Jewels in the Stream (also rod review)

I was planning on doing a review on a recent purchase , i was needing a new loch rod  ,so with lots of praise for this brand   i bought a Flextec streamtec 9'6" #6 , and also a 6'6" #3 of the same model  . These are auctioned on ebay by tacklediscounts for a buy it now price of £79.99 or you can get them in the auction as i did for   £40 or less.

Streamtec 6'6" #3

 Today (now yesterday) i decided to give the wee 6'6" rod a go . My first impressions were good , it comes packaged in a tube and sock , and  looks strikingly similar to a greys stream-flex , only  obvious difference and a nice touch was the coppery coloured fly keeper which compliments the olive/brown blank , and ofcourse the price tag , the cork quality is very good, couldn't fault it cosmetically apart from a few bits epoxy on the snakes , which i removed with my nail.
    Now to the fishing . I decided to give the rod its first outing on a proper wee burn. Spoilt for choice i wasn't  sure which burn to choose , so decided to sample two local burns , the Murieston water and the Linhouse water.

Below the confluence

The Murieston water meets the Linhouse at midcalder and then meets the main river the Almond  perhaps only a hundred yards or so from there confluence.

The Confluence

First of all i fished the short stretch below where the waters meet , i used  a glister bug under a klink and it didn't take long for the stream-tec to break it's duck. A typical wee brownie.

At the cofluence i decided to head up the Murieston water first , what a smashing wee burn this is , with equally beautiful little trout.

Big pool on murieston water

Murie burn trout (smudged red spots)

After fishing a hundred yards or so i turned back downstream and fished up the Linhouse. The Linhouse is the bigger of the two burns , and perhaps the peatier of the two . It too fished predictably well producing many lovely little brownies typically decorated with lots of smudged  red spots.

Linhouse weir

Despite being near some major cities , the air is clean as proved by the presence of lichens , and its a great escape, in fact I'm sure some folks wont realise just whats on there doorstep, miles and miles of beautiful countryside. , and i was content breathing in the beauty and solitude the stream offered, enjoying a lunch by a rock after landing my best trout of the day.

Ginger beer and "mans chocolate"

The rest of the day continued in the same vain. As for the rod , really like it , it may not be every ones cup of tea though as it's pretty fast , but i can see myself using this rod a fair bit.  These rods present exceptional value for those looking for a new fly rod and have many differing sizes in the range  .

making the most of it

With no fishing on the horizon for me this weekend today would be my last chance to wet a line until next week. After dropping my wife off at the airport this morning i had one or two other chores to deal with which left me with a few hours of fishing time before the kids finished school. I arrived at the burn before noon to find it running clear and a good bit lower than on my previous visit.

 encouragingly there were a few olives kicking about and the odd riser to go for, the size 12 klink seemed to be to their liking taking most of the trout today with the brown wire nymph picking up a couple too.

  the biggest of the day rose under an overhanging tree, after missing him first cast on the klink he took the nymph on the second  putting up a great scrap until i slid the net under him .

he was in great condition

i've passed this welly boot a few times now, hope there's nobody attached to the other end!

it was nice to see a Grayling putting in an appearance, they've been hard to come by on this stream of late

all to soon i had ran out of time and had to head home for school finishing, next week can't come soon enough!

Easter Monday Evening

After dinner tonight i hummed and hawed as to whether i should go out fishing or not as i was feeling a bit tired after another busy day at work, but you know what its like, once the decision was made to go i quickly gathered my gear together and was on my chosen burn by the back of six with a new lease of life!

first impression of the burn was that i had made a big mistake as the clarity didn't look great, but then a trout jumped in the pool above so maybe it would be ok after all?  first cast and the big klinky i had on dipped and i struck into a lively trout which had taken the glister bug.

 this turned out to be the way of it with the glister bug proving to be quite effective taking a few more trout in the slightly murky water.

calthia

 as the evening wore on sport went quite as i fished a couple of good pools which i thought would produce a trout or two but didn't!

there was only another two or three pools on the stretch left to fish so i thought i might as well give them  a try anyway before heading home, it proved to be worth while sticking it out as i hooked into a bigger trout which thrashed about the pool, a long lean fella which made a good evening even better.

another wee trout followed in the last pool, on a wooly bugger this time, the first trout ive taken in ages on a lure, got back to the car just before nine, the evening fishing has started!

Gale force trout

It was blowing a hoolie today , wasn't  sure what river to fish  but settled on my local as i thought it would be more sheltered. First thing to do was walk my dog , and thats when i get my first glance of the river it was looking at a good height though the wind was hitting it , the wood pecker was busy drumming on the telegraph pole , looking to attract a mate.

  It wasn't to bad down in the river valley , i walked downstream a while doing so could not help myself  having a shot at the odd riser .

The main hatch has been getting underway of late till about 2pm  so i waited till then and fished my way back upstream . Surprisingly it was a fairly sparse hatch today though it wasn't as warm day  and perhaps the wind worked against me but i managed around a dozen trout , and a even a few after the brief hatch on the nymph  ,its niceto see some trout starting to look "mint" condition.

starting to feel things are getting there now , and im sure it will only be a few weeks away before we get a much longer day fishing , which is nice , usually find a few fish as early as 11am  with even the prospect of finding a few evening risers.

the wind, the rain and the trout

After a disappointing day on a river further afield on Saturday I was keen to get out again this afternoon to try and redeem myself, this time fishing a local burn. Like yesterday the downstream wind was proving to be a total nuisance, I was having great difficulty getting my cast to land where I intended it too, getting caught up on overhanging branches etc in the process, to make matters worse the rain decided to team up with the wind,  momentarily i thought i might have been better off staying in the house listening to the football instead!

despite this the burn had decent clarity and was running at a good height,  as i made my way upstream i started to pick up a few trout in between the bad casts, all falling to the good old brown wire nymph with one or two having a go at the dirty polly on the surface.

blue ting on the gill cover

  this pounder put up a great scrap on the six footer, careering about the pool,  jumping several times before i got him in the net.

next pool up produced another nice trout

not that i knew much about him, he was on when i lifted off at the end of a cast

he was the last fish of the afternoon before i went home, contented having found a few trout. 

headwaters in the high water

After work this afternoon i was keen to get my fishing fix, only trouble was the rain this week had left my local river not only high but dirty too,  i didn't think the burns would be fairing much better to be honest but thought it would be worth having a look at the upper reaches of one that  might be ok. I parked up the car and went down for a wee look, pleasingly it looked good, it was running high and peaty but definitely worth a try!

My intention was to walk downstream a bit before fishing my way back up, but i couldn't resist having a cast in this pool first.

after a few casts the glister bug worked its magic in the peaty water,  still a little thin but most welcome.

  

  downstream this pool was red hot with several trout coming to both the nymph and the klinky.

i don't  think ive fished this stretch in at least twenty years, some of it never!

by the time i had fished my way back to the car i had managed to bring a fair few trout to hand, on a day that was looking hopeless elsewhere. There's a lot more of this stretch to be discovered, i'll keep it up my sleeve for  a rainy day.