Splodging about!

Should've known better, than to step out the house. But somehow i didn't think the burns would be that badly affected by the rain. So when i saw it though i was surprised it was fair pushing through , so much so that a burn that would normally tickle my ankles was a raging torrent that i would not wade.

So i went to look for slack water. It was scarce, but on a bend i eventually found an eddy .

So i spent some time here. First i tried big dries , then i put on a olive fritz  bugger , and picked up a brace of trout.

After that it was time for home . Too wet!

On a highland stream

A longish  journey down narrow singletrack roads eventually saw us at out Chosen location.It is simply Stunning!

It took us a while to find our stride but eventually we started getting takes .Brian was first of the mark with this wee fellae.

I then took a trout in the next pool , then Brian was in again.

After landing a fish of 3/4lb, we both went through a bad spell of dropping and breaking off in fish some  good ones too.
Then there was a group of falls we didnt fish any of these pools but above them the river seemed to change character . The pools were fewer but pocket water was plentiful, I took atrout imediately above the falls then Brian no concentrating dropped what i think was a better  fish on the nymph. In to the pockets where i decided to fire on a stimulator and it was working great taking a good number of fish from the pocket water up to a pound.

Then i heard" awwwwww! Massive!" Followed by hurling his rod into the bankside. Brian had been bust by a big troot, atleast 3lb on his stimulator !
The rain came on pretty heavy , we never had jackets and we got soaked! It'll be a while before we return to this haven , but there is some revenge to be saught with these troots a few more troots landed would have made this trip one to remember, as it stands maybe it will haunt us. 

A Muggy Night

Very hot, even though overcast today. The grass is always greener, is a phrase that is fitting . Ive neglected my local recently, don't know why probably because it's the school holidays, and theres a good chance of bumping into undesirables. Anyway tonight i decided to go to a stretch which was my favourite a few years ago. Other stretches seem to have more attraction to me and to most, but tonight i wanted soltitude, as i do on most ocassions.   I fished NZ style with the occasional chuck with the wooly bugger, there was a slight stain in the water although the further upstream i went it did seem to get clearer, but it was enough to convince me that a prince nymph would be a better bet than the usual wire nymph . Finding a decent sized fish has been difficult on the river this season , yes theres been plenty pounders but nothing much better. The prince nymph started picking up fish from the off, my second fish fought hard, and it was a belter, just a shade under 2lb , it had a fly in it's mouth a wire nymph, turns out my pal Gary lost it the day before!

Just shy of 2lb

Had plenty other fish of a good stamp, mainly to the nymph but the odd one on the klink. Despite the muggy conditions there was no great hatch and risers were relatively scarce.

1 3/4lb

A good stamp

feeling hot hot hot!

It was roasting and windless , and thats how we felt when we walked down to the bottom of the beat. It was worth the walk though as we were straight into fish i had one about 3/4lb then lost another. The next pool Brian had one about 3/4lb. Things were going well.

Next pool i had a succesion of wee trout and the net again Brian lost a trout,then landed this beauty of 1 1/4lb.

We headed up to the next pool and in the distance we saw another angler! I blanked in that pool,infact the next mile or so did'nt produce at all. Some of these rivers are soooooo sensitive to pressure, though other factors may have been at cause here such as the bright/hot conditions. At the top of the beat we once again got fish after leap frogging another angler (turned out to be a nice fellae from the wild fishing forum) and we caught a few but it was time to go home. Not the most succesful fishing day , but you've got to have the odd bad trip, just  makes the next good one more appreciated.

Oh B*llocks!

Sunday 24th
The return leg to the mountain river. Unlike Thursday the water had lost a bit pace the day was bright , maybe too bright, and hot and we had a downstream breeze to contend with. We started fishing at about 1:30pm. We planned to take a fish a turn, It all started well , when Brian hooked and  lost a fish  then shortly after was into another, it went 1lb 2oz and had taken the klink .

So things were looking up , my turn next , a few casts in my klink dipped and i lifted into a  fish , another fish of 1lb 2oz.

Brian then had another in the fast head on a wooly bugger . A good start to the day.

Buggered!

On to the next pool, it was a pool i'd done well on , on Thursday. Good presentation though was problematic with the wind, i did however get a response from what looked to be a better than normal fish, which looked or maybe even took the nymph all i saw was a yellow shape lift in the current, but i struck into fresh air . In retrospect maybe ishould not have struck at all . As in the next pool a fairly featureless one there was a riseer just above a crease in shallow water. I decided to fish the crease first , and first cast a fish seemed to swing round and  follow the flies for 5-6 yards or so downstream, both of us seen this, the reason why we seen it became apparent,  2 casts later when i hooked into a good fish, and it was big!

The battle

He was played out , and ready for netting , confidence had just started to kick in with visions of glory when for no reason the tippet broke at the nymph. we estimated the fish as a long lean  +3lb' er. I was gutted, it would have been my best fish from this river.
After that we seemed to go through a catching lull . Although there was one pool which is normally crap which Brian had about 5 , other good pools though didnt produce  it was odd , the stimulators had a swim and did manage a fish or two. By 8pm we headed home, i was a bit sore with the lost fish , but you can't complain about the quality of fish we did land. All in all it was a enjoyable day as ever in good company. 

Early evening

Dark fish (deep pool)

Fly life

A few brief flings on the canal

Had a few wee casual sessions on the canal , jabbed  lost some very  good roach, the hook just didn't quite catch hold, had my first Rudd on the fly on Friday.

 

Today was the better day the sun was out .Here's the best i landed. I took the longer 7ft 6" rod and got on better with it, more accuracy and easier to avoid the bank side vegetation!

fat roach

Great Expectations

A whole day free! I had this trip planned in my head for the last fortnight. A river with a good stamp of fish , reasonable numbers. But for the first 3 hours i went fishless. At 12pm  i caught a tiny fish on a klink, then in the next pool up i was just about sleeping going through the pool, when a fish rose, eventually my brain told me to strike! A wee yellow  pounder came kicking to the net.

My fortunes were changing although the river was dead, i started picking up the odd fish , a couple too 1 1/4lb,

Lean fish

Fighting fit!

but the water was a shadow of it's potential self. It was carrying a bit more water and the water was cold, although crystal clear and this is my theory for it fishing poorly. There was a wee hot spell between 5:30pm   -6;30pm where i managed a few trout from water i had previously fished earlier in the day fruitlessly. I'll be back fishing it again on Sunday with Brian hopefully the trout will look up!

camouflage