5 June 2011

In Praise of Polly

Me and Brian had another trip to a bigger river, a river where trout are educated, the water is crystal clear, but there are monsters to be had , and that is what keeps us coming back for more torment.

When we arrived we set up by a long pool one of the best on the stretch, unfortunately a family came by walking high on the banks downstream with there bandy nets , spooking the whole pool, it's a pity cause there are big fish to be had in it.We headed off upstream.
The hatch was not huge today lots of smallish olives , and a smattering of everything else , brook duns , and even a few of these big fellaes. I love the sight of Mayfly , but ive yet to see trout feeding on them on a scottish river.

I took a wee trout here and there the first wee trout was on a dhe emerger with a biot body, as we headed up to the next pool i tried the bugger -no response , so put on a NZ rig with a big size 10 dirty polly and a nymph on the point, i got 3 takes missed every one , the biggest rolled over the dry , maybe a pound or so.
 so we continued upstream , the next pools was another quality pool where Brian had a big fish last month (3lb 12oz), lots of takes by small fish attempting to take the dirty polly. After spending about an hour in that pool fishing every corner and keeping our eyes and ears peeled for the sound of a rising fish , Brian decided to head downstream to the long pool and i went upstream to another long pool . Nothing stirred in my pool so i headed up again to the next pool, and there a tail pattern combed the surface , like a shot i covered him with a single dirty polly and he took, after a acrobatic scrap i landed this fellae a fat short trout of 1lb 1/4 , the dirty polly has been great over the last few weeks , it's probably had as much as 50 troots from various waters.


Then at the smooth head of the run  a dimple riser was continually feeding . I was'nt sure if it was a parr, but then i realised i could see the fish . He looked around 2- 2.5lb . I covered him and he took but immediately the hook sprang back. A few small fish followed.