seasons end

In all honestly I didn't think I would be fishing for trout again this season, but with much needed rain at the end of last week I had a change of heart today and decided to check out a local burn, i wasn't sure if it would be fishable or not but there's only one way to find out. Sure enough it was running high with a tinge of colour but it looked ok.

working the slacks and side streams with a big klinky/tan glister bug duo seemed to work a treat in the stained water and soon i had brought a few trout to hand

this was the theme for the day with most pools producing a trout or two, i worked my way upstream a good distance, its not the easiest stream to walk, some dodgy wading and a lot of scrambling through the undergrowth, but its worth the effort!

at the back of five i had to call it a day and face the torturous walk back downstream to the car, that's definitely it for this season now, but it was nice to end it on one of my favorite local burns.

coming out of the summer doldrums?

Yesterday morning i was having a look at the sepa river level site to see if the recent rain had made any difference to the summer lows we have just now, by chance i clicked on a perthshire stream which looked like it had rose a little in height,  not having fished it for some time now i was keen to give it try.

  its a beautiful stream to fish,  rocky with fast pocket water and pacey pools

i took the first of the day on the nymph

campanula  are one of my favorites on the bankside at this time of year

the cdc & elk, klink and nymph all took their share,  nothing big but great fun.

yella fella

  

it was great to be out fishing again, a bit more rain in the remaining couple of months of the sesaon would be nice, not to much mind you!

single lady

I had Sunday afternoon free so thought I would pay the grayling burn a visit, as Col was saying in a recent post it's grayling have proved hard to find this year for some reason, maybe water quality? I don't know but recent spates have certainly cleared out a lot of the silt and on this day it was running low and as clear as I have seen it.

from the first pool I was pleased to land a nice grayling on a tan glister bug



   still some ice in the shade

my hopes were high in the next few good pools but I never got another touch, not that I was feeling too disheartened, just being on the river on a fine winter afternoon was enough for me, and ive got a feeling that the Grayling will put in an appearance again at some point. 

Winter Account Open

Not been doing much fishing of recent , mainly due to the weather , work and other matters. A few hours this afternoon allowed for a shot at the grayling burn, no question about it the grayling have been notable by their absence this year, the last two visits I have resulted in a grayling lost at the net each time.

This afternoon the burn looked great plenty water and good clarity, in fact the silt seems to have been flushed away in the high water, the water though was cold, and last nights hard frost was still evident throughout the afternoon .

 I set up Nz style first with a size 14 blister bug under a dirty Polly, but after searching a nice looking bit in the first pool I decided to up the size of the glitter bug to a size 10 , with immediate result.

A grayling a real sight for sore eyes, and for once it didn't come off  at the net.

I continued upstream for a few pools with renewed optimism, but apart from a hat trick of out of season browns that found a liking for the nymph , no more grayling were forth coming. still theres always next time.

drawing to a close

With the season drawing to a close tomorrow I spent a final afternoon on my favourite local burn, some pictures.

A day on the Burns

Felt like a cast with the wee rod today so decided on a burn i had yet to wet a line on this season, known locally as the yellow burn . Its just a short stroll from the grayling burn so i intended  to give that some attention at some point too.

The  water was low the fish incredibly spooky and it was difficult to get close to any fish without emptying the pool of scared trout. The broken water was the best bet , otherwise it was a case of doing the best i could with a long leader on the flat flow- less pools but the odds were definitely in the trouts favour.
 

A yellow trout from the yellow burn

  Here and there a few little trout were caught .

 After a few hours on this burn i headed for the grayling burn. On arrival  it appeared low and coloured and apart from a few dropped fish on the first few pools , i felt it wasn't going to produce , so I decided to head downstream to where the main tributary joins it and fish above a couple of large pools. 

Finding these pools to access from the path proved difficult but i finally found the river after clambering my way through some dense undergrowth . The water looked great , but it was really quite dour, it came as no surprise though as this stretch does have a reputation as being poor.

I fished away and it came as a bit of a shock when i finally hooked into a fish.

It continued being really quite poor until suddenly the fishing picked up. In one particular pool i picked up around five  browns  , maybe grouping up for spawning?

The last pool of the day produced the best fish .

last pool

It had been a tough days fishing , but what great weather we are still experiencing, long may it continue.

Hangover cure

I hadn't really gave it much thought where I would be fishing this weekend, added to that I wasn't feeling particularly lively yesterday morning with a bit of a hangover to be honest. When I eventually got myself going I decided that somewhere local would suit fine so in the end I had a look at the grayling burn.

It was a fine afternoon, perhaps not for fishing with the bright sunshine, but days like these are numbered now so it was nice to fish in short sleeves again before the cooler temperatures kick in. The pool I start of on nearly always produces a trout and today was no different when an acrobatic pounder managed to shed the dirty polly from its jaws.  I continued on my way upstream fishing some normally productive pools without a touch, with very little fly life on the water there wasn't a riser to be seen, then in the head of a shaded pool the dirty polly shot under and I struck into to a weighty trout which had taken the glister nymph.

I never got another touch after that but was contented taking in the early autumn  colours.

hawthorn leaves

I fished up to a pool not to far from where the car was parked so at that point decided to up sticks and take a look at another burn not to far away.

Being heavily tree lined this burn offers more shade, and from the off the trout were in taking mood



 a couple of hours passed as I worked my way up a small section of this beautiful wee burn

 it had been a great afternoon and better still my hangover had well and truly gone!

A borders burn, bridges and brown trout

It would be a great shame if we didn't cast a line on this lovely borders burn all season, and with time rapidly running out as this stream closes at the end of September we took our chance yesterday.

From the car we walked down to where the burn enters the main river where we bumped into a fellow angler setting up his double hander for a crack at the salmon. He didn't seem to fancy our chances too much on the burn as he thought it was now devoid of trout and grayling, a shadow of what it used to be twenty years ago etc etc!. We listened politely before continuing on our way, not in the slightest bit worried about his assessment of the burn as having fished it a couple of times in recent years we knew that it is absolutely stuffed with trout, not sure about the grayling  population  mind you not having encountered any on our previous visits, maybe that's what he meant ?

 From the off it was clear we were in for an action packed day with most pools producing several takes both to the dry and nymph from the small but eager trout.

one of many bridges on this stretch

mint of some sort?

I said to Col early on that a pound trout would be a fine goal for the day, the pounder was proving to be elusive however amongst the numerous wee trout, but late in the afternoon Col shouted from a pool above me and I could see him playing a good fish which cleared the air during battle, the pounder we had been after and a what a handsome trout he was too!

speaking of elusive fish I hooked what felt like a slightly better than average trout  compared what I had been catching up to that point, as I drew the fish closer I could see that it wasn't a trout after all, but a nice wee grayling at last!

its a shame this stream isn't open during  the winter months for the grayling as it would make a nice wintertime venue.