Flatties , falling in , and other bad luck.

I decided to take this week off (apart from Tuesday). Monday i decided to have a go for flounder so tried Portobello beach, got there for low tide , the sea was flat and it turned out to be hard going , just a couple of flounder and a few nibbles i suspect were coalfish.

I mentally marked the features such as gullies and concentrated my baits there when they had fully flooded. It wasn't the most productive flattie session though, but i think that had a lot to do with lack of movement on the baits in the tide.

A gullie etched  in the memory bank for when the tide comes in

Wednesday saw me down my local for the afternoon after i had walked the dog the river looked great , there was plenty fish on the feed too, and the fishing was really productive.

 

Flies with a touch of glister were really effective, in all i must have landed around 50 trout and lost many more, nothing exceptional a few around and just over the pound. Unfortunately i took a tumble in one pool falling forward and filling my waders , and drowning my camera in the process.

Thursday i never really got going till 4pm when i grabbed the gear and went for the pike , the canal was full of floating blanket type weed and every cast came back with some , there was a patch that was clear and i took 3 jacks from it , no pics the camera still drying out.

On Friday i found my camera working again which i was happy about, and i headed down the local again for 2pm .

 On arrival the river appeared busy with quite  a few anglers, so i left them some water to fish  and found a un-fished  quiet stretch. the fishing was much  the same as the Wednesday, but at one pool i hooked into a monster , but unfortunately it threw the nymph , don't know if it was a big brown or a coloured sea trout , must've been between 3-4 lb. Slightly disappointed but on the whole i went home fairly  contented with my lot.

 not long now till the end of the season hopefully get a trip or two in yet?

A borders burn, bridges and brown trout

It would be a great shame if we didn't cast a line on this lovely borders burn all season, and with time rapidly running out as this stream closes at the end of September we took our chance yesterday.

From the car we walked down to where the burn enters the main river where we bumped into a fellow angler setting up his double hander for a crack at the salmon. He didn't seem to fancy our chances too much on the burn as he thought it was now devoid of trout and grayling, a shadow of what it used to be twenty years ago etc etc!. We listened politely before continuing on our way, not in the slightest bit worried about his assessment of the burn as having fished it a couple of times in recent years we knew that it is absolutely stuffed with trout, not sure about the grayling  population  mind you not having encountered any on our previous visits, maybe that's what he meant ?

 From the off it was clear we were in for an action packed day with most pools producing several takes both to the dry and nymph from the small but eager trout.

one of many bridges on this stretch

mint of some sort?

I said to Col early on that a pound trout would be a fine goal for the day, the pounder was proving to be elusive however amongst the numerous wee trout, but late in the afternoon Col shouted from a pool above me and I could see him playing a good fish which cleared the air during battle, the pounder we had been after and a what a handsome trout he was too!

speaking of elusive fish I hooked what felt like a slightly better than average trout  compared what I had been catching up to that point, as I drew the fish closer I could see that it wasn't a trout after all, but a nice wee grayling at last!

its a shame this stream isn't open during  the winter months for the grayling as it would make a nice wintertime venue.

the inbetween days

With the end of the season a little under a month away now there's a sense of urgency to enjoy what's left of it, but at the same time thoughts are beginning to think of Grayling in the months ahead, and with that in mind Col and I fished a burn yesterday which contains both trout and grayling.

Water clarity didn't look great with some recent rain so we set up with the ever reliable glister bug suspended below a big dirty polly.

 the glister bug did the trick in the first pool taking a couple of trout and relieving any concerns about the water clarity.

 we worked our way upstream taking turns which is a relaxing way to fish, plenty of time to take in the bankside surroundings.

a few trout were landed, both on the nymph and the dry with many more missed

jumbo minnows were also keen to have a nibble at the Glister bug, this burn seems to be full of them.

I suspect one or two risers that I missed were Grayling and Col definitely lost a good Grayling on the nymph right at the net, still its good to know that their about, hopefully they'll start to show in bigger numbers in the cooler months ahead.

the season's moving on

 September has arrived and with it she brings cooler mornings and shorter nights, the feeling that summer has gone for another year and the realisation that their is only one month to go until the end of the trout season. The highland stream we fished yesterday had that back end feel about it, although it was a nice enough day the blustery winds had battered the trees and the side streams were filling with leaves, another month or so and the  river will be full of them.

Unfortunately the overnight rain had made no impact on the rivers height, still down to its bones, Some usually good pools lacked the pace needed to bring them to life but some pools are always fast and deep enough to hold trout  and we picked up trout from these places.

 there was hardly a riser to be seen all day, a few had a go for my dry but I missed them all! the nymph took all our trout.

were always hoping for that better than average trout that this stream produces and today Col got his reward with a fine golden trout from a favourite pool of his.

 the river was far from its best today, it could really have been doing with some extra water in it but it was a fine day to be out anyway, might be next season now before the next visit I'm looking forward to it already.

  

a night at the Prawns

Went to Burntisland on Friday  to try my new sabpolo hooks and i also as well as the power isome i had some raw prawn to try for bait.

Unforunately there was a bit colour in the water , and i feel my intented target , wrasse dont seem to feed as well in such conditions. I stsrted round the front on the breakwater but it got windy and uncomfortable in the strenghthening easterly , so i headed for the harbour where ive had wrasse as well. First drop down with the prawn i had a few nice fat coalies.

this was followed buy some smaller coalies and loads of tiny codling  .

Then the extras from  sponge bob square pants started making an appearance.

common blenny

butter fish

goldsinny

long spined sea scorpion

so that was my lot, decided to pack in when the rain came on . lots of fun on light gear ,was hoping for a Ballan wrasse , maybe ill get one next trip just hope for clearer  seas.

An evening cast

Had another trip to my local yesterday evening . Fished the same stretch i did the  other night, as i enjoyed it , water looked lower with a little less flow and it was quite blustery , but fish were up for the usual  nymphs and dries . A good we session. The nights are fair drawing in now and usually they are done as far as rising fish  by now ,but i  think the hot summer we are currently  and the temps holding up in the evening is keeping the insects active in the evening , lots of spinners about. What a great summer we have had.
a few snaps:

a peacefull afternoon on the grayling burn followed by a night at the hospital!

  Yesterday afternoon I  decided to fish a burn which contains a healthy population of grayling as well as trout, it can be a tricky one to get right with clarity often not that great. The pool I started on is a deep one and pleasingly there was a couple of risers going steady in the head.

the cdc & elk did the trick with a nice pounder coming to hand followed by his smaller pal, a good start.

in this pool fish were smutting, I rummaged about in my fly boxes and found a wee klink to put on.

after missing a couple of fish I hooked a cracking trout which gave me a great fight on my wee six footer.

this is one of my favourite grayling pools and there was a fish smutting under the tree

 it turned out to be a trout and a good one too!

I worked my way upstream taking the a few more trout but surprisingly no Grayling today



got home around six to find out that my wife was up at A&E with a nasty cut on her head after falling of her bike, unbelievably about five minutes later my sons friend was at the door to tell me that Jamie had fallen of some rocks up at the park, another nasty head wound and a trip to A&E, ended up spending the night in the kids ward until he got the all clear this morning, wife and son are on the mend now!