Bass-ic Instinct

A Last minute decision , had us shying away from those fickle  grayling, and  as the tidetimes being suitable and weather being fair we  looked to the coast for our sport. Not flatties this week for a change we decided to look out the SWFF gear for shot at the Bass.

The Usual clouser minnows were our flies of choice.
 It was quiet for the first couple of hours , and eventually i found the need to explore other areas. Changing to a fast sinker and casting for perhaps a pollack? That lasted all but five minutes and i then decided to go and see how Brian was getting on . When i eventually got back to him , after changing back to my intermediate, he told me he had just had one. Result!

It was good to get off the mark , shortly after i got my first.

and then i had another an hour later.

It wasn't  exactly  lots happening. Thats  until i moved , finding a  wee unoccupied corner i managed to sneak in amongst the ranks of "combat anglers " fishing there controller float rubber eel set-ups, and the sport became hectic  much to the bemusement of some.  

Brian was getting sport too!

  A good days fishing , a nice change! Just a note to myself " although it was a largely calm sea  the swell coming over the reef was at times pretty big also, it was a spring tide" never can give the sea enough respect and you cant watch those waves enough as well as being aware if wading what is behind you as you dont want a wave to wash you in a pothole.

 Hopefully wont be too long before we get another bite of the cherry although it will be very  weather dependant.

easily side tracked

The last couple of nights I've tried to buckle down and start re stocking my boxes with some essential patterns

 the cdc and elk seems to be the fly of the moment and an easy one tie

some brown wire nymphs, not nearly enough though

  

the trouble is i get bored bulk tying these patterns and end tying up flies i don't really need!

orange Ke- He

royal coachman

parmachene belle

    

They might come in handy for loch Stenness one day, i'll get around to more wire nymphs another day!

A Touch of Frost

First thing i have to say is Happy birthday to the Auld yin (Brian).

We arrived at the burn just after mid-day . Still there was the odd patch of frost . The water though looked in great condition, and still the odd olive hatched  , and from the off, we caught fish, but these were out of season browns not grayling.

The grayling though almost on our cue put in a appearance , In "Brians pool" , there were the infuriating risers from last week. And once again unfortunately they had the upperhand  with two takers  escaping the clutches of Brians hook.

Drat!

Next pool , i hooked a fish only to lose it at the net , then landed a  grayling.

  Brians luck just wasnt in today, raising and  pricking  plenty to dry flies some of them quality fish too.

Lady luck was smiling down on me with a few more grayling to nymphs and dries .

 

As we headed back downstream we stopped off to fish a few selected pools , we fished a few hours earlier and i was fortunate, to hook up the best of the day at 1 1/4lb.

 Shortly afterwards darkness was upon us , and called an end to the day. Looking forward to next time just hope the weather plays ball.

F.A (Flattieholics Anonymous)

It had been nearly two weeks since  my last Flattie, so i needed to feed the habit. Bait was required and i drew a blank in the supermarket so i gambled with the fishmongers in the high street in Portobello where i was fishing , they had one mackerel and i made up the rest of my bait with a few sides of herring.

I was fishing about 30 minutes after low tide with a relatively calm sea, a set up in a nice looking crease that caught my eye and soon i took a wee flounder.

Off the mark i was thinking they were going to come thick and fast but i was wrong i moved closer to the burn and took another. But   it was slow going.

I have a hunch  my bait wasn't up to scratch today , the mackerel looked a bit dull or maybe the flatties  were having a off day one thing noticeable was despite it being calm it was a big tide.

Before i decided to call it a day i hooked into something different , i was hoping it was a bass , but no a sea trout that was festooned with sea lice. One of these days i will get a bass from these beaches!

tinsel traditionals

With the darker nights kicking in ive had a wee inclination to tie up some tinsel bodied traditionals in the way of a change, there not flies I'll use very often although a couple of lochs have been on my mind whilst tying them.

The loch of Stenness in Orkney with the stones of Stenness in the background



this loch is brackish and garish patterns are recommended for the resident browns and the sea trout which enter the loch. Ive only caught a few wee sea trout on the handful of times Ive fished here, but its one of those lochs where the next cast could be to a monster,  i look forward to fishing there again next year, so a good reason to tie up some tinsel traditionals.  

silver cardinal

Stenness stinger

bloody butcher

Ive also tied a couple of gold bodied patterns which are probably more at home on the next door neighbour of Stenness, the loch of Harray.

Harray is on the left, Stenness on the right

   

the Dunkeld

Cinnamon and gold

 the trout are more numerous in Harray compared to Stenness, and lightning quick on the take!

last season i never fished any lochs for trout,  next season i intend to put that right.   





a dreich afternoon

Today we had an afternoon on the grayling burn, although slightly milder than yesterday the weather was dreich, water clarity looked ok... ish despite the rain so we were hopeful of a grayling or two.

Col got of to the best possible start with a nice grayling on the cdc/elk

i got a trout before spending ages covering a grayling which was rising on the far bank of this pool, i missed him several times on different dries before putting him down, frustrating!

col got in on the act too, missing a couple in this pool!

as the afternoon wore on the water clarity seemed to deteriorate making it pretty much unfishable so we headed home after flogging a few pools, its a tricky wee burn to get just right.  



cdc & elk saves the day

With a touch of overnight frost the leaves are falling fast, this morning i found the grayling burn choked full of them.

 I worked my way upstream fishing some nice pools without a touch except for an out of season trout on the glister bug. There was no surface activity which wasn't a surprise with it being so cold, but i hoped that i might have picked up a grayling or two on the nymph, never mind!

 a fine morning

then in a favourite pool  a nice grayling came up out of the blue for the cdc & elk

 i was pleased as i gazed at my prize in the October sunshine, despite my best efforts this turned out to be my only grayling of the day. Back on the vice tonight to replace some lost nymphs for tomorrow!