Delayed spring in the highlands

Today i decided to sample one of our favourite highland streams , just to see if it had woken up yet as this elongated spring continues. i was relieved the water was fishable though it was carrying a little more water than usual , but it was still crystal clear, though very cold compared to our lowland waters . Some plant life in the wood was also slow to get going the wood anemones had still to fully open, and in abundance were the pale yellow primroses, one of our first spring flowers and quite abundant in this area.

primula vulgaris

The trees though were much the same as ours back home some were bare some budding others starting to bare the odd leave .

in the wood

  some other flowers were also keeping pace with the lowlands.

cuckoo flower

early forget me not

The fishing though was slow and the familiar downstream wind was present,  although in the pool i started on it looked promising as i turned a fish in the first pool. After that though it just wasn't happening despite one or two upwings hatching, the water felt dead. I came to a big slow pool and found a riser, he took my biot klink, first cast and i took a further 3 of similar size in that area.

it was good to get the blank out the way, but after those fish, it went back to its dour state, only rising another fish in a massive paceless pool. Eventually i came to this pool, the last pool i intended to fish.

Its a pool that's been fairly kind to me in the past and today it surrendered one of its occupants. He took the brown wire nymph.

This is the sort of fish i was searching for today, a real toothy highland brute . I think i'll leave it a couple of weeks before i return, it   really needs to warm up a bit yet which seems crazy considering we are into mid May . I crave the evenings fishing stimulators but that seems a long way away yet. 

down the local this weekend

With no car this weekend Col and I spent Saturday afternoon on my local river. We had a strong downstream wind to contend with and not a lot of fly on the water to begin with, so we walked upstream in search of some risers taking in some of the wild flowers along the way.

red campion

dead nettle Lamium purpureum

   

after an hour or so the hatch seemed to get underway proper and we started to pick up trout here and there,



 olive uprights were on the menu today with the odd  brook dun too, in some pools they were coming down in there droves.





 the shucked cdc was working its magic taking the lions share of the fish

Col spotted a what he described as a wolf of a trout on the near bank of a particularly ugly pool next to a scrap yard. Once in position the shuck cdc was drifted over him and the wolf was on!

he was a fine two pounder

pentaglottis sempervirens

a few more  followed to end a good day.....



.....and this afternoon I was back for more! although the hatch wasn't as good as yesterday a  few nice trout  fell mainly to the shucked cdc. All in all not a bad weekend and right on my door step.

Ransoms wood garlic

Turn of the stone clingers

Got down the river for 1pm. it was a lovely day in the morning , i didn't even bother with the jacket, but payed for it, as i sat for over an hour and a half before wetting a line once the flies finally started hatching. Not much baetis species in evidence , today the stone clinger species were in dominance, brook duns and the first of the olive uprights hatched the trout though don't seem to have fully switch on to them yet , but they will , it's my favourite hatch of the  season , really gets the fish gorging . Overall  a strange day seemed to get colder as the day wore on and the rain came on at 4pm making fishing a bit uncomfortable and cold (no jacket) , the old Scots phrase "don't shed a cloot 'til Mays oot" is very fitting.
 a few pics.

pink purslane

More woodland colours and fish

I somehow  managed another day fishing today (i think i may have achieved extra brownie points?) so decided on the lower stretches of my local river. The fishing was pretty good when i arrived at 1pm so it was just a case of working my way up the river picking of risers  , all were taken on what have become my industrious spring workers,  the biot klink and shucked cdc.


  I pulled out of two better fish on my way upstream, but Ive noted there position for the future,a few modest trout though stuck.

Plenty more flowers in the wood today, the forest floor in some parts is going to be a sea of bluebells in the next few weeks, it will be a stunning sight .

The marsh marigolds are almost blinding on the fringes of the stream.

Wood sorrel (oxalis)  apparently rich in vitamin c , next time I'm there i think I'll try some mmmmm.....

Its not just the flowers putting on a show, An unravelling fern (bracken i think).

 Suburbia creeps in.

And a nice fish to finish a nice  day .

When the going gets Tough

I emailed Brian last night to see if he fancied another shot on his favourite spring  river , naturally he was up for more torment.  i was looking forward to fishing a march brown hatch as i'd not seen any (in any numbers) yet this year. The day looked great as we drove through some lovely countryside ,and i was really looking forward to it , but whilst setting up we realised the water was up a bit  from yesterdays rain and we had a fairly strong downstream wind to contend with. 

New borns

With the trout still prefering the slowest parts of the river , there was a severe lack of water to fish , after sitting around for an hour or so we decided to head upstream , to a big flat , which brian knew would offer a bit shelter. It really is a waiting game , and fortune plays a big part, theres no guarantees. We sat and waited, i saw a fish upstream mopping up march browns   in the edge , i felt confident i could get turnover  in the downstream wind but unfortunately i dint get the opportunity as he stopped rising ,i may have put him down perhaps he caught a glimpse of me whilst foraging for flies whilst turning back downstream , the trout are not keeping station just now there covering quite an area  . We sat a little longer the hatch wasnt big and though there were the odd march brown the olives also put in a appearance  , Brian sat it out on a intermittent riser downstream whilst i sat huddled in the bankside , just upstream , and as luck would have it a fish rose about 15ft directly across from me. He then rose again minutes later then again  so i decided  to try and feed him my shucked cdc, and   fortunately for me he liked the look of it.

We then sat a little more  a few fish rose downstream , brian covered a risere on the near bank.

He struck and the fish flew through the air.

it was'nt quite what we were expecting , most early risers tend to be a little more substantial  . He went on to take another two small trout , one on a dry and the other on the nymph.

 That was out lot, it had been a tough session . I went for a walk downstream for a few miles but didnt see any risers  , the water looked as if it was pushing through just a little too fast. It would be nice to get ideal  conditions , mild , low water the fish moving in the faster water and im sure the times will come , until then you just have to make the most of what we've got.

 

a river fixation

The river that Col and I fished last weekend has never been far from my mind all week, so much so that I had to take today of work to get my fix early! not that I go there expecting to catch loads of trout, indeed a lot of the time its the opposite with the educated trout laughing at my pathetic efforts to catch them.

today was no different with a hatch of march browns underway in a pool sheltered from the downstream wind. I spotted a riser on the far bank which I promptly put down with clumsy wading, no room for error on this stream. Upstream in another slow flat I spotted a couple of rising trout right in the tail, very difficult fish to cover and despite me trying my best to sneak up on them I put them down too! Fishable water was limited today with the wind and I found myself back down at the first pool again. This time I  missed one on a march brown emerger so a change over to the klink/nymph set up resulted in another take which I missed too, things were not going well! After that I jumped in the car to look at a stretch further upstream, this proved to be a total waste of time as the wind was now howling downstream so an hour later I was back on the first sheltered pool yet again! the hatch had petered out by now but there were a couple of occasional risers still to go for and at last a hook up on the nymph!

not a monster at a pound and a half, but I was so pleased to fool one at last. That's how it it goes on this river, never easy but I'm dreaming about the next visit already!

I Know where You Live!!!!

I went straight from work to the  local stream today. I had a big trout swimming around in my head today the weather just felt right, and i didnt take long to find him. He was rising in the tail of a pool in a wee pocket  perhaps a foot deep  just behind a fallen tree,  to cut a long story short he took my fly in total 3 times in a 30 minute spell but it didnt touch the sides on the 4th i unfortunately broke the tippet on the strike a pity cause he looked a very good trout, but ive a feeling i'll bump into him again shortly. Hooking up with him is going to require some serious   hit and hold stick or he will be in the snags from the off , one small consolation is i know where he lives .

I did catch quite a few from 4oz up to a pound after that  . Fish were active in  most pools and the conditions were  almost perfect.  In a favourite pool i managed this lovely fish,  just short of   1 3/4 lb  , it helped ease my disapointment  . well a bit anyway.