Back on Talking Terms

I knocked my pan in yesterday putting up a fence, sore and knackered after weilding a sledge hammer i took the day off, with a relaxing bit of fishing in mind. With Brian finding his rare "window of opportunity" being productive i decided to try the same burn . I must confess i had almost given up on this water of recent and was already for abandoning any ties i have with it , as the last few times I've went to fish it has been too coloured , it seems it such a lottery .I think it actually runs clearer when it's carrying extra water.

Perenial Aster

It was a pretty dull day , made me think maybe the glister nymphs wont work.  but i tackled up with a klink and a size 12 glister nymph hung underneath . First few pools nothing , not even a riser , then i came to a big pool. A wee dimple rise suggested a  smutting grayling  i cast something took the nymph and instantly through the hook, then a fish rose again i replaced the nymph with a size 16 black klink and was rewarded with my first grayling of the new season a wee beauty a real delight to see.

For some reason there and then i decided to change flies, resorting to old tried and tested for this burn , on went a size 14 glister nymph and on a dropper (not the usual NZ tied to the bend method) i fished a size 12 CDC and elk. Instantly my fortunes had changed as i struck into a good fish on the nymph , i thought it might be a trout as it was scrapping but no turned out to be a fine grayling of 1 1/4lb.

That's kind of the way the rest of the day went, the grayling were right in the mood , Some good ones too 4 of which went over the pound, interestingly all the better fish took the nymph , where as the smaller ones seemed to prefer  the dry.

Back on talking terms again with this burn, as moody as it can be it has it's good days and today was one of these.