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.

Doing the Rounds

Today i had the day off , but i could not quite get myself motivated, a few puddles were lying when i woke up and the wind was howling . I saw my son off to school ,walked the dog by the river , which was a bit dirty, then decided to go and have a few casts. It was 11:30 before i got down and the river was dirty, it's a pity cause there was a fairly good hatch of fly , better than i'd seen in a while and it certainly would have brought up a fish or two.Nothing left for it but a few casts up the edges of the creases in the heads of pools ripping back a woolly bugger, i put the biggest fly in my box on a size 10 longshank.  After a few taps i eventually landed one.

A few more followed including a nice one around the 1lb mark. I headed downsteam content a few hours was enough, i wasnt feeling particularly inspired by the lack of clarity, but as i was walking down i found a riser, i cast a cdc emerger at it but it was ignored , so replaced it with a size 12 MB comparadun , and it took it .

Quite a bonny fish , its pal also succumed to the comparadun.

On my way home i stopped off at the "ditch". I just cant resist it! I had a 12 ft leader on far too long ,  but somehow got on fine, with it , i started with a dry took a tiny trout then put on a nymph . Ive found the secret with fishing the nymph in the ditch is to "Induce" the take ,simply cast and slowly lift the rod causing the nymph to rise  , they' re absolute suckers for it! 

After my dinner i needed to take the dog for a walk (cough)! A walk with a rod in hand. So i fancied a dabble at the pike in the canal . mainly to try out my latest purchase Authanic wire. The wind was very strong so i had to galway cast so's i didnt end up whacking myself unconcious on the back of my head. A flash fly was my fly of choice, i worked my way along the bank casting to the otherside, but i knew where i'd get a take. There was one wee area underneath a tree with a bit shade.

On my first cast i hooked a pike looked a good one (for the canal) maybe 5-6lb beuitifully marked as it kissed the surface  , it then tailwalked and promptly threw the hook! 3 more pike hit the fly and  got off at range ! I rested the corner then came back to it 10 minutes later , and finally got a small consolation of a wee jack pike. The verdict on the wire is it's far better than anything else ive used !

 A colourful days fishing!

A Breezy day in the highlands

Myselfd and Brian headed for the stream we fished a week ago. The wind was not favourable a strong downstream which made presentation dificult at times. We prospected with a NZ set-up and it was , Brian's klink which dipped first, he was  first in to a fish a cracker just a few ounces over 2lb.

We came across a odd pool where we found risers, and took a few wee trout.

nothing big but welcome on a difficult day , a few more small fish were taken on nymphs, then shortly later Brain hooked up with another lovely trout.

This one just shy of the 2lb mark but beautifully marked, just as you would expect from this river. My luck just wasn't there for the bigger troots today. A few jabs and trouts came to wooly buggers as we made our way back down the beat dropping in in the odd pool , yes now is wooly bugger time, a time where the method can be addictive, yes productive , at times be over abused ,with always the hope of pulling the attention of a lunker , but  just as deadly for the standard scottish troots.

What was left of the day folowed a  very long tiring walk down back to the car.

Born to be wild

Saturday 7th May

The Cult (Electric) blasted out of the stereo as we headed out to our chosen location, the creatures we were seeking though did fit that description. When we arrived we headed straight to our favourite pool which we have had good success in , in the past.but this time the waterwas a lot lower. After lobbing wooly buggers hoping for a cannibal, i then switched to a NZ set-up with a wire nymph and a large Klinkhammer, and was rewarded immediately with a spirited wee trout which took the nymph, he went 1 1/4lb.

 After that it was a long walk down to the bottom of he beat. After fishing a few pools without so much as a sniff, Brian eventually hooked up! He'd taken a big size 10 Klink. cast immediately above a large submerged boulder, a very visual take in the clear mountain water  and after a very acrobatic scrap he was in the net , a beautiful golden trout of 2lb!

My shot next. I eventually got a fish on a dry , or atleast thats what i thought, turns out it was both dry and nymph, quite a scabby looking wee fellae with a missing pectoral, though obviously hungry.

Walking further up the pools we leap-frogged each other, and it was me again who was next to hook up. i struck , thought i'd caught the bottom then it moved , belted upstream and bust me!

I thought my chance was over, but someone up there must have took pity, as in the next pool i hooked up again, and to be honest i didn't know much about it, another 2lb 'er for our day!

a few more small fish were caught it had been a graet day in great company, the weather was ideal, it only started to pour half way up the road for home!

 

The Inbetween days

Local Troutstream
Not much on the feed at all, the last bout of rainfall seems to have had  no effect at rising the levels, though i could not make up my mind whether the water was clearer or dirtier. A few olives hatching , loads of Hawthorns (been a bumper year). I managed a few to nymphs one or two to dries but i ended up resorting  to woolly buggers , which produced 3-4 fish including  the  best of the day, i feel the best of the fishings still to get underway, it's a bit like the inbetween days.

Digging up the ditch!

This week ive been having a few micro sessions on my local burn, it's only a stones throw from my house, and really no more than a ditch. the latest trip was just this morning.I dont know Why i feel the pull of these tiny waters but they just fascinate me.  Quite differant skills required from fishing the bigger waters , but challenging in there own right!

A few years ago it was totally wiped out by a pollution incident but it's nice too see the fish returning , in a few weeks it will be almost impossible to fish when the undergrowth gets going .
heres a few captures , dries doing the business , i used black klinks,and a  rusty spinner there not too fussy if you can get near them.

A few examples:

A mixed day 28/4

my local trout stream Bright sunshine but a cold start i fished NZ style without so much as a sniff , i was surprised not to get any fish even from the heads of the pools, and was even more surprised not to see a riser as there were lots of hawthorn flies in evidence and one or two upwings hatching. At 2pm it was like someone had thrown the switch and finally i got some sport. the first fish took a black klink hammer.A lovely yellow fish.

  The odd brookdun was coming down so i put on a big comparadun , it worked to a degree in the faster water, but in the bits where the current fizzled out a curved cdc was a better option.

Unfortunately i had to leave at 3pm.

Ayr rocks (April 22nd)

Ayrshire is a corner of Scotland previously unknown to me, to my surprise i found Ayr it's self to be quite a nice looking town and the scenery in between he towns quite charming.

It was a glorious day (Wednesday) I arrived at the tackle shop in Ayr and got info, last word of warning was of the wading , "watch you dint step off a ledge" .

When i arrived at the river i was surprised at the sheer size of the water, much bigger than i expected with towering sandstone cliffs , and now i could see what the warning was all about though there were big shelves of sandstone you could walk on comfortably the abyss was never far away.

I started fishing it was about 11am , and on my first cast i hooked a Small trout which took a nymph hung under a big klink NZ style. Working my way up the river i felt it was like a home from home the rivres character being very similar to my local only on a much grander scale. The only bits really worth paying attention too on most pools were the heads the main body of the pool being lifeless too deep  on the whole and difficult to fish at range using a searching method. A few risers were to be had in some shallower flats but on closer expection they proved to be salmon Parr, so i didn't spend too long pursuing them.

Heres a few pictures of my captures for the day, some of the most yellow troots ive seen in good health and great fighters and  grayling (i had 2) were a real bonus despite being technically out of season , they were good too see after a chronic winter pursuing them.