Conehead which is catching loads of grilse on the Helmsdale right now.

Special offer Summer salmon & Sea-trout flies, order right here now. Offer open for 1 week only - see above. Deadly Summer Temple Dog salmon tubes & doubles + our new jungle cock RS sea-trout flies.

It has been a good week on the Helmsdale with most estates landing around 15 - 20 salmon. The surprising thing is that we were running on compensation water of around only 5" and this is not usually a turn on for the salmon. However the weather has been excellent for fishing with a cool North Westerly blowing downstream for much of the week and this has obviously been drawing in the fish.

The biggest killer on most highland rivers over the summer is the deadly Baby Temple Dog below, once again designed by the Helmsdale Tackle Company. These plastic tubes come in 2 sizes of 0.25" body & 0.5". Stock up heavily on these if you want to catch serious fish over the summer - but don't forget another big Highland favourite the Alistair and new Cascade Alistair

Baby TDs come in plastic tubes for low water or Coneheads.

The Cascade Alistair is a massive new fish catching mix of our own Helmsdale Alistair and the legendary Cascade Shrimp.

This is the Star fly right now in the middle of our grilse run - the Alistair Original Hitch which can be fished conventionally also.

 

The Jungle Cock Cascade conehead is our Star fly of the moment. This super conehead is available in silver or gold conehead and 2 different sizes. It is catching fish all over the UK right now and is our best seller.

Its been a great week on the Helmsdale with 15 springers off. Andy Sutherland shows off and returns a super 16 pounder from the park pool on beat 2, his second for the day after landing a 14 pounder from the Private pool.

Ron's First of the season from beat 5 ( released ) there are only 7 off the river.

The new Helmsdale Co Flaming Temple Dog tungsten conehead was the fly.

The first Helmsdale fish came off today 26/2/10 from beat 6 in the Big Rock pool. Alan Stone was the lucky angler and the fresh fish weighed in at 8lbs, the killer fly was a black & yellow copper tube with jungle cock.

No 2 was landed today ( 27/2/10) in Salscraggie on beat 1 by William Jappy fishing Badanloch rods. A cracking fresh 9 pounder on a black & yellow conehead Monkey. William's brother Alisatair also lost one in John's pool on the same beat.

Once again Black & Yellow proves to be a killer spring fly combo, one of the most innovative versions ever created by Ron is our new tube range with "feelers" below mimiking the legendary Icelandic Frances fly. You can buy this superb new tube and the Monkey fly right here.

Below Alan fishing the Vale of tears with the Big rock pool in the background.

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The big thaw is here on the Helmsdale, below is the Whinnie pool on beat 1 below 16/1/10 still no first fish.

 

Please have a look at the latest pics from the river Helmsdale here - http://www.salmonfishingforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16158 go to the latest fishing report above for the up to date news.

The river Helmsdale will open very soon and Badanloch Ghillie Alex Fraser will have the honour of launching the traditional first cast of the season. The long range forecast looks to be very icy but with a slightly warmer blip on the cards a few days before opening day on Jan11th - lets hope this relaxes the ice and opens up the current icy river. A good supply of 1",1.5" & 2" copper and tungsten tubes will be most usefull with medium sinking lines. The other popular Scandi approach is to fish lighter aluminium & plastic tubes on faster sinking lines or shootingheads. Either way you will be presenting your fly close to the salmon who will be lying on or close to the riverbed. The anticipation of that first cast of the season is a magical moment and when you have the whole lower Helmsdale at your mercy it feels even better.  If there is the slightest chance you can get away for a day or two get yourself booked into the last few rooms at the Bridge Hotel for the big opening day buzz. Call Ron at the Helmsdale Tackle Shop for advice on availability tackle & flies.

We had a super sea-liced springer on opening day 2009 caught by Andy Sutherland on a 2" Alistair copper tube. Beat 1 Lower Caen was the hot spot - It can happen! hopefully it will happen again and lets pray for a great spring in 2010.