Esox hunt !

Saturday 3rd

On the way it started raining heavy, the burns and rivers were running full and coloured, luckily though by the time we arrived the worst of it seemed to have blown over, we were actually struggling for a breeze, the water almost flat calm . We set up , got the boat organised, rods etc, and were setting of to a bay. It didn't take long before Brian hooked a pike and lost it then hooked it again, (or a different pike) on a red fly , but again it through the hook. Me, well i was going through box trying to find a fly that would work, trying orange, pink, everything , i had but couldn't get a bite. For that matter . Heading over to an island Brian once again had a violent surface slash at the fly looked like a not bad fish too! again he had a red fly , next few drifts were fish less, it was really quite dour, much of the piking has been so far this season.
 The next bay close in i had an offer to a hot orange fly, but as a reoccurring theme they just were not sticking, for some reason i changed to a lime green fly with a rattle, fishing over open water i suddenly got a take, at first i thought it was a small jack then it approached the boat and dived underneath it i responded by standing on the seat to get the line around the Bow. and keep the pressure on. It fought well once it woke up , but eventually it tired , and Brian did the honours with the net, but she wasn't as big a i thought just short of double figures she was though a lovely conditioned fish!

  We continued flogging the bay casting all sorts , then we moved on. The next bit was a deep drop off straight from a reed fringed bank. And it seemed to be a bit of  a hot spot. Brian was in!

Then it was off, then i was in and landed a wee jack which did it's best to bury itself in the weed.

I'd no sooner landed that fish and Brian was in again.

This one went about 5lb. Unfortunately it was trailing a trace had a fish lodged down it's throat and it's gills were ripped on one side, it's a wonder the poor thing was alive! unfortunately there was no way we could have removed that trace without causing the fish further damage, so we returned it and wished it the best of luck. 
We  continued our way round the loch flogging away , then Brian hooked up again a wee Jack on a chartreuse fly .

Then i took the smallest fish of the day!

Last fish of the day fell for Brian i managed to capture the acrobatics on  camera!

Smokin'

Tail walkin'

It had been a hard days fishing, for some reason or another the fish weren't really on, it's been the way of it over the last few weeks, one day though we will catch it right!

Legend of the Peeper!

Autumn is just round the corner , or at least it's starting to feel that way. Started off with my successful set-up from yesterday , i did take fish or two, but i was wanting something a bit bolder . A quick look in my box and there was a row of peeping caddis , just the thing! And between this and a big klink i had a reasonable few hours catching lots of fish mainly to the peeping caddis, a good GP fly, and worthy of it's place in the box .

Back on the Local

It's been a long time since my last trip to my local. High water levels or poor clarity and piking are a few   reasons for lack of visits. Today i managed to fit a trip in. It was great plenty action on the duo, i went for a GH harelug with a peacock glister thorax , held up by a size 10 klink , but in some bits i had to sacle down to a  size 16 klink, whilst in others they were more confident in taking whatever was put in front of them. I must have had around 30-40 brownies up to a pound ,

a single seatrout ,

and a rarity a few salmon parr,

which reminds me , the next spate should follow a trip down with a few Allys shrimps cause you just never know....... !

Chernobyll revisited

What a frustrating trip! I kept dropping fish incuding one which looked quite sizable. Still i will keep going back , theres something thats got me hooked on this burn and i think it's the potential for a big fish! Still managed a few fish , to  just over the pound.

And heading upstream the burn split ,i took two fish in one of the feeders , the later was a nice one. An evening of mixed fortunes.

A Tough Day piking!

Piking again,Myself and Brian  fished really hard all day, from 9:30am  till 5:30pm , Brian had had a few half hearted lunges at the fly at various parts of the day, but the last hour was the best.
Brian landed this chunky pike , and the pike bit back and gave him a whack on the nose, ouch !

Pike Tyson

Not much after that i hooked a pike, but dropped it immediately, then hooked up shortly after landing a long slender fish.

A hard days fishing  , physically as well as difficult,pike are moody creatures , looks like thy were starting to switch on in the early evening , but we were knackered a fish each was a fine reward for our efforts. 

Extreme Tubing!

Dragonfly in pike colours

The recent rain scuppered this weekends plans for a day on a river, all sepa's data was showing them at very high levels so it was either a loch for trout, which would have been enjoying , fishing the heather fly fall. Or a day hunting the pike. So wee opted for option 2.
The water looked perfect, haven't fished it for many years now. We pumped up the tubes , set up the rods etc.
And before launching the tubes we decided to fish the shoreline, Brian was into a wee jack, at least it was a start! He was using a hot orange fly (aka Phil Collins)

So it was off into the tubes. Brian moved a few on his fly so i changed to a similar fly. But it was a few hours in before i got my first take . I took a fresh fly from my box , cast it out and it lay static on the surface, when a pike made the perfect  head a tail rise and picked it off the surface, it was a big one too, . But after a good battle he ploughed into one weed bed too many and slipped the hook. Ocht well! Brian  again was getting the odd take , I'd here him swear, as they through the hook. Before long i was in again, another good long battle, i landed this fish.

A happy man!

It wasn't long after that Brian hooked up , at first i thought it was a jack it took so gently but then it woke up.

An even happier man!

What started of a slow day sport wise was turning out quite good. Again i hooked up and this fish was something serious, i hooked it in open water, and it ran and ran all the way into the backing and after playing and being towed  for at least 5 mins it all went solid, as it went in to a weed bed. I went over to investigate freed the snag by hand by coming out the other side of the weed bed that's when i felt the fish then i lifted the rod and it all went slack as the pike  spat out the fly. That must have been a monster, it couldn't have been anything else!

Getting Beat up

After that i was knackered , playing these pike and casting these flies all day is hard work so i went over to Brian for some lunch. Brian had a few more jacks for the day. We left contented, glad to revisit some sport with pike on the fly!We almost forgot how much fun it is!

nb:Top flies today were red/ orange!And Authanic wire is the dogs baws!

2 hrs In Chernobyll

The forecast is for rain tommorow, it's done nothing but rain lately, so i was keen to get in a bit sport,  i looked at a burn locally yesterday , it looked nice, but i opted for another local, one i call the Chernobyll  burn. I arrived at 18:45pm , on arrival i was glad to see the burn looked in   fine fettle with good clarity, it was very warm to the touch and even better a few fish on the fin!

As i wandered up this corridor of trees, i missed a fish but the next one i managed on a dirty polly, a wee one . The next fish again took a cdc and elk.  A pounder a fine fish for a burn. As i carried on up the pool I decided to stick on a nymph as i'm sure I must have been by-passing lots of non showing fish, so i put on a prince nymph and promptly hooked and landed a beauty of 1 1/4lb that took the nymph.

followed by a few on the dry.

fat troot

 Carrying on up the water i had fish in the fast bits on a GH sedge, then in a flat i spotted a good head and tail riser, i didnt get near him before i put him down but i know where he lives.

  A few more risers were found i decided to scale down to a 14 for risers, i promptly lost a good fish over the pound ,then took a few smaller ones.

The sport just kept getting better with a few more just over the pound. I'm sure if i had more time there might have been the possibility of a monster, this  burn is full of surprises. But a dozen trout averaging a pound in a 400 yd streatch of a wee burn is some fishing! I'll be back as soon as the next lot of spates start to fall! Another thing the wee "Burn Raider" 2# rod was just fantastic for playing those hard fighting fish, it has great dampening qualities for protecting the tippet, yet has the power to pull fish (with side strain) away from snags , and there is no shortage of them in the Chernobyll burn!