Smithston Rental Syndicate 2025
There is now only one vacancy in our rental syndicate for 2025, for a Wednesday rod. The cost is £400 for the season. For further details, please contact us via this website or email us at .
October Update
October started quietly, with a continuation of the prolonged dry spell and sunny days which we saw for much of September. This made fishing challenging, and only the odd fish being caught, although it has to be said that fishing effort for part of the month was relatively light again . However,
Promising start to September
The beat was hardly fished in the first week of September, as water levels dropped and sunny and warmer weather prevailed. However, a brief spate on 8/9 September changed things, and 8 salmon were caught in the second week, as the river dropped steadily all week. Again, fishing effort was light, with
Best August for ten years
We have had 28 salmon and grilse for August, the highest total since 2014, which is very encouraging. We would undoubtedly have had quite a few more if the river had been fishable more often; we lost at least six days to high water, and it was marginal on several more. Additionally,
An Extract from a Guest’s Thank You Letter
“The Doon…who knew?! I had heard that it is a gem, but reality was even better. More than anything else, it was a joy to walk the whole beat, and not have to jump in a car to get to the next pool. Beyond that, it fishes so well, and I loved
Rod available w/c 7th October
A Club member has advised that he is no longer able to fish his rod in the week commencing 7th October and has asked us to let it. This is now showing as available for let...the preference is for a let for the whole week.
More successes on the river
After a spell of lower water and warmer weather in July, which reduced fishing effort and catches, August has started very well with a good number of fish caught last week; a mixture of larger, coloured MSW fish, and some lovely silver grilse. We are now up to at least 16 salmon
Davie McPhail catches his first salmon of the year on Smithston and catches it all on film!
Davie McPhail is a ‘Friend of the River’ and is internationally renowned for his fishing and fly-tying videos on YouTube. He has over 121,000 subscribers to his channel and has posted more than 1300 videos, demonstrating the fly-tyers art and his skill and experience at fishing Ayrshire rivers for trout and salmon.
June 13, 2024 Smithston Fishing report, River Doon
Following a couple of decent spates in late May/early June, it was always likely that a few salmon would have made it up to Smithston. A couple of the rental syndicate rods have been out, but some nice trout were the only successes....until this week. Delighted to report that David Allfrey had
Wild Salmon Strategy Implementation Plan
We have received a recent notification from the Wild Salmon Senior Policy Officer with the Wild Salmon and Recreational Fisheries Team at Scottish Government to alert us to the publication of a progress report on the Wild Salmon Strategy Implementation Plan. The report provides a short update on the delivery of those