Seek and you will Find

Still quite cold , top temperatures have been 6 degrees C as the cold easterly continues to blow.  I found myself sitting by my local stream at 2pm today. I don't think i missed anything as the flies started to go downstream, i sat by my  favourite pool for five minutes or so , usually at this time of year you find the tail of the pool has rising fish but despite a decent hatch not a fin stirred. I decided to head upstream realising that minute by minute time was passing by and as the hatches can be short lived went to look for a riser. I passed about 6 long slow pools which you might normally bank on but still not a sausage. Was it the sunshine putting them off, had the cold nights made them lethargic?

For some reason i decided to head back down to where i started   . I looked downstream and there in the tail of the pool a fish was rising intercepting    every Dun that floated in its patch. i got almost level with it and after a couple of short falling casts , he nailed my brown biot klink. He fought like a demon. what a toothy critter!

That was my lot for the day, i never thought i'd be in for such a grueller ,the fish just didn't seem  in the mood to feed today.

easter weekend trouting

We decided on a local burn for Saturday afternoon,not a normal burn mind you, but one which seems to produce better than average trout. we arrived at 1.30 pm to find a few dark olives hatching already and more importantly the odd riser to go for. In the first pool i put a fish down, col pricked a fish in the next pool up and then i struck  far to late for the third , start of season rustiness! Col got it spot on with the next fish though and landed this lovely trout.

another trout for me on the klink before the hatch died,  from then on we fished blind  NZ  style, where we lost and landed a few more

  including a fine trout of 1lb 10 oz for Col on his new nymph

last of the day

on sunday we were back for more, arriving a wee bit earlier than yesterday we sat and waited for the hatch to get under way, soon the odd olive was coming down and we spotted the first riser of the day which took the klink

we had a great time for an hour or so targeting risers before the hatch petered out

  

col landed another on the nymph before we walked to have a look at another wee burn in the area, there wasn't much doing on this burn except two risers in the same pool which i put down, still it was worth investigating, maybe another time.

  

Stick or Twist

I shook the dusting of snow off my wading boots and headed down river for 1:30pm . The  sun made a rare appearance today and although it was cold , i could feel the heat from its rays. I sat looked at a few pools the odd olive came off but not a fin stirred i wondered if i should just sit it out , then i decided to gamble and head away a mile upstream over the brae to a  familiar early season pool.

I passed  a few slowish typical early season pools before arriving at the  pool  just after 2pm .

 A fish conveniently rose in front of me with what was a fair number of flies hatching  .  A cast in front of him and he obliged taking my  biot klink , just a wee silvery fellae, but perfect.

As i was returning the fish another fish rose almost where i took the last one, then a dog walker passed and i never saw it rise again despite allowing time for it to return to the feed and covering the general area.

I decided to head back downstream in the hope that the pools may have the odd riser,  where i met a fellow angler , he hadn't seen a fish , hardly a fly , and that was pretty much  it for the day. Not the most   productive of fishing days , but any fish just now is a bonus.

Its Spring , but not as we know it

There had been yet another fall of snow last night , not as much as the night before but enough for concern. The sun though did its magic and  it thawed quite quickly .3 degrees today at its warmest point not warm but i was feeling fairly confident i would catch after seeing a riser yesterday in a blizzard. I had a lot of nasty jobs to deal with so didn't get down the river until 2:30pm.

I set up quickly with a fresh 9ft  tapered leader  , attached to that went 4 feet of rio powerflex , and my chosen fly a size 12 brown biot klink.

The river looked great,but it seemed that  i might have missed the main bought of the hatch by about 30 minutes or so as a fair number of duns  were collecting in the eddies including these. At first i put it down as a  brook dun , but now after looking at the picture  i'm convinced its a march brown.

As i headed to my chosen start pool a fish rose in the pool in inches of water. At the point of spotting it i was a good distance away and could not pin point it on the featureless flat, i waited for it to rise again , but nothing stirred , another fish rose further up the pool. I covered where i thought fish "A"  rose   and on my 3rd speculative cast he took my dry, but i missed him, as i did with fish "B"  further up the pool.

On to the next big flat pool.

Scanning for risers i saw out the corner of my eye a fish kiss the surface in the crease made by a fallen tree  on my near bank in the picture above.
No mistakes this time as i felt resistance on the strike and after a good fight i landed a fine trout , perhaps a tad lean , but otherwise in great shape just over the pound.

 Despite looking at other spots i didn't come across any other visually feeding fish , the last 20 minutes "fishing the water"  proved fruitless as it often does , at this time of the year. Hopefully get out again tomorrow and try another spot.

a little hope

The cold temperature's around just now haven't been conducive to good fishing, after failing to connect with any trout at the weekend on a normally productive burn i wasn't feeling overly confident about my chances of success this afternoon on another wee burn.

bitterly cold on Saturday

Despite a dusting of snow on the ground this morning the afternoon didn't feel to bad and the little snow that we had had all but disappeared. The wee burn was  running its usual slightly murky colour so i set up with a glister bug below a big klink.

i fished through lots of nice pools and runs without an offer, then in a slower pool a take at last and i was delighted to bring this wee fella to hand, not very big but i was so pleased to see a trout!

a little hope







icicles 

  





 i took another camera shy trout upstream from another slower pool, and that was my lot for the afternoon. Col tells me he spotted rising trout on his local river this afternoon when he was out with the dog, so all in all i feel we're slowly climbing out of the cold spell and heading in the right direction at last!



These boots are made for Wading!

This is a first on Streamside diary, but i thought I'd do a  review on one of my favourite  angling purchases  . I must state  ,I have no links to the company  and this is my own experience with the product (others may vary).

A couple of years ago. I decided to bite the bullet and spend a bit more money on wading boots , after yet another pair of boots disintegrated whilst wading  a    highland stream . Up until then it was not unusual for  me to go through 2" cheap" pairs of wading boots in a six and a half  month trout season, usually of the felt sole variety. so i decided to look for vibram soled boots, soles which i like on ordinary walking boots.  First i looked at Simms, then a bit googling i came up with these.

Orvis clearwater II with the eco-trax sole. I can't speak highly enough of them , there comfortable, give support and they can take a beating. After   almost 2 busy seasons fishing rocky  rivers , float-tubing , visits to the sea , winter grayling fishing, they are still going strong even the replaceable studs are almost untouched. Yes there is a few signs of wear but much less than expected. i would expect to get a good few more months out of them possibly another season but they owe me nothing.

Orvis have updated this boot marginally so you can find this boot currently in their sale outlet  at a good price , just under £100 they are a real bargain giving there  longevity  . Ive decided to buy another pair ,  before they disapear they are best wading boots I've ever had though ive no doubt there other vibram soled boots will also be good . One thing id recommend is to get 1-2 sizes bigger than shoe size to accommodate for the stocking foot. 

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against the odds

Yesterday turned out to be a bit of a disappointment for me, Ive been so looking forward to opening day but unfortunately mother nature had her way with  all my local burns looking like a scene from charlie and the chocolate factory what with all  the snow melt.

 On the phone to Col last night  he suggested that we try a wee burn in his neck of the woods today which he hoped would be running clear enough to fish. Today the rain was steadily getting worse as the morning went on,  and driving  through to Col's the roads were full of big puddles. I was resigned to the fact that fishing anywhere today would most probably be a total waste of time, but after a  bacon roll and a coffee at col's we decided to go and have a look anyway. We peaked over a  bridge on the burn and although the clarity didn't look perfect it looked good enough to have a try anyway. Around about this time the sleety rain turned to snow and it was coming down strong, i cant honestly remember fishing for trout on such a horrible day.

 We fished through a couple of pools fishing nz style without so much as a touch,  already we had thoughts of heading for  home and spending the afternoon tying up a few flies instead. Then my klink dipped it was a surprised  to feel a  nice trout on the end rather than being snagged! 

my first of the season on the ever reliable glister bug

this spurned us on and we continued on upstream in the steadily worsening weather



I took another which was lying in thin water on the near bank, this one as  silvery as a sea trout

 we thought of fishing another stretch further upstream but in the end decided enough was enough what with the horrible weather and headed back to the car, it was looking so unlikely but thanks to Col ive managed to get of the mark this weekend, cheers bud.