In the Glen of Troutquility

Saturday 19th

Nothing was planned for the weekend until, Brian phoned me at about 9:30am , he was planning a day on a highland stream , quickly ok'ing it with the wife she allowed me to go! Result! Another visit to the Glen, it was dry when we left so i didn't bother with the jacket, half way down the road though it started pouring down, then thankfully by the time we arrived it was all but a spit or two. We walked  downstream to our starting point, the river very low and crystal clear ,It was about 1pm before we  started fishing. the typical NZ style is good here, it's not the sort of river that you see a lot of rising fish , tends to be a bring'em up or nymph'em type river.

Theres a pool where we have never caught trout , it looks great, always does . Today was the day.
First cast to the very last signs of the bubble line produced a nice pounder to the nymph, they don't half fight hard!

 Further up the pool i missed a take to the klink then i broke off in another, then at the very head of the pool i stuck on a g and h sedge to try and "stimulate" a fish in to taking in the fast water., Another pounder obliged.

We kind of started to get a feel for it and although we felt the trout were not really on , we were doing not bad. Fast water was a place for the big dries, and although many pockets were empty.

G&H sedge

A big pool that's been good to us in the past , produced a fish for Brian 1lb 6oz,here's a video of the action.

A fine fish . This next one took a nymph in a turbulent lie hung under   a big stimulator. One of the rivers  signature brownies beautifully marked . 

Loads of water to cover yet before we got to the car, so we were optimistic. A heavy shower came on, i was beginning to regret not bringing the jacket   , but the wet was quickly forgotten when i hooked into a nice trout.

The fight was short lived as he did what many better trout do , he'd wrapped himself. A long trout that went 1 lb 120z.

 

Still a few pools to go we missed out some water, we hadn't the time, another banker pool, Brian took one wee fish from a spot, then almost whipped one of the smallest trouts in the river into another stream whilst striking. Then he got another good fish! Seems birds of a feather don't always flock together.

1 1/4 lb

One last pool to fish , a good one at that ! But only produced the one fish to Brian's mammoth stimulator.

We finished up at 6:30 pm , it had been a grand day fishing.

Summertime..........And the Living is Easy

I was considering  going to the lower reaches of a river but with the sun splitting the sky decided against it, seems it's best in the evening . So i headed to my local and fished a wooded stretch that has produced a lot of small fish  , better fish have been largely absent today proved no different , the water for once though had good clarity and was low . A good number of flies hatched , mainly yellow may duns and olive uprights and bwo's. so there were plenty fish to aim at , first fell for a curved hook flexi- CDC.

 About 30 fish fell mostly to dries best was a size 12 dirty Polly a  few on a bugger fished in the pockets in a almost Czech style controlling the retrieve with a high rod rather than by hand.

  A few fell to nymphs too in the deeper runs.

In the Land of the Big Skies

Saturday 11th

Brian picked me and Garry up at 4:45am , we were bound for Caithness, are plan was to concentrate on dry fly fishing ! We stopped at Golspie for some sausage and bacon rolls , and arrived in Wick to collect our permits from Hugo Ross, for two days fishing on a choice 6 lochs was only  £10 !

wee pair of waders

The first loch we went to had been drained many years ago and refilled only twenty or so years ago, quite a wee peaty loch with reeds in the edge.

Whilst setting up our gear we viewed a interconnecting burn which flowed down to the second loch we fished and you would swear it was running uphill, but it's just the lie of the land, an electric burn!

It didn't take long for Gary to hook a trout on his olive Turks tarantula . A nice one too!

 Brian was doing well with a black dirty Polly corrie killer  hybrid . Including missing a fish around a pound. It took me a while to get into my stride , but i eventually managed a few, my  best fly being a claret hopper fished on the edge of the reeds. We had some lunch at the back of  1pm , scotch eggs, pork pies , chicken drumsticks and wings washed down with some iron brew, then we headed for loch number 2.

Loch number 2 was no distance away at all, just over the brae. Setting eyes on this loch showed lots of character , big sheltered  bays with cliff faces , infact me and Brian seemed drawn by these bays and headed over to explore whilst Gary fished the near shore. We were ushered by a herd of coo's . on the way , running over the hill top.

 
We decided to put on a wee competitive match which was quickly forgotten as wee extracted fish after fish from the bays, black flies were being blown off the surrounding vegetation , and the troots were going daft for them . Great fun for a few hours each trout a heavily spotted beauty.

We then headed for some dinner before heading onto the main event, Brian definitely looked like he'd chosen well with his steak pie,my Cajun chicken looked a bit like a mackerel, but the chips were good, Gary settled for the scampi!

We were on the "main event" for a bit after 6pm. When we walked around swathes off buzzers that had hatched off through the day took off. Hardly a fin broke the surface though , infact it was quite dour, this loch is known as an evening water. Gary lost a fish he reckons was between 2-3 pound  whilst starting a retrieve his dries. Brian was doing OK too with a couple of fish too the corrie killer fished static.

I was toiling. Gary cursed , a few times through the night at missed fish , but was rewarded with what must have been the fish of the trip a fat fish , in and around 2lb mark.

As the night drew on these thing s started to emerge , the nymphs crawling up my waders at first they were one or two but with ten minutes i was covered in them from head to toe, the dreaded caenis, or anglers curse!

At his point the trout didn't seem to be interested but as the night went on the spinners fell on to the water and that's when the trout started sipping them in , it was amazing to watch fish cruising under water surfacing yards from the last rise , and it was also fascinating too see how fast they moved it gave the illusion that there were loads of fish feeding but  it would be the same fish moving fast, some of them were big fish too! There window of vision must be tiny so you've got to try and intercept them almost to the inch , on top of that they have to like the look of your fly. I read years ago that a hatch on Corrib you were best if you could see your fly a clipped Adams was one reccomended fly, the closest thing i had in my box was a simarly coloured dirty polly, the important bit i think about seeing the fly is because you must actually see the fish take it   otherwise you could be constantly striking into thin air as i did  a few times that night  ,  spooking them on the surface in doing so.  I did manage to intercept a couple though, the first took a corrie killer , just yards from me , shot off into the loch like a steam train ripping line off the reel then stuck the fly into the weed!

The one that got away

 The corrie killer was missing when i took it in. the next fish i hooked up i landed , he took a size 12 dirty polly and went 1.5lb.

I had a few really small trout as i made my way back to the car as low  mist started to form , the trout calling it a night.

Back to the hotel for a few pints and a blether before , getting our heads down for some kip.

Sunday 12th
Was up for breakfast at 8am , breakfast was OK , the sausages were crap the bacon greasy the eggs under done , we sort of forced ourselves to eat it.  Payed the hotel and were back on the "main event" . Not known as a daytime loch we didn't know how it would fish. When we arrived the weather looked great cloudy with a light breeze , but with obvious rain approaching . And that was the way it was 2 short showers were the worst the weather gods threw at us. I didn't even bother with the jacket. I put on a size 10 CDC and elk on the point and a corrie killer on the dropper , as did Brian and we had  some sport from the bank pulling up fish to the CDC and elk. Brian got a nice fish of 1 3/4lb , we lost a few good ones too. 

Brian's best 1 3/4lb

 

Brian in his tube

As the day went on the sun came out , me and Brian decided to pump up the tubes and go afloat for the last hour, where we took a few fish , then at 2pm we called it a day the loch seemed dead , so we headed home all content , it had been a great trip , looking back it might have been worthwhile doing a bit more tubing as there were a lot of fish out of range , but thats for next time,  i can't wait to return,  in the future !

The Heron (Gary)

Night and day

An evening session followed by a day session , nothing spectacular, about 15 or so fish in the evening session a few to nymphs but most to a dirty polly it was quiet in a few pools , later found out i'd been following my pal Gary  up the river who had a good night on the dries .

The reverse was true in the day session about 20 fish mostly to nymphs but the risers took a size 12 DP nothing big the best going 13". Not a great deal of fly life mainly yellow may duns and mostly in the air,  i'm still trying to get a decent picture of one , if only they would'nt  fly away!

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.

Dollies river

Today the weather was forecast to be hot  , 25C, so i decided to avoid my original planned venue and picked a tree clad river for shelter from the blazing sun.

A first visit to the river for me. I'd walked it's banks through the winter 2 yrs ago , and always meant to get  round to fishing it and today i finally did. I arrived at 11:30ish , was set-up and fishing by 12am. Had to work out the tactics today so went of to look for a feeding fish  , a few were feeding together i cast but they they turned there nose up at my size 14 klink , i imediately went down to a 7x tippet and a smaller size 16 klink and hooked a fish , but he got off heading for a sunken tree, and leaving my fly in the branches. Somehow the next 3 fish also shed the hook, but i'd found a rythym. A big pool then produced  a few trout some on klinks  and a brace on a nymph.

Plenty fly life around. heres what looked to be a hatch of grannom, though  a few spinners were falling on the water every so often. I headed up to a weir pool fished a little further but only got one fish above the weir . it was pretty dead.

So i headed back downstream to  fish well below where i started. As it was a country park and a nice day there was kids playing in certain pools, groups of neds , pumping out music, was starting too think it was a mistake, coming down here. I started walking through a gorge section tried to walk down to the river side but they were shear cliff faces. so i carried on down river until i could access the water. This section was a bit daunting to fish , i was in a corridor with walls of  towering sandstone cliffs , here and there ledges were visible ocassionally plunging into unknown depths an element of rockclimbing is required here and there whilst clasping a rod with your teeth. With the difficult terrain I dont think many of this water will see a fisherman from one season to the next despite being a stones throw from a major city.

It was not the most productive stretch, maybe the lack of light , is a factor, the nymphs drew a blank even where it looked ideal, but the dry did sort out those rising fish. I was glad to come out the other end without a ducking. coming out the gorge the fishing improved again . It had been a great day, challenging enough at times to  hold my interest, i'll definitely return, but i think i'll give the gorge  a miss!

gorge fish