It would be fair to say that my local river isn't my favourite place to fish, there are a lot of things about it which i hate.
The bank sides become an unnavigable jumble of wader wrecking brambles especially as the season advances
not to mention all the rubbish washed down from the town upstream, everything from shopping trolleys to old bikes and kitchen sinks.
the water quality isn't the best either with a lot of treated effluent giving the river a certain odour,not the most appealing place to fish really is it?
Having said all that i was reminded again yesterday why i still have a soft spot for this river, it's not all bad!
A Five Minute walk from my back door and i was fishing on this lovely big flat pool, and with a good hatch in full swing the trout were only to happy to play ball, Col's cdc shuck was deadly!
the trout fight hard
The bank sides are also colourful just now, nothing fancy but its not all brambles and hog weed.
mother Mallard and her young
I went home from the river contented , it's never going to match the streams we fish further afield in terms of beauty but it's has a certain something all of it's own.
We arrived down to the river an hour earlier than last week and sure enough there was a fly or two sailing downstream, despite a threat of the odd snowflake we sat and waited and waited chatted about nonsense too kill time.
Camouflage and concealment
Still nothing stirred, so we walked upstream , then back down again , and on the way back up Brian managed a wee trout, but it just wasn't happening generally, so we left for another stretch it was now 3:30pm , walking upstream we noticed the flies were coming down now in droves, Two fish were rising , i got myself in position stuck a klink over the bigger of the two but he didn't seem to like it, i think i put them down in the end. Brian ventured upstream but there were other anglers on the water so we decided to go elsewhere.
Brian decided to try a bit a few miles upstream , and i went downstream, and arranged to meet up again at 5:45pm. it was just after 4pm.
A pool on Brians stretch
I couldn't believe my luck a few fish rising one in particular a bit more mobile than the other two and making a bit more displacement. I covered the area a dozen times with a klink but he wasn't having any of it , the surface of the water now was peppered with what i think were medium olives, yet it was obvious the fish were feeding on the emerger rather than the duns , so i put on a CDC complete with a shuck and a few casts later , i hooked him. After a really good scrap i managed to net him.
Quite a long slightly lean trout that went a shade over 2lb. I bumped into a few other fish some wee ones i landed a few missed , but notably one monster , which i should have done better with he was going steady but nerves got the better of me. Time was getting on now so to meet Brian at 5:45pm i decided to go back up the beat, and on my way found another riser , in what was still a very good hatch. This one didn't mess around and took my shucked emerger first time.
1lb 12oz
I then met Brian back at his car.We briefly compared notes and despite a good hatch on his stretch not a single fin stirred . Heading down the road we had a look off a bridge spotted a few sporadic rises so Brian got the waders on again and we went to look for a steady riser.
risers
he got a brace before calling it a night a lot later than planned at 8:15pm .
A strange day maybe the night fishing has started or maybe the cold start delayed the hatch, whatever it seems a hard one to call. A wee session on the vice is needed for next time .
Myself and Brian managed to sneek in a wee trip on a wee burn on sunday, it was freezing , but we managed a few wee fish , mainly on nymphs though one or two did stick there nose out for a dry. I mentioned to Brian how i was hoping to see hawhorns and black gnats on the water , but i'm sure the weather stopped them hatching just a smattering of hardy olives put in a show.
Today i managed to steal a couple of hours, and today the hawthorns hatched in there millions it's just a pity the trout on my local dont seem to switch on to them as a food source prefering upwings, it's always been the way where as the wee burn we were on , on sunday are quite partial to these black beasties aptly called Bibio marci as they appear around St.Marks day.
Back to cold weather tommorow and into the weekend. Needing some heat we have a trip north in a few weeks time!
On the way to the river today the temperature was only reading 6 in the car, hardly warm! and an east wind to go with it. On arrival we spotted another angler making his way upstream so we headed in the oppisite direction to the bottom of the stretch and sat and watched the river for a while. A sporadic hatch seemed to be under way already but there wasn't much in the way of risers, eventualy Col spotted a couple of fish to go for towards the tail of the pool, they seemed to be moving about a fair bit and feeding in short bursts, cut a long story short Col missed the first and i missed the second, never mind, can't win them all!
We made our way upstream looking for risers and nearly walked past the next fish which was going good style in a pool that i got a fish from a couple of weeks back, he was intercepting everything from a couple of close by bubble lanes. Col manovered himself carefully into position below the fish in order avoid drag and was ready to pounce on his next rise, the fish did rise but comicly Col had managed to catch the klinkhammer to one of his wading boots and had to sort himself out first! not to worry i could see from my vantage point that the trout was still rising away quite the thing' Col got his klink over him this time and all hell broke loose, clearly this wasn't an average trout like what we thought it was!
Naturaly Col was keen to get him in the net but this fella wasn't going to give up without a fight and it seemed to take an age before i eventualy managed to slip the net under him, no pressure!
what a magnificent trout
we failed to find anymore steady risers after that, not helped by making the mistake of fishing miles of river only to disvover that it had already seen another couple of anglers. But in truth it didn't matter anyway, Col had caught the fish of the day and most probably the season too!
Family holiday destinations are always carefully chosen to be near good fishing aren't they? this long weekend away was no exception, not only being close to one of my favourite lochs but also one of my favourite rivers, but fishing time was limited so where would it be? in the end the river won the day, not surprising really as i find myself on lochs less and less these days, the simplicity of working my way up a river with everything i need neatly tucked in my jacket seemed like a better option than mucking about with outboards, batteries etc, especially when fishing on my own.
Saturday was a family day out and on our travels i couldn't help but noticing a lovely looking burn that screamed FISH ME! we enjoyed our day and i also picked up my permit for my river trip the following day, the shop in the village had a family of Mallards at the door which was nice to see
In the afternoon Ruth and the kids were going swimming which isn't my thing so i was free to have a couple of hours on the burn.I worked my upstream fishing some lovely looking pockets and pools without so much as a take, disappointing as it looked so good, maybe just a bit to early in the season? never mind it was nice to have a cast with my new Norwich 7' 9'' which is a joy to use.
think I'll pay the burn another visit in the summer and see how i get on then, it's got to be good!
Next again day Ruth dropped me of on my chosen river at about 12 ish, i was feeling a wee bit apprehensive about my chances after yesterday, maybe this river wouldn't have woken up yet either, thankfully my fears were short lived though when my klink dipped under in the first pool and i had a good fight from an acrobatic pound and a halfer, a good confidence booster!
upstream another couple of trout took the brown biot klink
before i found myself connected to this beautiful yellow trout, a shade over 2lb's
what was turning out to be a great day got even better when my klink dipped in a favourite pool and i landed my biggest to date from this stream at 2lb 12oz, a wee bit on the thin side but what a fight!
another two followed from the same pool including another lovely yella fella of a pound and a half
i managed a couple more wee ones to round of a memorable days fishing before Ruth picked me up at 5ish, looking forward to the next trip on this lovely river.
Not an early start today, didnt get down till just after 1:30pm, but i think i timed it about right. I was set up by 1:45pm , and decided to get on with fishing as a few fly were coming down , i went NZ style as nothing was rising and in the head of the first run , i struck into a trout, that was the pattern for the next few runs , then i had a pool of rising fish , which fell for the dries.
Making my way up the next pool nothing stirred, i then realised why when i spotted another angler up ahead, a quick chat, and i made my way past him left him a chunk of river before commencing fishing, by now the hatch had died and very few fish were on the fin.
just the occasional onceer which i spotted at distance, so i went back to the NZ style and it was quite effective taking a few from bubble lines.
By now i was heading into unfamiliar territory, as i headed upstream a few more fish began to rise, which again took the klink.
A great day fishing really enjoyed it , the fish are fighting hard! I think i'll have to have another look at some of these unfamiliar bits during a hatch, i'm sure they'll be productive! Home shattered , but looking forward to next weekend.
We were quietly excited about our first trip of the season on this beautiful river, conditions were looking ok with good cloud cover and only a light downstream wind to contend with, all we needed was a decent hatch of fly and a trout or two to go for.Once on the river it was nice to bump into fellow anglers Bri and Davie, we had a good blether before heading our separate ways.
Its that time of year when the surrounding fields have these cute wee fellas in them
We patrolled the river on the look out for signs of the hatch starting and eventually with a few march browns and dark olives coming off i spotted a steady riser at around 1.45 pm, i had a few attempts at him before Col changed my size 14 olive biot klink for 12 brown biot klink and bingo, a nice fish of around a pound and a half.
A good hatch of mainly march browns came on in the afternoon but still there were few risers to go for.
what we did see rise were generally going good style and we got two or three more on the brown biot klink.
We met Bri and Davie again in the middle of the beat, they had also landed a couple of trout each including an escapee rainbow for Davie which had a full tail too. After blethering for a while we went our separate ways and Col and i jumped in the car and drove to another stretch not to far away.
My main objective was to have a look at my favourite pool on the stretch, by the time i got there it was now close to 4pm and there was no sign of any activity in the pool, i thought i may as well fish it blind and set up with a size 10 klink and a wire nymph suspended below to search the pool, Col had just headed upstream to see if anything was happening up there when a trout boiled at my fly and i struck, at first i thought it must have taken the klink but no it was the nymph, and a big trout too! i shouted to Col but by now he must have been to far upstream to hear my call. A nervous fight took place and i was mightily relieved to finally get him in the net, at just over four and a half pounds i was over the moon!
another mini hatch of march browns seemed to get under way again and although the pool i was fishing was now jiggered with all the antics the pool below had a couple of trout on the feed, back to the usual size again!
It wasn't until this morning when i was looking at the pictures that i made this discovery, my biggest trout from last season came from the very same pool, a fine but slightly leaner trout on the day of the royal wedding which weighed 3 lbs 12oz, looking at the markings I'm sure it's the same fish which now weighs over 4lb's 8 oz!
