On the Cut

The weathers been terrible still yet to get a proper summer, last weekend it rained, this weekend looks to be the same, and the last two days have been torrential,to the point that most rivers look high and dirty.

 On Wednesday evening i decided to get out after dinner for a couple of hours since there was no football on.
 decided on the canal for the pike, my usual hot spot not did not produce but my back-up was contrastingly good with 4 jacks taking a liking to my pink fly, beats sitting in the house.

A dip in the Sea

Today i had my first sea fishing trip in years, actually thats a lie , i went out in a boat last year , caught some cod and  mackeral , but this was my first shore fishing expedition  .
So it's very much new ground,  and i have so much to learn, so far tackle-wise i have a flounder rod , a reel a few weights hooks enought to build a few simple rigs, so today we initially planned to go for flounder , but at last minute my eldest brother Lindsay and i decided to have a go off his regular patch the cliffs.

I needed a 3oz gripper , and we baited up with lug tipped with mackeral . Lindsay was first into a fish, a 3 bearded rockling.

Then i had a small codling.

A few knock s after that , but the suspects were bait robbing crabs.

We were then treated by a few displays by the dolphins , often clearing the water.Breathtaking sight.

Another hour wore on before the next fish took, another codling , for Lindsay.

Shortly after we called it a day, as my mother was reeling me in for my dinner. But i really enjoyed it, cant wait to do it again, with opportunities to catch wrasse, coalies , pollack mackeral  etc. it's opened up a fresh outlook to my fishing .

An evening on the burn

The burn was surprisingly running quite clear, i thought it would have been a bit higher and coloured wih the  heavy rain we had at the weekend . Nothing though stirred nor hardly surprising really , as there was no hatch  of any sort just a blizzard of midge flying low over the water. There must be a backlog of BWO nymphs waiting for the rivers to get to the appropriate temperatures to hatch .

I mainly fished blind , apart from the very odd riser, first fish was  good pounder  took the usual a klinkhammer,   there was only another 4-5 fish caught the rest of the evening this one i caught on a elk hair cadd iswas a two tone he had a light side and a dark side.maybe from lying in a spot where the sun would catch him at one side ?

it's darker side

 Shortly after landing it i cast , at that that moment a strange  furrow came through the water , i thought must have spooked a big trout but then it porpoised on the surface , it was a otter, i half expected it to surface again between my legs but that was the last i seen of him. A magical sight. I thought that might be the end of the fishing but a couple more trout obliged before calling it a night at 9:30pm .

Really need the hotter temperatures now , weeks and weeks of north easterlies are taking there toll spring weather is still here but the springs menu has practicly run dry .

back on the road again

My old car ended up at the breakers yard after the timing belt went a couple of weeks back,  a sore one to take financially and it also reminded me that a car is the most important piece of fishing equipment i own. Anyway I'm glad to be back on the road again with another set of wheels,  and yesterday i put the new run around to good use and went on our first loch piking trip of the year.

Unfortunately the fishing was poor, conditions weren't great a lot of the time with bright sunshine and very little wind, i had one half hearted take from a jack and a follow from what looked like a better fish, Col did a bit better loosing a decent fish and landed a couple of lively jacks which put up a great fight.

  probably the hardest days fishing we've had on this loch but never mind,  hopefully the pike will be in the mood next visit.

Going Cuckoo

Lacking a bit of enthusiasm of late as far as fishing go's particularly trout fishing, same old i guess, and probably not an unusual trait at this stage in the season . Other species and even other methods are starting to dominate my thoughts pike on the fly , and saltwater fly fishing, and recently i bought a "flattie" rod for a bit flounder fishing .

Preparation

Well today i went into work to finish off a personal project, a beach rod rest, gave it a lick of paint etc looks like it will be up to the job.

After that i had a couple of hours to spare, i couldnt be bothered with the prospect of putting on waders etc, so decided on the local wee burn, at most i would need wellies.

The first wee pool is always a banker, i promptly caught a wee fish a pricked a slightly better one on a size 14 klink.

The fish were not numerous infact this is a stream that really needs some water , at that you really need to be on the water hours after rainfall, or it quickly go's back into it's normal low state, but today was'nt really about catching loads of fish , purely  enjoyment it' something wee streams give me , a sense of acheivement no matter the size of the fish when all go's to plan.

Spectators

  Seems a few better sized fish here and there , the best today came from this hole under a bridge , i simply dropped my fly on the water and it shot out and grabbed it.

Ive another burn in mind for next week.

A Tough Day

Fished a highland stream , yesterday with Gary, the fishing wasnt great but at first it looked like it was going to be a great day with a fish  early doors  2 1/4 lb falling to the nymph.

Heading further upstream leapfrogging each other covering miles of water we took a few more small fish  here and there but overall it was a poor reflection of what the river can produce, i probably put it down to it's low level, maybe low summer temp, crap hatch,  maybe a culmination of all the above, anyway it was still an enjoyable day in good company.

Trailor trashing day 3

Bit of a scenario for day 3, we bought a permit intending to fish a river on the way up on the Friday. It was a river that we had never fished before and i was looking forward to it,  but studying  the map issued with the permit , had a scale and looking at it revealed just how small the beat was, hardly enough for a day fishing and the flat water didn't look like the  most appealing , a waste of money, but now i know not to bother it's a shame cause a lot of the river does look good but it is reserved for a syndicate of salmon anglers.

So we went back to the river we fished on Friday, this time around it was a beautiful day , in fact perhaps the first day of summer . We got permits for the same beat , and decided to do a beat as well further up the glen . So we fished the upper beat first,after  getting our permits from what i can only describe as a   hermit in the hills.

 We were straight into fish , i had a fish around the pound , Brian rose a better one amongst some he landed .

One memorable fish was one in a shallow flat tail , as i walked up the banks i thought I'd spooked him as i watched him bolt , only to settle stationary directly in line with me 20 yards off the bank, so i thought , I'd have a cast at him, i had the typical Klinkhammer, nymph NZ combo, first cast slightly short, no response, but on the second cast he swung his head left to intercept my nymph, i struck , then he went ballistic, fighting extremely hard for his size, not the biggest but he gave a enjoyable and a fulfilling experience,  just a couple of ounces short of 1 1/2lb .

 


Leapfrogging each other up the glen we caught lots more, there seemed to be full of trout all sizes from a ounce up to a pound.

 After a while we decided to go to the lower beat a few miles down the glen,

 it seems the fish are of a better stamp down there. First cast Brian hooked up and landed a fish just over the pound!

That though was the last of the action, as promising as it looked the fish just didn't seem to be feeding , quite a contrast from the ones up the glen. We decided to head home , the drama wasn't finished though unfortunately just  a couple of miles from home Brian's  car broke down ,probably the only blessing was it didnt happen out in the wilds,  turns out it's the timing belt. Apart from the unfortunate outcome, we had a great trip, hope to do some more of it again soon!