Magnificent

On the way to the river today the temperature was only reading 6 in the car, hardly warm! and an east wind to go with it. On arrival we spotted another angler making his way upstream so we headed in the oppisite direction to the bottom of the stretch and sat and watched the river for a while. A sporadic hatch seemed to be under way already but there wasn't much in the way of risers, eventualy Col spotted a couple of fish to go for towards the tail of the pool, they seemed to be moving about a fair bit and feeding in short bursts, cut a long story short Col missed the first and i missed the second, never mind, can't win them all!
We made our way upstream looking for risers and nearly walked past the next fish which was going good style in a pool that i got a fish from a couple of weeks back, he was intercepting everything from a couple of close by bubble lanes. Col manovered himself carefully into position below the fish in order avoid drag and was ready to pounce on his next rise, the fish did rise but comicly Col had managed to catch the klinkhammer to one of his wading boots and had to sort himself out first! not to worry i could see from my vantage point that the trout was still rising away quite the thing' Col got his klink over him this time and all hell broke loose,  clearly this wasn't an average trout like what we thought it was!

Naturaly Col was keen to get him in the net but this fella wasn't going to give up without a fight and it seemed to take an age before i eventualy managed to slip the net under him, no pressure!

what a magnificent trout

we failed to find anymore steady risers after that, not helped by making the mistake of fishing miles of river only to disvover that it had already seen another couple of anglers. But in truth it didn't matter anyway, Col had  caught the fish of the day and most probably the season too! 

Yella fellas from a highland stream

Family holiday destinations are always carefully chosen to be near good fishing aren't they? this long weekend away was no exception, not only being close to one of my favourite lochs but also one of my favourite rivers, but fishing time was limited so where would it be? in the end the river won the day, not surprising really as i find myself on lochs less and less these days, the simplicity of working my way up a river with everything i need neatly tucked in my jacket seemed like a better option than mucking about with outboards, batteries etc, especially when fishing on my own.

Saturday was a family day out and on our travels i couldn't help but noticing a lovely looking burn that screamed FISH ME! we enjoyed our day  and i also picked up my permit for my river trip the following day, the shop in the village had a family of Mallards at the door which was nice to see

 In the afternoon Ruth and the kids were going swimming which isn't my thing so i was free to have a couple of hours on the burn.I worked my upstream fishing some lovely looking pockets and pools without so much as a take, disappointing as it looked so good, maybe just a bit to early in the season? never mind it was nice to have a cast with my new Norwich 7' 9'' which is a joy to use.

 think I'll pay the burn another visit in the summer and see how i get on then, it's got to be good!

Next again day Ruth dropped me of on my chosen river at about 12 ish, i was feeling a wee bit apprehensive about my chances after yesterday, maybe this river wouldn't have woken up yet either, thankfully my fears were short lived though when my klink dipped under in the first pool and i had a good fight from an acrobatic pound and a halfer, a good confidence booster!

 upstream another couple of trout took the brown biot klink

before i found myself connected to this beautiful yellow trout, a shade over 2lb's

what was turning out to be a great day got even better when my klink dipped in a favourite pool and i landed my biggest to date from this stream at 2lb 12oz, a wee bit on the thin side but what a fight!

another two followed from the same pool including another lovely yella fella of a pound and a half

i managed a couple more wee ones to round of a memorable days fishing before Ruth picked me up at 5ish, looking forward to the next trip on this lovely river.

Shattered!

Not an early start today, didnt get down till just after 1:30pm, but i think i timed it about right. I was set up by 1:45pm , and decided to get on with  fishing as a few fly were coming down , i went NZ style as nothing was rising and in the head of the first run , i struck into a trout, that was the pattern for the next few runs , then i had a pool  of rising fish , which fell for the dries.

Making my way up the next pool nothing stirred, i then realised why when i spotted another angler up ahead, a quick chat,  and i made my way past him left him a chunk of river before commencing fishing, by now the hatch had died and very few fish were on the fin.
just the occasional onceer which i spotted at distance, so i went back to the NZ style and it was quite effective taking a few from bubble lines.

By now i was heading into unfamiliar territory, as i headed upstream a few more fish began to rise, which again took the klink.

A great day fishing really enjoyed it , the fish are fighting hard! I  think i'll have to have another  look at some of these unfamiliar bits during a hatch, i'm sure they'll be productive! Home shattered , but looking forward to next weekend.

Spring has sprung

We were quietly excited about our first trip of the season on this beautiful river, conditions were looking ok with good cloud cover and only a light downstream wind to contend with, all we needed was a decent hatch of fly and a trout or two to go for.Once on the river it was nice to bump into fellow anglers Bri and Davie, we had a good blether before heading our separate ways.

 

 Its that time of year when the surrounding fields have these cute wee fellas in them

We patrolled the river on the look out for signs of the hatch starting and eventually with a few march browns and dark olives coming off  i spotted a steady riser at around 1.45 pm, i had a few attempts at him before Col changed my size 14 olive biot klink for 12 brown biot klink and bingo, a nice fish of around a pound and a half.

A good hatch of mainly march browns came on in the afternoon but still there were few risers to go for.

  what we did see rise were generally going good style and we got two or three more on the brown biot klink.

We met Bri and Davie again in the middle of the beat, they had also landed a couple of trout each including an escapee rainbow for Davie which had a full tail too. After  blethering for a while we went our separate ways and Col and i jumped in the car and drove to another stretch not to far away.

 My main objective was to have a look at my favourite pool on the stretch, by the time i got there it was now close to 4pm and there was no sign of any activity in the pool, i thought i may as well fish it blind and set up with a size 10 klink and a wire nymph suspended below to search the pool,  Col had just headed upstream to see if anything was happening up there when a trout boiled at my fly and i struck, at first i thought it must have taken the klink but no it was the nymph, and a big trout too! i shouted to Col but by now he must have been to far upstream to hear my call. A nervous fight took place and i was mightily relieved to finally get him in the net, at just over four and a half pounds i was over the moon!

another mini hatch of march browns seemed to get under way again and although the pool i was fishing was now jiggered with all the antics the pool below had a couple of trout on the feed, back to the usual size again!

It wasn't until this morning when i was looking at the pictures that i made this discovery, my biggest trout from last season came from the very same pool, a fine  but slightly leaner trout on the day of the royal wedding which weighed 3 lbs 12oz, looking at the markings I'm sure it's the same fish which now weighs over 4lb's 8 oz!

a wee video:

A Testing time for the Green burn

The main reason for this trip was to test out my 3 weight line on my two weight rod.  Didnt get there till 2pm but i think i timed it just right as a great hatch of fly came off , and in the flats you would get the occasional rise but 15 minutes or so in i reached a head and the volume of rising fish and hatch of flies was amazing, i picked , landed and a pricked them one by one, moving up the chaos resumed but within an hour it was largely all over with the odd riser . A good general stamp of fish and the line works much better on that wee rod than a 2 weight, just as i suspected.

Back on Familiar Territory

A novel rod holder

I met Brian at 12:15 pm on the bridge, we tackled up , a sunny day once again and the clarity of the water was good which is not surprising with the lack of rain, we  blethered mostly about the previous day and lessons learned, while we waited for the hatch, we then had a small burst of olives at 1pm, but a false alarm we sat a bit longer the decided to pick our way up fishing NZ style up the pool. all of a sudden at 1:45 the olives came down and  a few of these march browns .

 In the next wee pool  a fish rose at the top. Faced with a downstream wind i decided to take a couple of feet off my tapered leader and with that presentation was much improved . A few casts later i was in with a great take as the fish took the nymph almost as soon as it hit the water.

A fish of a round a pound.

 in the next pool we also had rising fish , and brian took the first on the dry.

 i then pricked 2 , then Brian landed another about a pound which gave a great account of it's self .

A few riseless pools later we did find a few more fish rising again i was on my long distance release which i'm becoming a expert at. after that Brian headed home as the water had gone dead while i tried a little further upstream , but nothing seemed to be in the mood. It was good while it lasted!

A Yellow warning for potential Snow has been issued  for Tuesday, it's hard to beleive after this spell of hot weather!