When the Hawthorns appear

A day off today and an opportunity to go fishing. Was keen to go for trout today been a while since I have done being hampered by less than ideal conditions. Today an easterly blew and when i arrived at the river at the back of 12 pm very little was happening , what was evident though was the masses of hawthorn in the undergrowth.

Hawthorn fly

The fishing was slow and when i arrived at the pool i was really looking forward to i was moved on by two guys who had been waiting for the hatch to materialise i left them the pool and  headed further upstream. For about the next hour i didn't see much but once the olives finally put in a appearance the odd trout started to show  i started picking them off on shucked cdc's , and it was nice to see a few nice fish put in a appearance.

shucked cdc

Continuing upstream through some brambly terrain i came to a nice looking slow pool and near its tail a fish was rising under a tree.

 I eventually fooled the fish in to taking the shucked cdc , at first i didn't realise its size until I laid eyes on him , he behaved himself mostly just jagging away left and right , that's until he caught sight of me with a out stretched arm and a net , then he woke up and went ballistic taking line , and taking to the air , eventually though he tired and i managed to scoop him up.

He went 2 1/2 lb in the weigh net.

I was pleased to land such a fine fish. It had been a fine day to cast a fly. Now  I've really got to spend some time at the vice as stocks are getting low, might do a few hawthorn imitations too im sure its just a matter of time before the trout start picking  them off.

violas

golden arches

On the Quayside (following scotts footsteps)

Thursday was my day off , i didn't know what to do , the rivers were swollen and the winds have been pretty strong recently luckily though they've mostly been westerlies ,so i decided to have a go down at Dunbar , and have a go with my increasing stash of lrf gear. This is actually my second visit a few weeks ago i had my first i had a few flounder but felt i never truly set the heather on fire i did though use some new tackle  cheburaska wit a trailing size 10 hook .  put directly on a size 10 hook , i managed a few follows , but it wasn't until going drop shot i got a couple of flounder on pink isome and gulp angle worm.

On this visit though i took a few tips from Scott Hutchinson's excellent blog something fishy going on  . The one thing i took was how he made his own assist hooks for using with the cheburashkas . I quickly made a few up before heading out the door . To be honest i wasn't sure what to expect when i got there and if it was going to be a complete waste of time with the sea state , but i was glad to see good clarity although it was quite gusty in the main harbour . I started off  in a corner of the harbour, the water was fairly shallow using the cheburashka and a size 10 assist I managed a wee flatty not sure if its flounder or plaice to be honest.

I carried on hoping for flatty no.2 but noticed the wee fellaes in pursuit of my slowly jigged angleworm , but felt the hook was to big , so i fashioned a few size 18 owner pin hook assist's from a small loop of nylon  , it worked pretty well.

think this ones a wee plaice

a few more little flatties followed before i decide to move again , this time to the inner most harbour. On arrival the sport was red hot , continuing with my same cheburaska size 18 hook with a red angle worm my first 4 casts resulted in fish , some even required the use of a drop net .

It was great fun i even managed a couple on my new crazyfish tipsy worms.

It was great fun , till the sport subsided about a hour approaching high tide, i then tried dropshotting to try and get another fish but it was pretty dead. looking forward to more LRF type trips , particularly wrasse fishing during the summer when it finally arrives.