river deep mountain high

Went to my favourite river yesterday, just to get it in before the season ended. On arrival it was much higher than i expected but still crystal clear. The flats at the bottom of the beat were even moving and  had the odd riser as there was a hatch , not huge but a few flies trickling down , enough to bring up a fish or two here and there which is a rarity, atleast most times ive fished it. I caught my first fish in the flats,on a CDC and elk, the flats are not a place i normally spend anytime in usually finding the better quality fish in shallower faster water but conditions dictated.

on the flats

So i heading further up the river i met my usual haunts ,some of it was fishable , some was not crossing the river was dodgy in places but the further up the river i got the easier it got as the river shrunk as tributary after tributary was lost. pools that are normally ankle deep were up to my waste , it's a challenge finding the fish in these conditions, but  they are there , and once in my stride i was doing ok. i ended the day with around 20 fish a couple just under 1.5lb , and a good few pounders.

Two bigger fish incidents, one where a trout rose in a calm side stream  area at my fly but never stuck (NZ style problem),  and  another where the nymph seemed to snag when i hooked up and i got broke, oh there was one other strange incident , i hooked a wee 3/4lb brown and a bigger brownie seemed to follow it even have a go at it, I'm suspecting it was it's male suitor for spawning though which is just round the corner now. My wading boots gave up on me the sole (not just the felt sole but the rubber/foam stuff)   came away , i knew it was only a matter of time , i will invest in a decent pair very shortly.

uv candy

Based on the surf candy type fly tried a few with uv gel, one with saltwater in mind.

 

And this one for trout , looks a bit like a minnow.

Pike flies with uv gel

At last my long awaited parcels arrived from hong kong , a uv torch with 21 led's, and some uv gel, the stuff women use for nail art it's called uv top coat. A doddle to use, much better than epoxy!

A few flies ive whipped up.

The dogs tail is getting shorter!

Pike fly rod complete

Well thats it finished, i'm fairly happy with it,far from perfect, but at the same time not to bad. I'm glad it's finished ive got sooo much fly tying to do!

What are cavaliers good for?

Get the pies out!

Collies are great sheep dogs, alsations Police dogs, St Bernards, and Northumberlands incase you get lost up the hills they bring some brandy, springers and cockers are good retreivers,labradors eat poo!  But what about Cavaliers??????????? Some say they used to flush birds out the undergrowth, i have my doubts, but ive found a use for them..... Arctic fox substitute!! Infact possibly even better!!

This is the tail  perfect almost the same texture as arctic fox but really long, actually it gets a lot longer than this it was trimmed a few weeks ago.!

 
Well it's been trimmed a bit more! It has been  incorporated in favourite pike fly (tail and beard) with a few additions , still needs a weed guard and uv gel applied.

New ground!

I'm fed up with the recent weather pattern wet, dry, but not dry enough for long enough to let the river levels drop, on top of that there s been showers through the night or very localised , localised in the wrong places!
So it was back to the Chernobyll burn. the water had fair clarity but it was heavy, i only took a couple of fish on peeping caddis ,before i decided to explore a bit further upstream  .

On the peeper

I'd fished the lower stretches before it's not that productive but does have the odd fine burn trout. the futher up i went though i was quickly fishing new ground , some of the water was lovely, the troots got a little bit more numerous too, i used a big size 10  dirty polly, a stimulator and a size 10 klink , although no monsters i know there's good fish to be had. It was fun fishing inbetween  the swathes of weed.

Near disaster!

I applied the decal, lastnight , this morning i looked at it didnt look as id hoped so gave it a rub with some rubbing alcohol (maybe i shouldnt have but i cant help it!) ripped off the decal  and then the sourrounding epoxy went cloudy it was still a bit tacky. was dieing to give it a cast  so went up the canal , it casts beautifully , although not a fishing trip as such it broke it's duck with a tiny jack pike. When i got back home, i scrubbed the blank clean , removing the remaining epoxy and the thread whips. This afternoon  ive redone them, instead of a decal ive used a paint pen, not as precise but gives that custom feel. Its currently drying on the turner.Hopefully it will be ok ?

Back on target

Almost there - pike fly rod

Nearing completion of my second ever build. This ones  a pike fly rod, it's a 9/10 weight. Just applied another coat of flexcoat lite epoxy to the rings. Infact once the epoxying is done it will be useable and all that will be left is a few personal touches.

Beyond the Thunderdome!

Everyone had gone it was only me left, the machines had taken over. A barren wasteland surrounded me , but "a river runs through it"!!!

I loaded my weapon with a big stimulator , the river was clearing after the relentless surges of heavy rain, indeed i looked at the stream just yesterday but it was too high.

But it's the first to drop, and all though windy , cold and with the threat of more heavy rain, i was edging up a pool beyond the threat of the machines .

The rise of the machines

A fish rose in the poisoned detritus!  There was life here! I covered it with the stimulator and it took first cast cleared the water and that's when i saw it was a fairly good fish , it scrapped well i scooped it with the net and it was just in time as the hook came out.

Mutant!

As i continued to make my way  up the ditch i decided to put on a rubber legged version of the prince nymph on the bend NZ style. It worked great with a brace of trout from the first pool nothing in the next but three from the next again.

It was the nymph that was doing most of the damage ,

but the stimulator still brought  the odd savage attack.

As i headed upstream the wind got up the rain threatened so it was time to head back to HQ. Operation Thunderdome  complete.

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 .