Off we Trot

Grey Back

The art of trotting is something i havent  done for a  few year now. Brian was keen to try out his new centrepin , so we were planned to go to a river, but as we were passing rivers most were high and sure enough when we arrivved at the river it was high and carrying some colour . We decided to go a few miles down the road to its parent river. A huge powerful river ,The Tay! It was a fine day a few fish caught, lots more lost, Brians pin worked great and he took the lions share of the fish (the poaching bastard ousted me out my swim) , i even had a go of it ,and must get one!

Poacher

Sequins

I'm quite chuffed with attraction offered from the shell sequins  (fish gills ) so thought of the idea  of a oval gill plate ,  150 mixed colours for about £1 off ebay, these ones are 19mm long . As soon as they arrived i wanted to try a roach pattern , so made a kanekanlon baitfish with the appropriate colours basically white, silver blue a wee dash of right orange at the throat bit holoflash  a and a red epoxy eye on a holosilver "gill plate". Cant wait too give it a swim!

An Hour on the Canal

 Took the dog for a walk along the canal, it looked tempting for roach as a few were dimpling on the surface. Went home cleaned all the mud off my wading boots from yesterday, and watched the F1 at Abu Dhabi, which was ok , Lewis Hamilton won. As soon as the race finished i jumped into action, grabbed the net, , and pike gear (cause i wasn't really prepared for roach fishing) lead for the dog   and we were on our way with only a few hours of light left . I had  packed only 3 flies a pink one , one based on the "fire tiger" colouring, and a flash fly. I had a tiny jack on the fire tiger .

Eyes bigger than his belly!

Then a brace on the pink before calling it a night,   as darkness came over. Slow -slow retreives was  the tactic  of the day and a wee countdown of 15 on the intermediate.

indecision collision!

Me and Brian had a pike trip planned involving the float tubes. On Friday night we mutually decided to wimp out and go for some grayling instead. So on Saturday we were southbound. But nearing our destination the puddles got bigger and sure enough, the river  resembles milky coffee. So we decided to try the wee grayling burn closer to home which  looked perfect. so armed with bigger than usual rods we ascended on the water  working our way through with a bug and dry. We found a riser  i rose it twice then it never came up again. Then brian hooked up wit a 12oz ish  in his favourite pool .

Fish on!

I managed a few baby grayling , funnily enough in my favourite pool on the dries later on but we both missed many fish. Just nice to get out really!

Jack frost finally arrives

The Trout season seems to be long gone now, a month today it closed it's doors. Today saw a touch of frost on the ground, one of the first frosts this year. Grayling tend to be a species we link with cold frosty days so it was off for a few hours to see if they were biting. It wasn't till after mid-day i got there , i was glad to see a tad of clarity in the water although it was far from clear. So it was on with a glister nymph and a size 12 dry, i scaled down my nymph today to a 14 , and to cut a long story short that was the fly of the day , although i wish I'd spent a bit time at the tying bench prepping some nymphs with a bit more sparkle armed with them i think i could have had a busier day .
A few photos.

Synthetic price!

Thats my rod for a yard stick!

I got a link for synthetics from someone on a Forum, this stuff is a bargain, almost identical to other crinkley nylon synthetics , the tackle shops sell, but for the same price (actually maybe a £1 or so less) ,and  a lot , lot, lot more! It's marketed not for fishing though but for hair . As soon as i got my hands on it i flung together a fly sealing the eye and gill plate with uv gel.

I couldnt resist but to try it out, casting it is easy, the action is superb being just that little bit limper that some other crinckly synthetic type products. The Pike seemed to agree as well!

even the micro jacks wanted a bit!

After half a dozen pike the fly was still in good shape!

 My only regreat now is i didnt buy more colours  , i would like to get a grey and an olive, theres no shortage of colour choices must be about 100 from naturals to neons!