Gluttons for punishment!

We Fished a difficult river today, it was a first visit for me. The main target was simply to get one of there marbled marked trout, i  missed a lot of trout today, broke off on a big fellae being the highlight or lowlight  i suppose, mission accomplished though , a couple of trout landed and one sported the sought after markings.

"Marbled" trout

 Succesful flies or flies which got takes ,was a bit of a mix. cdc on straight and curved hook, biot klink, biot DHE, march brown emerger , and a hareear  klink while it was used for hanging a nymph.

Stalking

 A few challenging venues make for an interesting  prospect over the next month, hopefully the gods will be kind?

2 Hot Days of Contrast

It's been unseasonably hot over the last couple of days, the same is forecast over he next few days.

yesterday, i went down to my local to a section where it is walled in with cliffs much of the way. I think because of the shade it fished reasonably well, with a reasonable hatch too, infact i was still catching fish at 5pm mainly on nymphs though as the hatch was finished,  a busy days fishing.

Buzzards circling

today i went downstream again but to more open water although there is the odd shaded bit and these proved to be the best spots today. A few  risers but the rise was short lived and once it died it really was game over. The fishing has been difficult, the fish very spooky but whats been caught has been of a good stamp.

it's a start at least!

After work today i quickly  threw my gear together and ventured down to my local river in the hope of catching the tail end of the hatch, no such luck as there wasn't an olive to be seen, i did spot one fish rise however and i took him on a klink

 

no further risers on show as i walked upstream so i fished nz style through a couple of runs but i knew in my mind that i was wasting my time, to late on in the afternoon but my first trout of the season on the dry was welcome anyway.

Kiss of Death?

Today i planned to go to Brian's  local , as it can be great early season.  The wind was right ,a light easterly but unfortunately it was to be a bright cloudless day, normally it wouldn't bother me , but i knew it can be the kiss of death on this river.

I got down early, partly to pick up Brian's old camera , which he kindly lent to me after my mishap yesterday. I then went down to see if the hatch had materialised, form the word go olives and even a few brook duns were coming off, but not a riser to be seen , i waited, perhaps they've just started i thought? Then they were coming down in 3's and 4's i decided time to get fishing , looks like it's going to be the way of it today, no rise!

So i started off with a NZ style a gold head brown wire nymph and a size 12 brown biot klink  on the dropper. And i fluked a trout on the nymph from a shallow run.

Next pool i fished a bubble line and i rose a fish , and in surprise i hooked it , he'd taken the klink.
That kind of unlocked the technique for the day, as in the next pool again i took a few more on the klink doing away with the nymph, only to add it again in runs. Strangely despite ignoring the naturals they were quite keen to grab my klink.

I did eventually find rising trout in a bankside tail of a pool in the shade. both took the dry. It's not the usual way i would fish this at this time of year  usually I'd only fish for risers , but today i had no choice, either that or i might not have wetted a line at all.
I'm looking forward to getting back on this river with some cloud cover! Looks like ive got some fly tying to do a couple of klinks mashed .

Oh naw!

wood anenome's

Went down to my local , a beautiful day , virtually t shirt weather, ive never known a March like it. The river it's self was still carrying a fair bit colour though and was fairly high. So i was looking for shallow flats , as this seems to be the best bet in these  conditions. On my first pool on the way downstream i came across a riser, decided to have a shot for it before heading further downstream, was a fairly nice fish.

Heading further downstream i few other big flats  found and managed a few other trout all in the 3/4lb mark, and in spanking condition.

  I then took this photo,as you can see it was low down by the water , i never realised my camera case was trailing  in the drink and then i put my camera back in it's case ...doh!

Kind of soured the day though a few more trout were caught i really wanted to get back home and attempt to dry out the camera. Im not sure of it's fate at this moment fingers crossed! As they say though sh*t  happens.

Gone cukoo?

Last night it rained, light rain was the forecast, but it was heavy enough to colour up the rivers. So no fishing today.....Aye right! On the walkwith the dog which is alongside my local river and also the canal , i pass first a small burn. Passing it on the way down it was coloured but low, i also pass it further upstream after coming off the canal towpath and by the time i'd got round it was running clear.

So i had a fishable option,  i was more interested in seeing what it was like in it's lowest reaches as i'd never been , in all honesty it's not a burn that anyone would really consider fishing , it's on the burn/ditch border, very small very overgrown and if anyone caught me in the act of fishing it they would think i'd lost it.

Well the place i tackled up was probably quite fitting then!

 

    I then walked through the woods to where it empties into  the main river .

The Main river was still the colour of milky coffee maybe   clear for tommorow. Any way , i tackled up with a dry at first, and not expecting anything i hooked my first trout, which promptly shook it's self off, a few runs up in a pocket, i decided to add a nymph NZ style, and a wee trout came kicking in on the nymph. In some runs the nymph was useful on others i just fished a dry , and here and there i got fish.

the pools were very mixed in character some were narrow pots, ideal for the nymph.

some runs.

And the odd short pool.

Of these types of water  the runs seemed most productive. fairly enjoyable wee session catapult casting my way up a ditch. Ive a couple of other tiny tributaries to explore , they may be fishless but "ye don't know till you go".

yellae fellae

What a hatch!

First day of my fortnights holiday, where will i go? It was windy so a good bet was my local, a westerly meant downstream rather than up. Dog walk out the way i got down for 12pm , flies were trickiing off, a couple of fish rising at the tail of a pool the one nearest looked the better one, (he was'nt really) the one further over took a biot klink first time , the nearer   one was a bit fussy, but eventually i got him on a cdc- flexi emerger. Further up i came across two trout rising side by side the near one looked small the further one was clearly a better fish ,by now loads of flies were coming down, infact i don't think ive seen a better hatch of large dark olives on this river. i chucked my fly box at them both , eventually i put on a para-dun rose the good fish, but  didnt connect. 

Moving on up plenty risers in the tails and main belly of the pool to throw a fly at they were  a lot less fussy   falling to the biot klink hammer , It was a fairly hectic 2 hours then by 2pm the hatch died , and barely a rise form was to be seen, though i did manage a few fishing blind, maybe head down again tommorow a few scores to settle.    

boyhood burns revisited

My midweek idea of going to a rather special loch up north for the first trip of the season didn't materialise ,i guess after another busy week at work i couldn't be bothered with the thought of an early start and a long drive, a more leisurely start to the day on one of the local rivers sounded a lot more appealing. Col was cool with this and the only decision left to make was which river, I fancied a session on Cols local and i think Col fancied a cast on my local river as it often throws up a big trout early season. As it turned out mother nature would have the final say and on friday we got some light but persistent rain, the first rain in weeks infact!, just in time for the first weekend of the season and enough to colour up both rivers and make them more or less unfishable.
Our plan B was to have a look at some of the burns in the area in the hope that they would be running a bit clearer.First we had a look at the burn i cut my teeth on as a boy, as soon as i set my eyes on it again i felt a strong urge to fish there again and rediscover all pools i used to fish regularily after school.But first we had a look at another burn a few miles up the road which contains some better than average trout , on arrival it was still running dirty and unfishable but in truth i was pleased when we found ourselves back on my boyhood burn!

 Rather than taking two rods we shared Cols wee 2 wt which was a joy to use and the perfect tool for  fishing the burn. It took us a while to get into our stride but once we discovered the trouts liking for a nymph with a wee bit of sparkle in the slightly coloured water we started to have some success  with the wee but beautifully marked trout.

in some tricky spots a catapult cast was required and when this resulted in a fish it was a great feeling!

wee picked up a few fish here and there

it was nice to rediscover such a gem of a burn, looking forward to next time.

With a couple of hours to spare we took a short trip in the car to the third burn of the day, another  boyhood gem with deeper pools and a peaty tinge to the water.  Col hooked up in the first pool we fished

and a few more followed

we must have a full day on this burn soon!

The glorious 15th

The winter past was mild, now as we head into spring the trees have been budding some things flowering, the daffodils have been out for weeks and the snow drops have passed there best, and..... the trout are rising! 

Today was the first day of the new season , spoilt for choice i couldn't decide which river to do, but opted in the end for my local, which i knew had turned the corner into spring with the numbers of fish rising.

Had a few things to do first , walk the dog and pick up a parcel but i was on the river by 12pm. it was a cold start with some light mist and a light wind , which was strong enough to be troublesome at times  casting a dry fly upstream. While waiting on a hatch or rise to materialise, i fished a couple of runs  with the nymphs unsuccessfully, then stumbled across a few risers in the  tail of a pool.

they liked the look of my olive flexi- klink.

 despite the mild winter, many fish are still coming into condition. It was now 12:30  , things were starting to happen

riser

with the odd olive Dun coming off,  though it was apparent  the fish had eyes for the emergers, i moved upstream as quick as i could to take out what was rising , missed a few , lost a few , but also caught my share.

 One memorable fish was one that refused again and again my biot klink, a wee change of fly to a  TB deerhair emerger did the trick.

 No monsters but good to get back in the groove, i packed in at 4:30pm fairly tired but contented.

a night for traditionals

With the possibility of a loch trip next weekend i thought i would tye up a few traditionals tonight.

First one was the jc ace of spades

next an olive dabbler

the clan chief

palmered march brown

olive straggle dabbler

and a good old bibio

what a mess i had made by the time i finished that lot!