Parkhill Beat Summary Page 2

UPPER AND LOWER PARKHILL BEATS (Map link)

UPPER PARKHILL EXTENT

On the North bank from Parkhill bridge upstream to head of Cockers pool. South bank from Parkhill Road Bridge upstream to the weir above cemetery car park.

Car-parking: - Lay-by at Road Bridge, Cockers and Cemetery car parks. Members vehicles must not be parked anywhere on the road to Mill O'Dyce farm.

LOWER PARKHILL EXTENT

The north bank from Parkhill Road Bridge downstream to the marker post. Strictly no dogs allowed. No Sunday fishing. Access from Parkhill Road Bridge only. South bank from Parkhill Road Bridge downstream to the Farburn. Fly fishing for brown trout permitted on Sundays.

Car-parking: - near Asda and lay-by at Parkhill Bridge.

Apparently a stone mason split the stone a long time just to show how easily it could be done! The Streams fish best in a low to medium water, the most productive area being the fifty yards either side of the split stone. Throughout the length of the Streams there are little pockets and holes, all of which produce fish. Having said that the Streams fish in a low to medium water, it was in a big spring water that the forty two pounder was caught up in the bay in front of the hut. The streams is one of the top producers of sea trout in the summer months and there was also a seven pound brownie caught here a couple of seasons ago.

Cothal Pool

The Cothal takes its name from the big house on the North bank, which used to be a mill.

A nice stream in at the neck flowing into a big, deep dub which tapers off into a nice glide at the tail. The neck of the pool fishes best in a medium height, whereas the tail is one of the best high water lies in the beat. Once you have seen the tail of the Cothal in a big water and looked downstream at the rough water that fish have to push through to get there, it is easy to see why it would make an attractive stopping point.

It wouldn't be right to leave the Cothal without mentioning Jock Freeland, who spent more time with a bent rod in this pool than anyone else I know. It used to be said that Jock had first refusal on any fish that came into the Cothal.

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History

Upper Parkhill was one of the first beats to be purchased by the ADAA. To the best of my knowledge it was purchased back in the early fifties for the princely sum of 5000 pounds. Lower Parkhill was offered at the same time and we could have had them both for 8000 pounds, but this was considered to be too large an outlay! So Lower Parkhill was purchased separately at a later date (and not for 3000 pounds!)

Being one of our oldest beats, it has proved to be the backbone of our trout and salmon fishing, producing some truly magnificent bags over the years. Among these was a forty two pound salmon caught here in the seventies which also had the distinction of being a spring fish. I can also recall one particular pool yielding over twenty springers one Easter holiday Monday, again in the late seventies. Other notable catches include a thirty two pounder to my father's rod, which was returned, hopefully to continue to strengthen the gene pool of these magnificent big fish. This was more recently, the autumn of 2002, which gives hope to us all that there is still a chance of connecting with one of these leviathans. I can also recall one particular pool yielding over twenty springers one Easter holiday Monday, again in the late seventies. Other notable catches include a thirty two pounder to my father's rod, which was returned, hopefully to continue to strengthen the gene pool of these magnificent big fish.his was more recently, the autumn of 2002, which gives hope to us all that there is still a chance of connecting with one of these leviathans.

I can also recall a catch of eight salmon to one rod in a day, a feat made all the more remarkable in that they were caught on a Saturday, when there was plenty of other competition in the form of fellow anglers out. Brown trout, which the Don is quite rightly famed for, also figure in notable catches. Just in the past couple of seasons I know of numerous trout of over 4lb caught, including one of over 7lb caught on the dry fly and returned. Sea trout have appeared in Parkhill catches for a relatively short period as far as the association is concerned. It is really over the past fifteen years or so that this wonderful fish has been a regular feature in our bags. Having said that, there has been at least one double figure sea trout caught, once again this fish was very sportingly released. I hope you are able to grasp just what potential, from this one short paragraph, that Parkhill holds. I will now take a wander down the beat on the South bank from the top car park., giving you a brief summary of the pools.

Top Streams

This isn't really a defined pool, more a series of runs and glides. When I started fishing as a child I was told by one of the ‘auld mannies' that the proper name for this stretch was the Split Stone Stream. If you look at the bottom of the pathway down from the car park, there is a big stone on the bank which has been split.