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

Back log of fishing trips

Tuesday daytime
A visit to the river of trollies , was full of expectancy, clearer water etc, but unfortunately the hatch was slow to get going and the water was still a bit dirty . The wooly bugger was the saviour of the day ., a couple lost on comparaduns was all i could get in the way of "insect" action.

Of recent my local water has been fishing poorly, but the spate seems to have breathed life in the water and stirred up the fish the only problem is it's still carrying colour. A visit on Tuesday night (yes the evening after fishig the trollie river),provided sport with the dry and between 20-30 wee trout fell for the  big dirty polly, and comparadun. Later as the night went on i tried a huge chernobyll ant on a size 10 2x longshank , and still the had a go at it!

Thursday night

A hot day for a change , kind of tired but headed for the troutstream for 7pm, the water still coloured, i set up newzealand style with a goldhead harelug with a pinch of pearl through it's body. A few decent fish succumed to the nymph.

As the night went on a few fish fell for the dry, but in lesser pools. most of the pools were dead. It became aparent at 10pm . i'd been following another angler up the river. Sloppy seconds! I guess with river fishing becoming more popular , it's a thing we just have to get used too.

Piking in the Hills

The forecast wasn't great heavy showers max of 8 C as i planned a trip to some of my favourite pike lochs .Up at 6:30am  float tube stuff packed , 5 hours later i was at my destination setting up my fly rod. A reedy bay was my target,i worked my way round a weedy bay casting in wind and hail and around the reeds but after 45 minutes i drew a blank.

It was  then i decided to head down to a second lower lying loch , ditched the tubing stuff in the heather to pick up on my way back, the tube was a waste of time today ,really and added weight i could do without, next time i think i'll leave it and take some trout gear just incase the piking is poor as the trout fishing can be good. After a good 2hr hike i found myself at loch number 2.

I could not beleive the ammount of water in it and with submerged trees , bog myrtle, and flowering gorse bushes i'm guessing it had only come up in the last few days.

It's the river mouth i usually like, in the loch but the river didn't look right far too big. So i fished round the bays with  the grass edge limit being  4ft underwater in places ,   before plummeting into the abyss. I chose to put on a fly with a rattle to try and stir something from the depths .

The closest i got to a pike all day was a follow to my feet by a low double which at the time was a great pick me up why he didnt take , well only she knows that, i just dont think they were in the mood. Nevermind , i'll be back!

Down and Dirty

orange tip

Today was a rare day! Almost windless! Fishing was on my mind i headed for a river i had not fished for at least a month maybe two!  I was tackled up and on the water by 10:30 am , unfortunately the water was heavily coloured and a wee bit higher than normal.  I immediately set up with a woolly bugger , the conditions dictated that but i drew a blank in the first few pools. I put on a extra super fast sinking poly leader  to try and get it to dig in , but that proved useless too. My confidence was starting to wean  when i looked downstream  and i'm sure i saw a rise form behind a willow. Anyway i put on a big dry A size 10 "dirty polly". A fly which has done the business in the past in coloured water. It took about 6 exploratory casts then a wee trout stuck it's nose out the water and grabbed my fly. About 4oz but i was happy , i thought i was staring a blank in the face.

I decided to persevere with the dry and look for shallow" flats" , just figured that would be my best chance with the severe lack of clarity.   I arrived at a pool that fitted that description .

Wading up it slowly a fish rose to my right, to one of the many flies , so i cast out and it hit it first cast, a fine fish around a pound  .

The pool has a slow gradual shallowing as you get nearer the head and further upstream fishing blind, another pounder, almost identical to the last fish  decided he liked the look of my dry.

Another 2 followed on the dry the best going 1lb 10oz   and one fell too the  woolly bugger.

I headed up a few pools more but the pools were a bit deep for the clarity issues, it had been a good days fishing ,educational!

Breath of Fresh-air

Rain had scuppered plans to fish my usual, it was windy, had a few feeder burns in mind but decided on the bigger but fewer fish burn, not that it contains monsters just modest brownies although the occasional 1lb'er can be caught, and at the backend a few bigger again.

When i arrived i couldn't believe it was low and fairly clear with a slight ochre stain. Hawthorns and blackgnats were very  plentiful a few olives hatched various species and one or two brook duns hatched too, plenty fodder in this burn!

Armed with my wee 6'6" rod , I set-up with whats becoming my usual NZ style, a big size 10 klink and a nymph, imediately i felt i should scale down , so changed to a 12 with a size 16 biot nymph with a black bead . it was'nt long till i was into my first fish ,a "riser" which found my nymph more to it's preferance than my dry.

Infact most fish felll for the nymph , in one deep pool i put on a bigger bead , but in most it was too heavy. If i did not get a take in these bigger pools i found it was worth while sticking a wooly bugger or Arctic  fox minnow through before moving up the pool, again it was fairly productive.

As for the dries, with hawthorns and blackgnats on the water in there hundreds you might expect a black fly to work but that was not my experience . Far better was a olive imitation , a comparadun taking fish and probably the best general purpose dry in my box the cdc and elk was devastingly effective.

A fine day a good choice for such a windy day better than being on a big river constantly fighting the breeze.

Lunching with Jack (pike)

Lunchtime ! Grabbed the pike stuff back up to the canal , less windy than it was last night but much brighter. Still there was some shaded areas . There was also a bit more colour in the water, but nothing serious. The strimmers were out cutting the edges of the towpath, and it wasnt till they were been over and gone that i could get casting. The first take i was actually hooked up a bit of weed and was pulling it in when a decent jack grabbed hold, but it got off. then it went dour as i made my way through the basin. I hammered and hammered a likely looking area and eventually one gave in a rolled over my flash fly.

shortly after i moved another fish and i'm pretty sure it was the same one that had a go when i'd hooked the weed. will have to rest this pool for a week atleast , as thick as pike are, they do eventually become lure shy.