On the Cut

As luck would have it i had the afternoon to myself. So i decided to go and See if the roach were up for it. It was a overcast day with occasional light showers and occasionally the sun would come out. The sun  is useful for spotting the shoals, the cloudier it gets the deeper the shoals seem to go.

Theres plenty perch amongst the shoals they behave exactly like the roach until the nymph is presented and on the retrieve they have a go.

Jack pike

I had plenty roach most took on the descent of the nymph missed a big one, in fact when a decent roach shoal came into view it was exciting these roach seem to take a nymph fairly confidently, i did manage to get a substantial roach plus a few good quality ones and a few wee ones. It's a very selective and effective way of fishing , cant wait to get up there again. Some pics:

wee fellae

fin perfect (looking at the anal fin looks like it has a bit of bream in it)

specimen roach

A wee handful

The Crystal River

Saturday25th

Today me and Brian fished one of my favourite rivers, it's a river with two different characters , a typical lowland river in it's lower reaches and in it's upper reaches very rugged ,and boulder strewn . Described by some as one of the most challenging trout rivers waters in Scotland. I don't think it's the case at all , nothing a long leaders and long casting , does not sort out , the fish are spooky but they are in reasonably good numbers . We fished the usual NZ set-up a big size 10 klink and a wire nymph did the trick , in a few shallow runs we fished the klink on it's own and in the faster runs we fished stimulator's, the takes to the dries on occasions were explosive!. We had around 30 fish in all 8-9of them over the pound mark a couple going 1 1/4lb, but the big fellaes proved elusive , one thing about the fish we caught though is they fight well above there weight , probably  some of the hardest fighting fish Ive ever caught ! It had been a grand day in great scenery.    Must return before the seasons out!

Crystal!

1 1/4lb

flower power

fat trout

rocky section