the sound of the Suburbs

Went to a wee burn on the outskirts of Livingstone, it flows through parkland by housing estates and in parts through heath-land . When i first laid eyes on the water i thought i'd made a bad decision, as there appeared to be quite a bit extra water in, but there was enough clarity, so itwas a day of fishing the slack water at the edges behind boulders etc, my flies i picked were the stimulator and good old glister bug.
My fears were put to bed when my stimulator dipped as a fish nailed the glister bug.

It was a reoccuring theme throughout the afternoon, with plenty modest sized brownies from this magic wooded burn.

As the afternoon wore on there seemed to be a bit more interest to the stimulator. Why that should be ive no idea .

This will be my last trip to the burns for almost six months with the close season looming. Good to finish on a positive note.

little gem's

Yesterday was my last opertunity to go fishing for a fortnight, so i made good use of the afternoon and nipped of to the "mossy stone burn" for a few hours. I've fished this burn from a young age and it hasn't changed much in that time, whenever i visit here it feels like stepping back in time, back to being a boy again.

I have fond childhood memory's of catching minnows from this very pool which we called Contentibus, reason being that that was the name of an old farm in the area i think.

the trout havent changed either, each one of them a colourful little gem and a joy to catch

The banks are heavily overgrown making casting a challenge in places, it was satisfying when a tricky cast resulted in a trout slamming into the big stimulator, equally annoying when a fluffed  cast resulted in a tree branch! 

theres something man made about this waterfall, a sign of an industrial past? 

one on the klink

   

time was moving on but i kept on saying to myself, just one more pool! another hour of fun passed before i thought i better negotiate my way back downstream to the car.

ideally i would like to get dropped off  and spend the day working my way upstream, then get picked up at the other end. No time for that now this season but something to look forward to next year. 

The simple things...

Locally we have a fair number of burns each of them have there very own bit of character differant water quality and moods.

The first burn i hoped to fish today is a moody water, it is though more often or not very coloured  days where it is fishable are hard to time , i reckon it's just after a spate  as it's falling back to normal level it's at it's best but even then it can be a lottery. It does though have the novelty of a grayling population which is probably the main reason i fish it though i must admit the urge is weaning.I gave it a hour before deciding it was just too dirty, so headed 1/2 a mile along the road to fish a neighbouring burn.

This burn was running perfect.  With a slight peat stain. 

Mainly fished klinks and glister nymphs and there was plenty willing takers in brilliant techni-colour.

 I headed further upstream as i did  the burn lost a few small tributaries and naturally the fishing got tighter, due to undergrowth and trees encroaching on the small pockets of water. Here the catapult cast was useful , and it really gave a great sense of satisfaction when all went to plan .

 Here the fish seemed to be that bit smaller though none the worse for it .

Awwe!

 

but here and there there was still the odd better fish lying in wait .

what a refreshing  way to spend a afternoon.

silver and gold

This morning didn't start very well, i was as usual totally unorganised for my fishing trip, first i couldn't find one of my rods, searching everywhere in the house before finding it hidden underneath some other rods in the same place that it usually is! and then there was my camera which i hadn't lost but the battery needed charged, eventually after a lot of grumpiness i got my  gear loaded into the car before heading north. I decided to fish a lovely stream that i hadn't fished for two or three years now and  picked up my permit before heading to my favourite stretch.

There's a parking spot near the river but on arrival i noticed another car was already parked there, damn! i fished one or two normaly good pools close by without a touch,not a good sign, there was no way i was going to waste my day fishing water that had possibly been fished already so i decided to cut my losses. I jumped back into the car and travelled to the river Col was fishing earlier on in the week.

The first pool i fished  has been kind to me on my visits this season and today was no different.

The klinkhammer dipped and i struck into a weighty fish which shot of downstream and cleared the water two or three times just to add to the excitment! i kept him in check and soon had a long lean fish of 2lb 10oz in the net, im not so sure it's a trout though, a wee salmon?

   i worked my way upstream taking a fish here and there, including this fighting fit pounder which had a very unusual lower jaw

 a usualy fairly dour pool produced a lovely golden pound and a halfer on the klink

followed by another nicely marked trout of similar size, again on the klink

shades of autumn 

 1lb 4oz on the klink again, there was a decent enough hatch today

 a fine day to be on the river

the last trout before walking back to the car at the back of six, a tiring but enjoyable day.

Panic Fishing (gutted)

Had to make the next trip a trout one what with only a couple of weeks left of the season. So i headed North to a highland stream. What was noticable today was how cold it was this morning. just the usual NZ searching set up as there was nor fish nor fin showing. The fish were distributed in wee groups you would get 3-4 fish then nothing even in promising looking lies for the next 100 m of river or so.  It was though fish from the start , mainly sport with  small dark fish ,  then a nicely spotted one of 1 1/4lb.

Last pool of the day i was covering a rise (there were not many all day )  and a big yellow trout came out the depths  between me and the rise form rudely interupting and taking the dry , i struck and it was on, the rod soaked up the strike and  two lunges then just as i was starting to see flashing  images of success (always a dangerous thing) the fly popped out, i was absolutely gutted , it would have been a good send off so close to the  end of the season   , i guestimate the fish  at a lean 4lb+ but a  long scottish slimmers fish for that . Bugger!

solitude on a mossy stoned burn

Yesterday i managed to sneak away for a couple of hours fishing in the late afternoon, i decided to go to a gem of a wee burn that's only a short drive away in the car but nicely tucked away from the urban sprawl. Once i had fought my way through the thick undergrowth to get into the river the view upstream was pleasing to the eye, the peat stained water was flowing at a favourable height with lots of nice pocket water to fish among the moss covered stones, and no shortage of deep heavily overgrown pools to explore.

     i went with the stimulator and glister bug combo and it wasn't long before i got some reaction from the resident trout.

it's amusing to watch the trout smash into the big stimulator, i failed to hook them all except one which was a better than average trout, unfortunately he threw the hook when he cleared the water. Perhaps i should have put on a smaller fly to increase hook ups but i just love the way the trout attack the stimulator so kept it on. The glister bug was seeing plenty of  action too with the small but beautifully marked trout.

All to soon it was time to head home with the light beginning to fade,  but i enjoyed my couple of hours of solitude on this mossy stoned burn.

Flattie Bashing in Fife

Back on our favourite Flounder beach we arrived at 8:30am just before low tide . Once the tide changed the bites started to come thick and fast a quickly we were getting plenty fish.

The wind got up a few hours into fishing , and sport  slowed so we decided on a move , but that proved fruitless so we went back to our usual spot and again we started getting fish again.

Double shot

 Bites were hard to detect in the wind , regular checks were required to see if anything had taken the fish baits. One bite that was noticeable though was a thump on my rod followed by a slack line , i reeled in felt the fish saw it jump and thought i was into a bass, but no it turned out to be a seatrout!

After that as the tide came in we knew in our hearts time was up despite it being 2 hours till high tide, for some reason it seems to stop producing once the water gets so high up the beach.

So our tally was 17 flounder and a single seatrout . We kept 3 flounders from our catch today , brian kindly donated his catch, and tonight i had a flounder feast of Southern fried flounder gougons, and Flounder in a lemon and black crushed pepper breadcrumb gougons. It was delicious!

signs of autumn

The little burn i was fishing today was showing some subtle signs of autumn, with the help of the wind the last day or two, leaves are begining to build up on the banks and side streams.

    the overnight rain had affected the water clarity, but a wee glister bug seemed to get noticed by the hungry trout in the murky water

with lots of nice pools and runs to fish, it made for a fun afternoon

all trout fell for the charms of the glister bug although one or two did have a go at a big stimulator!

biggest of the day was a fine trout of around 12oz

it sure beats going to work!