30 October 2011

28 October 2011

Morning glory.

Had a morning free so, went and had another shot at the canal as the gear was still packed and ready from yesterdays trip. Clear sky's and very cold this morning , used the big flash fly again , but the pike hadn't really woke up, maybe the temperature was a factor?
 I did manage a few takes though fishing the margins , in some areas , but only had one fish , Counted down to15 then started a slow retrieve on a intermediate when it all went tight. A nice jack.

27 October 2011

Flash! ahhh.... saviour of the canal

Could'nt decide what to do today go for the grayling , the pike or a bit Coarse fishing. Ive got a fly tying night , tonight  being the first night i'll have to get myself organised so decided to go up the canal , it's a nice to ring the changes , and it would just be nice to familiarise myself a bit more with the rod i built recently. The water has been very coloured with all the rain recently but today there was a wee bit clarity , not clear by any stretch of the imagination but clear enough to catch a pike. There was only one fly for it flash flies. The first flash fly had a hint of mettalic red at the head, quickly i had a take, then lost a good pike around 5lb, thanks to leaving my net yards down the bank. I then caught it's wee brother.
Takes though did dry up, i tried a popper, but no joy ithen tried a monty Flash fly , an d started getting a wee bit action , some good surface  slashes others just casual pounces. I only had 3 pike though in the few hours i was there , so theres plenty left for next time.

15 October 2011

For Peats sake

Another day , again on the grayling, the water was peaty despite being lower, a handful of grayling on a nymph, the nymphs had a little added sparkle , and a few lost on a big dirty polly. A few good trout returned mainly in the second part of the day, lost one very good fish that i think was a seatrout.
Some pics:
Glister bug 's gone disco



14 October 2011

Lucky Horseshoe ?

When i walked the dog this morning the trout were piling up for  spawning in my local burn. So the day was planned for a trip to the local grayling water in the afternoon. I didn't get there till just before 2pm, and was a little surprised to see the river in spate, with the water very dark. The fishing wasn't great, i had more trout than i did grayling , after rising several fish losing or missing them i  hooked my first grayling of the day,  a triumph in it's self in the conditions.
the amount of takes made it worth persevering the bigger slower pools were better than the fast ones , i hiope to get this stream in  good condition soon. When I reached the top of the beat, i met Douglas from The trout fly he'd had a few small grayling and trout too. We blethered down the road about fishing, herding some boisterous bulls on the way , and finding a horse shoe, which i gave to my son. I then said goodbye to Douglas whilst i went over a few pools I'd left. But to no avail, so far the horseshoe hasn't worked it's charm ! Maybe next time!

8 October 2011

Looking for Ladies

We said goodbye to the trout season on Thursday, my last trip was the previous Thursday and i failed to get out again because of the lousy weather. But the season never truly finishes. A magnificent creature known as the  lady of the stream keeps us going through the winter , yes it's grayling time ,until that time when the trout once again become fair game mid in March, an introduced species of which  i'm glad of there prescence .

well there has not been many gaps in the rain but yesterday was dry , through the night we only had lightish rain, so i thought I'd chance it.The water looked OK, it was brownish , but it always is. a little bit higher though than i like it. some of the deeper pools which can be great were just to coloured to fish well the pools less than a foot deep however seemed to fish OK.
 in my first pool of that description  like that i hooked and lost a fish definitely a grayling too. in the same pool i then dropped one on a nymph. never mind plenty more water.
A wee rise in the next pool, and i had a Parr, i was concentrating on the head when at the side i saw a rise. Turned out to be a grayling   , got it on a CDC and elk. i netted it then put my net down, unfortunately i forgot my lanyard , it was on my rucksack at home , i remembered to grab the magnet but forgot that side, so i was using a bit of nylon , mistake i just about lost my net so i scoured the bottom, in panic getting a wet arm in the process, i eventually found it.  phew.that could have been a pricey mistake, McLean weigh nets ain't cheap at £60 . Anyway heres the first grayling of the day looks like something had a go at it's tail.
continued upstream and it was a usual story though i did come across the odd dimple riser, which i used a smaller single fly caught a few  tiny wee grayling ,nice to see for the future.


generally i was using NZ style, then it hit me NZ style for me anyway isn't the way to go for grayling, a much better , method is a short dropper, it hit me of course when i rose a better fish. Trout  today were not a problem avoiding though i did have a few. Next time I'll be better organised, and learn from the routine mistakes i made today, hopefully the next time the water will be clearer and lower it will bring a lot more water into play.

2 October 2011

Final fling?

Thursday 29th
 Looks like Ive had my last cast for the Brown trout this season. I planned to go today(Sunday 2nd) but the rain last night put an end to that idea. It has been very wet over the last month and trying to get any sort of fishing in has been difficult. Anyway back to Thursday.
A muggy day, we seem to be having a bit of a heatwave , the river was low enough to fish but still annoyingly carrying a tinge of colour and the leaves were coming off the trees. So i went big! Size 10 dirty Polly with a cased caddis hung underneath.
 as the day progressed i lost my last peeper, had to go too Gold head pheasant tails but it didn't really hamper the catch rate, with around 30 fish, nothing big, just steady sport and at times though just too predictable. 

Autumnal colours

 The trout i feel are now ripe for spawning , and maybe should be left to do there thing. I think I'm a bit fished out as far as there concerned too, i need a change! Grayling next!


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