Category — Pals

Here’s a contribution to the fishing diary from my brother.

Yesterday was a day of savage wind, which finally dropped at around7:30.  I was on the river by just gone 8, fishing a well-known stretchbut some less well-known pools.

In about two hours of fishing, six trout were landed from the 6-7 inchrange to a couple of half pounders, including this one:

It fell to a size 14 sedge.  I had seen the fish rise once at the headof a riffle-pool and took it on the first cast.  Really good fighter.That’s what I have noticed about the fish in this part of the river thisseason, all have fought hard and swam off with healthy power on release.Not surprising when you see the size of the tail fin.  It looks like abeavers’, which explains the power with which such a trutta can swim andmaintain itself in a fast current.

Moved upstream, catching here and there.  Was a brief hatch whichturned relatively sporadic rises into a kettle for a while, but for somereason a couple of larger fish would not be tempted by my flies.  Had to wadethrough a pool about 5 foot deep,  an experience made all the more spooky bythe encroaching blackness of the air.

Was a shame to lose a genuine big boy from a pool I’ve overlooked inthe past.  Lack of experience really, wasn’t sure how to play it once ithad run 40 feet downstream.  Guestimate towards 2lb, certainly 1 and a half.

All the fish fell to sedges.

I headed over to visit family in Glasgow this last weekend. Got there around half eight Friday evening and bolted straight out the door again, brother in tow, to get some fishing done. Still plenty light around at this time of year, though some dark clouds threatened us.

Actually it was the sort of evening I love. Moody with changing light, all very atmospheric. A nice rainbow (the kind we like on this river..!) promised us the fishing would be good.

Started down at a stretch I rather like after having something of a red-letter trip there last season. As ever the river provided us with some rising fish. On with the wee deer hair sedges and not long before the brother landed a pretty trutta.

Fish were in a strange mood this evening. Sometimes they splashed aggressively at the odd sedge, sometimes they barely broke the surface sipping something I couldn’t see. Needless to say I opted for the sedgey approach. Again I felt out of practice with wayward casts and general frustration. I also did my best to fall in for about the 5th time this season but somehow avoided doing so.

Fished late on and of course the fish were still moving a bit. At this time of year on this stretch you can get really close to the fish because the banks are high, provided it’s quite dark. Makes for exciting fishing with fish barely a rod tip away.

Had a couple fish to hand and a few more lost, so an enjoyable evening all round. Weather wasn’t really kind in fishing terms with the cool breeze. Given a balmy evening this stretch can be amazing with the fish nailing anything that looks like a sedge. I reckon I’ll try the old cork-fly later on this season.

Saterday was rather an off day weather wise, so we headed out on Sunday afternoon. Our fave wee tributary burns were out of action along with the main river so we went towards the source. Things didn’t look too promising when we got there with the river rather slow, brown and generally canal like. Hardly a lovely tumbling stream like some other stretches we know. After a good bit of laughter at our chances of catching we actually found a few fish starting to feed on a sparse hatch of small olives coming off around 4pm.

How expert does this fellow look?!

Brother fished a wee dirty duster (of my tying as usual) whilst I opted for a size 18 sedge-related offering. Very interesting actually watching the differences in the takes between these two flies. I’m pretty sure the fish were mostly taking the ascending olive nymphs just before emergence, and the dirty duster got takes almost the same as the normal rises. My sedge however received what I can only describe as ‘trout abuse’. I wonder if there’s such a thing as trout therepy because the aggression they showed was out of order.

Found this huge patch of nettles next to the river, just asking for an angler to take a stumble into them. This has happened to me a couple times before and caused mild stress…

On the way back I asked the some local cows if there were any hot flies for this stretch but they just grunted and kept on chewing. I’ve yet to meet a really good fly fishing cow, but you’d have thought that even the average ones had a favourite fly.

Been away for a few days on something of a break. Not much fishing, but plenty of other great stuff like hillwalking and windsurfing. Made this wee panorama of a nice remote hill loch.

Last weekend I met up with my pal Alistair, a pal of his and my wee broth, and we went fishing. Got to the river around 6 or 7, and noticed a good few blue winged olives (BWO) milling about.

Always a welcome sign are they. No sign a couple weeks ago but after a bit of prolonged warmth they’re now about. Some sedges flitting around as well; all in all a promising scene.

Again things were a wee bit tricky for a while there. Dropped off a fish in the first pool on an F-fly, then didn’t do much until later on. The blood (brother) was doing pretty damn well all night taking loads of fish on one of (my tied) deer hair sedges. Seriously, this is such a good fly. Piss easy to tie and so often very very effective on loch or burn.

Highlight of the night was Al’s pal who took this undersized fish from a cracking little pool on the far side of the river. I don’t know why the guy bothers such small fish. Really should leave them alone to grow on a bit.

Later on and the sedges were making an appearance on the water, signified by more splashy rises. Plenty wee fish on the sedge, though lost my only good fish who would have gone a pound or so.

Yes those are big bad sedge flies in that photo above!

Blood had this nice fish near the end, all in all a great night for the twerp.

Dunno why but the last few trips haven’t been as great for me as usual.. I don’t feel like I’m fishing as well as I should be and I seem to have too much other stuff on my mind (especially this trip…) Need to sort that out.

Well my pal sent me a few lovely pictures of our trip this weekend. There’s nothing like a lovely wild brownie to raise the spirits

Had an interesting days fishing yesterday. Was at one of my favourite stretches of river. Conditions seemed perfect: reasonably warmish, light winds, bit of sunshine, plenty of flies on the water. And how many fishing rising: I saw one splash all day. My mate saw a couple more rises, but it was really quiet. It seems like it’s been just too cold the last few weeks, and so the fish aren’t looking up yet. My friend (check out http://theriverkelvin.co.uk/blog/) caught a nice fish on a small grey Klink.

I later had a wee cracker on an Endrick spider. About a pound and a half to 3/4 or so I’d say. Beautiful fish. Photo later..