Slogging it out in the Borders

Fishing opportunities have been really difficult to come by off late with the atrocious weather we have been enduring  in the UK at the moment , so with river levels finally dropping, me and Brian thought we would make the most of the opportunity to wet a line on our favourite river . A fish or two would be nice but when we arrived and saw the river  our optimism was slightly jaded by the height of the river which generally doesn't fish so well when its high, but on the plus side it had good clarity .

While we tackled up we were  immediately faced with a chilling downstream breeze, three bugs and a egg fly tied to the point fly. In our first few pools due to the height of the water we could only fish off the bank but we drew a blank , then we decided to move to another pool , which was fishable and wadeable, we combed  the area thoroughly and methodically , in that time I managed to hook and lose a brace of modest fish , which was if anything encouraging  before we decided to rest the pool and return later.

We then tried an  area a few miles downstream , but again we drew a blank and our heads were starting to go down.
 After a roll and mars bar we mustered the enthusiasm to have another go. Eventually i had a take , and landed a wee grayling on my top dropper a pink beaded  wire nymph ,a small triumph and it just gave us that we bit of a boost to carry on.

Brian was next of the mark with the smallest grayling I've ever seen, again though despite it's size it gave us encouragement to carry on.

Eventually my spiral indicator straightened and i was into what felt like  a better  fish, it was confirmed when it rolled combing the surface with a big  red fringed  fin , revealing it was  a big male.

 It pulled the Mclean weigh net down to 2 1/2lb .  It put a smile on my previously tripping face .

What a sail! 

We tried hard for another as the light was starting to go, but there was no further action .It had been a tough day,  just hope the water gets a chance to drop by a foot or so for next time and perhaps the grayling will be more obliging .