an afternoon tying up clousers

Ive been tying up some clousers today for our saltwater trip tomorrow, used some of the hair exstension stuff and also some slinky fibre. Not sure what colours are best so tied up a variety of different colour combinations, hopefully one of them will work!

looking forward to my diamond hard kit arriving through the post so i can tie up a few surf candys too.

Hair extension Baitfish

Back on the kanekallon (Jumbo Braid ) hair extensions for some baitfish patterns. First up a couple of pike flies. Got my hands on some Deer Creek Diamond hard and i find it's much quicker setter and true to it's endorsement is "virtually" tack free. Both have gills the pink one oval the other a shell sequin.

FireTiger

Next up a couple of Saltwater  flies.

Clouser (bucktail)

surf candy

surf candy (leaded underbody)

 Had a spare hour so gave the pike flies a test on my favourite canal basin. A few takes, dropped a few but a couple of wee jacks obliged, cant wait to give these a go on the lochs this year, i'll be tying a few with rattles to help stir up dour pike as for the saltwater flies, i hope to give them a trial shortly.

hard going

We were undecided on where to fish on friday night, the main river or one of it's tribs,  so the desision was made in the car on the way down this morning and we opted for the main river which was running clear and also a wee bit lower than some of our recent visits. we did our usual through a couple of big pools, wading deep czech nymping, it's a great method if a shoal of feeding grayling is found but if like today nothing seems to be happening in a hurry it gets really boring to be honest, perhaps being full of the cold and having a slight leak in my waders didn't help but my heart just wasn't in it and after a while i suggested to Col that we go to the trib instead of more deep wading in more huge pools, Col agreed and within half an hour or so we were tackling up on a much smaller river instead.

We worked our way upstream fishing the likely pools without success, but despite the lack of grayling it was still  much more enjoyable than searching the huge pools of the main river. It was nice to see the unmistakable  blue sheen of a kingfisher, and we also startled a couple of roe deer along the bankside. I did eventualy land a grayling too from one of our favorite pools, on a wee pink beaded nymph but unfortunatly that was our only fish for the day. Grayling time for us  is just about over for another winter, might get in another trip or two in but the prospect of looking for rising trout in season ahead sounds great!

In The Bleak Mid- Winter.

Waters were fining down, a wee stream was just the ticket at 9" on the grid. When we arrived we found clarity good , and we were treated to a hard fost, classic grayling weather. It didnt take long for brian to find the fish, a lovely fish of 1 1/2 lb that took one of his bugs, which one, we don't know as the hook came out in the net.

We fished lots of other pools but had no luck, we even saw a single riser but it did not oblige.

But we kept our chins up, and brian again caught a smashing  grayling of two pound on the dot!

that was our lot for the day, 2 blanks for me on the trot, back to the drawing board for me. lots of frosty days forecast this week hopefully, it'll help shrink the big rivers.

Winter Tying

March brown emergers

Been going through a wee productive spell on the bench recently, i think the mild spells of weather have made my head rush for the  anticipation of the new trout season. Still a few patterns to tie and also a few i still have plenty of stock from last season. Heres a medley of what ive been up too.

size 16 brown thread klink

Olive(#14) and brown (#12) Turkey biot klinks

yelllow and white posted haresear klinks #10

Dirty Pollies # 10

prince nymph variants

Brown wire nymphs

DHE's #12,14,16 in olive and brown

olive and brown comparaduns

Buggers

G&H sedges

Stimulators

sheep dip!

Col and me headed back down to the river we were on last weekend hoping for some more grayling action, it was a fine sunny morning and our hopes were high.

The nice morning didn't last long though  and by early afternoon the weather took a turn for the worse with rain on the horizon and also no grayling to show for our efforts. As the rain was about to start we spotted a sheep which must have slipped in further upstream and was clearly having difficulty getting out of the river, col saved the day though and waded across the river to help it out, that was one lucky sheep!

 Soon after the sheep rescue  i landed a nice grayling on a pink beaded wire nymph but as much as we tried there was no further action.

perfect!

the rain didn't help with the river taking on a slight ting but i dont think the grayling were really in the mood today anyway.

Giving the Game Away

A new venue, another day. First thing to do was purchase  another season  permit. The river was crystal clear but still carrying a wee bit extra water than low levels, which can effect grayling location and make wading difficult in places. We fished a while , but with a few other anglers on the water we decided to move. Virgin water next, at least to us. we made our way to a likely looking pool. whilst fishing away a fish rose on the far bank giving the game away on there location, i never real thought much about it and  decided to head upstream, i fished bits but walked mainly, noticing Brian wasn't moving very far. When i returned he was sorting his flies and a fish rose out in front of him, i asked how he was doing half expecting him to have had a fish, he'd just lost one. So i joined him on the opposite bank. No much was happening apart from the odd sporadic rise from fish to tiny midge , there was the odd olive coming off too. Brian did try a dry but it felt a lottery. I decided to put on a wee size 16 PTN with a black nickel tungsten bead on the point to accompany my heavy bugs a pink shrimp and tan bug , first cast i was in ,  it had taken the wee fly on the point.

  About half an hour later Brian was in , a similar sized grayling on his big pink shrimp.

I then took a quick brace of wee ones both again too the ptn.

.  Brian then lost a fish then it went quiet , so i decided to try a assault from the other bank, which was tricky wading i hadn't left long and Brian was in, then it got off, next cast again he hooked up and landed his second fish of the day.

I then rejoined him on his bank. Fished a while then after feeling the cold we decided to get out a while and go or a short walk .
Warmed up a bit we got in again flogging the water, my indicator went down i struck i thought i'd hooked bottom , but no it was a fish , a nice one too!

 A belter! 2 3/4lb and the fattest humpback grayling I've seen ,at least for a while.

big shoulders

What a fish! A great way to end a great days fishing. Can't wait till next time must get tying some bugs.