Delayed spring in the highlands

Today i decided to sample one of our favourite highland streams , just to see if it had woken up yet as this elongated spring continues. i was relieved the water was fishable though it was carrying a little more water than usual , but it was still crystal clear, though very cold compared to our lowland waters . Some plant life in the wood was also slow to get going the wood anemones had still to fully open, and in abundance were the pale yellow primroses, one of our first spring flowers and quite abundant in this area.

primula vulgaris

The trees though were much the same as ours back home some were bare some budding others starting to bare the odd leave .

in the wood

  some other flowers were also keeping pace with the lowlands.

cuckoo flower

early forget me not

The fishing though was slow and the familiar downstream wind was present,  although in the pool i started on it looked promising as i turned a fish in the first pool. After that though it just wasn't happening despite one or two upwings hatching, the water felt dead. I came to a big slow pool and found a riser, he took my biot klink, first cast and i took a further 3 of similar size in that area.

it was good to get the blank out the way, but after those fish, it went back to its dour state, only rising another fish in a massive paceless pool. Eventually i came to this pool, the last pool i intended to fish.

Its a pool that's been fairly kind to me in the past and today it surrendered one of its occupants. He took the brown wire nymph.

This is the sort of fish i was searching for today, a real toothy highland brute . I think i'll leave it a couple of weeks before i return, it   really needs to warm up a bit yet which seems crazy considering we are into mid May . I crave the evenings fishing stimulators but that seems a long way away yet.