Extreme Tubing!

Dragonfly in pike colours

The recent rain scuppered this weekends plans for a day on a river, all sepa's data was showing them at very high levels so it was either a loch for trout, which would have been enjoying , fishing the heather fly fall. Or a day hunting the pike. So wee opted for option 2.
The water looked perfect, haven't fished it for many years now. We pumped up the tubes , set up the rods etc.
And before launching the tubes we decided to fish the shoreline, Brian was into a wee jack, at least it was a start! He was using a hot orange fly (aka Phil Collins)

So it was off into the tubes. Brian moved a few on his fly so i changed to a similar fly. But it was a few hours in before i got my first take . I took a fresh fly from my box , cast it out and it lay static on the surface, when a pike made the perfect  head a tail rise and picked it off the surface, it was a big one too, . But after a good battle he ploughed into one weed bed too many and slipped the hook. Ocht well! Brian  again was getting the odd take , I'd here him swear, as they through the hook. Before long i was in again, another good long battle, i landed this fish.

A happy man!

It wasn't long after that Brian hooked up , at first i thought it was a jack it took so gently but then it woke up.

An even happier man!

What started of a slow day sport wise was turning out quite good. Again i hooked up and this fish was something serious, i hooked it in open water, and it ran and ran all the way into the backing and after playing and being towed  for at least 5 mins it all went solid, as it went in to a weed bed. I went over to investigate freed the snag by hand by coming out the other side of the weed bed that's when i felt the fish then i lifted the rod and it all went slack as the pike  spat out the fly. That must have been a monster, it couldn't have been anything else!

Getting Beat up

After that i was knackered , playing these pike and casting these flies all day is hard work so i went over to Brian for some lunch. Brian had a few more jacks for the day. We left contented, glad to revisit some sport with pike on the fly!We almost forgot how much fun it is!

nb:Top flies today were red/ orange!And Authanic wire is the dogs baws!

2 hrs In Chernobyll

The forecast is for rain tommorow, it's done nothing but rain lately, so i was keen to get in a bit sport,  i looked at a burn locally yesterday , it looked nice, but i opted for another local, one i call the Chernobyll  burn. I arrived at 18:45pm , on arrival i was glad to see the burn looked in   fine fettle with good clarity, it was very warm to the touch and even better a few fish on the fin!

As i wandered up this corridor of trees, i missed a fish but the next one i managed on a dirty polly, a wee one . The next fish again took a cdc and elk.  A pounder a fine fish for a burn. As i carried on up the pool I decided to stick on a nymph as i'm sure I must have been by-passing lots of non showing fish, so i put on a prince nymph and promptly hooked and landed a beauty of 1 1/4lb that took the nymph.

followed by a few on the dry.

fat troot

 Carrying on up the water i had fish in the fast bits on a GH sedge, then in a flat i spotted a good head and tail riser, i didnt get near him before i put him down but i know where he lives.

  A few more risers were found i decided to scale down to a 14 for risers, i promptly lost a good fish over the pound ,then took a few smaller ones.

The sport just kept getting better with a few more just over the pound. I'm sure if i had more time there might have been the possibility of a monster, this  burn is full of surprises. But a dozen trout averaging a pound in a 400 yd streatch of a wee burn is some fishing! I'll be back as soon as the next lot of spates start to fall! Another thing the wee "Burn Raider" 2# rod was just fantastic for playing those hard fighting fish, it has great dampening qualities for protecting the tippet, yet has the power to pull fish (with side strain) away from snags , and there is no shortage of them in the Chernobyll burn!

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