hilltrek

The River Dee at Potarch Bridge now has a live webcam. Right now its showing the heavy snow falling on Deeside but its not that cold as the river Dee has no ice on it. The webcam is located on the roof of the fishing hut located next to the Portarch Bridge. Excellent viewing for fishers or those that just like viewing the river. Thank you to the ButterWorth Gallery blog for bringing the webcam to our attention.

 How long does it take to develop a specialised garment?

We started in summerof 2009 when a customer visiting our shop was interested in adapting one of our Cotton Analogy Assynt Jackets for salmon fishing.  Initially we were a little reluctant because angling garments were not part of our main business although we sell Glencoe Ventile Jackets and Páramo Pajaro Jackets to anglers, river wardens and gilles.

After discussing it with the customer we felt that Cotton Analogy was a good fit for the application. In the past several companies made wax cotton wading jackets, which were warmer and more robust than the Goretex equivalents which are now the trend, but not very breathable. Fabric technology has now moved on since the era of wax jackets. Cotton Analogy in contrast offers toughness due to the Ventile outer fabric and high breathability due to a Nikwax Analogy Pump Liner.

Why is high breathability required for angling ? When standing in the middle of the river slowly moving while covering the water – probably not! 

Imagine however the perspiration generated in a warm wet day when walking from the fishing hut to the start of the beat. Where does the perspiration go? With shell jackets and traditional Wax Jackets the answer is nowhere due to the wet saturating the outside of the jacket. Perspiration gets trapped under the jacket and when you are out standing in the river you stop perspiring, the accumulated sweat cools down and you get cold. Not too comfortable when you have to spend the next two hours concentrating on the fishing.

After deciding that Cotton Analogy was the best fabric solution we made a test jacket for the customer based on his requirements and a year later we are still getting excellent feedback from him.

We decided to make a standard Hilltrek product, reviewed other wading jacket designs and consulted with local salmon anglers in Deeside. This process took many months. 

The design was tested in the field, tweeked several times and a final prototype made. The design was tested at the Leeds University test facility and finally approved by Nikwax Fabrics, the owners of the pump liner concept.

One of the River Dee fisherman who helped us was Davie Murray of the Monaltrie/ Lower Invercauld beats near Ballater. 

Davie commented on the jacket in October at the end of the season on the Dee:

‘I’m very impressed. Very smart and nice colour.

Interested in what the fishers have been catching on the River Dee?  The latest catch news, including river levels can be found on the FishPal – Scotland website.

After months hiking up the hills I decided a walk along the river Dee east towards Kincardine O’ Neil would make a fine change.  Out in the hills it is a fairly solitary experience but the walk on the banks of the Dee was truly social this weekend, every fishing beat had a line or even two being cast in it.

Fly fishing river dee

The river was in good flow, snow melt rather than rain providing its rush but the anglers were yet to report the first catch of the day. Salmon were being seen in the clear waters but none were biting. The wildlife were enjoying the warm and sunny day with lots of different birds to see and take photos of.