Finally, FINALLY! The day came when we are allowed to travel outside our own local authority area, and with the Brown Trout fly-fishing season well and truly here, suddenly there were lots of options and possibilities.
Of course, it would have been rash of me to think that hundreds if not thousands of other anglers were similarly minded. While I am perfectly happy to venture to places further afield, I cannot tell a lie, being alone is perfectly acceptable to me, I don’t have any desire to find myself cheek by jowl with others who may be less inclined to maintain a safe distance or observe hygienic practices. I think this mindset is going to be with me for some considerable time.
In 20 years time youngsters born in 2021 or later are going to be bemused at those of us who still step into the road to maintain 2 metres while passing someone on the pavement. Currently, it feels like I will probably be doing this forever. And don’t even start me on “hugs”. I have never been a tactile person anyway, I’m not one of those that misses a hug due to the virus!
A River Beckons
There was no question it had to be a river I was going to head to as river options are very limited near to home. Even my regular stretch of moving water, the River Carron is in the Falkirk District and the River Devon is in Clackmannanshire, so both have been off-limits. I purchased a River Clyde Season ticket back at the start of the Winter Grayling Season and have not had a pennies worth of value from it to date, so, I was looking to get down there. Ordinarily, we would be coming into the peak Brown Trout/fly life period. The weather should be warming up, the river a nice height with April Showers, and fly life like the Grannom and March Browns making regular appearances. We are probably still a few weeks early ( in normal times) for the Yellow May Duns.
But it’s been somewhat peculiar weather this last few weeks. Bright blue skies most days, a bitterly cold wind from the North that prior to last weekend felt like it might slice you in half, overnight temperatures as low as -6C locally on a nightly basis, and not a drop of rain for weeks…..though we did have flurries of snow and icy hale-like droplets at times. So the river was going to be low, unseasonably cold, the skies clear, there was a real chance of a cold wind and everyone who could hold a fishing rod would be looking for somewhere to throw a line. Add to that a few fishing acquaintances that had been able to venture onto the Clyde had told me what I was establishing mentally; the last few weeks had been tough and a fish hard to find.
Into the valley…or
Well frankly, I wasn’t too bothered the priority was to be on the water, catching fish would be a bonus. I weighed up a few places, in the Valley and up top. The Valley would have more water but would be busy, plus parking is not easy down there just now (unless you maybe have better local knowledge than I have) and not having ventured onto a river for a while and with my feet causing me a lot of problems of late, I wasn’t enamoured with the prospect of what can be tricky wading at times.
Up Top and my Happy Place?
Up top has easier wading, is more exposed to the cold wind and is colder, in general, it being relatively high in altitude (about 300metres give or take a metre or two, or so above sea level ) and some spots can be very busy on a decent day. It looked like it would be bright and I won’t go so far as to say “warm” but if the wind stayed away, it may be nice in the sun….. though that can be hard for the fishing. If there was any heat the chances were reasonable there would be some sort of emergence of insect life and by extension, fish to predate them. I decided on a spot, one that never seems to be that well known by many who fish the Clyde on a less regular basis, probably as it doesn’t have a huge stretch of fishable water, at least when it is low, is maybe a bit too easy to access in some ways and doesn’t appear to produce may decent fish. I have had a few nice Grayling and plenty smaller fish here. The main attraction for me was that I could rock up, dump my gear and hopefully have it pretty much to myself for the day with a bit of luck….. but I would need to be there early, so I was on the road by 7am and parked up with the JetBoil turning out my first coffee of the day by 8am to have with one of my wife’s amazing Raspberry and White Chocolate muffins for breakfast. The sun was pleasant but with a thick layer of frost on the grass in the shade and a light mist on the water, I was in no real hurry to be fishing just yet. It was just a pleasure to be there.
With breakfast done I decided to take the camera down to the riverside. Then as the sun started to edge over the treetops on the far bank I returned to the car and got my gear together. I had decided I would use my french leader and nymph up the stretch first. If that revealed nothing then I was prepared to wait on things warming up and have another go matter with either a dry fly or maybe a team of wets…..depending on what transpired.
The water was gin clear but there was a nice foam line with sufficient depth to fish a small double beaded nymph and I opted for a Partridge and Orange spider on the dropper above it. Then when the water pace picked up and deep ended a little further up the run I changed the point fly to something with a little more weight to be ticking the bottom reliably.
Nothing showed up or made its presence known and I retired to the bank to warm up in the sun that was by now nearly high enough to start warming the water.
I had another coffee in the sun…this was turning out to be a most civilised day out, if not that productive perhaps and then I swapped reels on my 3# Adams rod to put on a conventional DT line and a dry fly tapered leader. I reckoned I would likely try a Klink and Dink approach so on went a parachute fly and I was minded to tie a small nymph below but was leaving it, for now, to see what happened…… so now we wait. I was happy to play around with my camera and watch the river come to life as the warmth of the sun made itself known.
As things warmed up there were a few Grey Wagtails ( a more colourful bird than its name suggests) that began working the river, I am not a bird watcher but they really caught my attention. There were two, in particular, that would alight on a rock on either side of the water and be darting out to intercept flies over the water, it was quite impressive to watch them crisscrossing the water. I soon became aware of small pale-looking olive flies coming off the water ( I am rubbish in my identification of many flies, I just look for patterns that are about the same size and colour to tie on- but was later told these were BWO’s; Blue Winged Olives), they were appearing in dribs and drabs one or two at a time in the slower run where I was sitting, but the work of the birds was getting faster and faster and I soon realised that the flies I was seeing in front of me were actually emerging in the faster water about 20 metres further upstream.
I moved up and watched this happening, I tried to get a photo or two of these small ( about #16 hook size) flies coming off but they were just too fast and my cameras focussing system isn’t refined enough to get them clearly unless I get lucky ( I didn’t).
I watched this display for a good while and waited until I was sure there were enough flies coming down the run below that if any fish were watching their interest might be piqued. By now it was around lunchtime. I had not seen a fish actually rise all day but had heard a couple of plops suggesting something disturbing the water on my wanderings, but could not see where they emanated from.
Back at my rod, I decided to eschew the Parachute fly and on went a small size #16 Olive Dry fly of my own tying, it wasn’t any particular pattern, an Olive quill body with a CDC wing and a Grizzle hackle.
Preparation is Key
I gave the line a good stretch and a wee smear of Mucilin ( after all it’s been lying on a reel largely unused for a year!) Gave the Varivas dry fly leader a good stretch to remove kinks and wading into shin depth water cast into the foam line at about a 45-degree angle. The occasional cold breeze coming directly downstream was not helping but I was managing to get a reasonably straightish presentation with enough slack in that the fly was able to drift the better part of 2 to 3 metres drag-free before a small mend would buy me another metre or so.
and then….Boom!
On about my third or fourth cast the fly had just drifted down and was at the point where I needed to make the mend in the line, I went to take a step just to get a better position when there was a colossal splash at the fly and suddenly I was into a fish! It took me a good minute or so before I caught sight of it, so really was not sure if it was a Grayling or a Brown Trout, but whatever it was, it felt a decent size. It was pulling hard, enough that I was able to lose most of the slackline I had and get the fish on the reel where I could apply a little more drag on my Sage reel (only second time out ).
It initially tried to head off downstream but the nice soft tip on the 3’# weight rod meant I could apply steady pressure without fear of snapping my tippet and try to get the fish if not upstream of me, at least in line with me. After that minute I finally caught first sight of the fish, a really nice brown Trout, easily the biggest wild Brown I have hooked on a river. The colours of the fish were ( to use a term I rarely use as it’s simply overused these days) stunning. A gorgeous buttery gold, with a depth of colour only wild fish, can really attain. I just kept the pressure on and took every opportunity to get its pretty big, head, up. I was in full jelly legs mode by now, something I have not experienced for quite some time I have to say. I think as we improve as anglers we become conditioned to catching routine fish more and more and maybe that edge or “frisson” is lost a wee bit, then if we are lucky something special comes along and the feeling returns. I was definitely at that point right now! If I could have crossed everything I would have, but my hands were full of reel and rod, and my legs were doing their best to support me as they seemed to turn into water below me! The fish was above me now and I used the current to bring it towards me, but I didn’t have enough slack line to reach it and my first somewhat desperate lunge at it only just got the head to the gills over the lip of the net before it was able to roll out again. I slacked off ever so slightly and tried again….. and it was in! I was shaking! It felt a good weight in the net but its length was more impressive than its weight to be honest. It was a long lean fish and was “all head”. Clearly, it had been doing its work on the next generation of Brown Trout over the winter and while externally was in fine condition, it needs to be feeding up a bit to restore some mass. On a good day it would have been comfortably well over 2lbs and maybe 2 and a half but as it was I reckon it was more like a pound and three quarters in the net but it was almost too big for the pan net I had brought.
With the barbless fly removed from the corner of its mouth it swum off strongly with plenty of life still left and I retired to the river bank to bathe in the sunshine of success…. I was buzzing.
Caught Red handed …clawed?
A few minutes later and I was joined on the bank by one of the bailiffs, they were he said, having a busy day and putting a lot of anglers off who never had a permit. After he checked my ticket we discussed the fishing and he was also observing the flies that were still coming off the water in reasonable numbers by now. He put me right on them being BWO’s.
I fished on up the faster water though as the Bailiff said to me, and as has been my own experience here, I don’t think I have ever had a fish out of the most fishy looking part of this stretch, a fairly deep rocky pull with a good flow in and obvious feed line. It is as he said, an enigma!
I had just finished at the top of the stretch and returned to my spot in the sun to have a final coffee before I either called it a day or headed somewhere else- I fancied a look at another section though was still not entirely sure I was going to fish it at this point. I noticed someone watching me from the roadside and a few minutes later was joined by another bailiff, though I wasn’t aware he was initially, it was only when I mentioned having been checked by a bailiff that the chap said…” well guess what? you getting checked twice in a day”. That has to be a first for me, but I have no issue with it as I think it’s great to see these guys out on the water making sure everyone is following the rules.
I spent the rest of my day out recceing a few other bits of the river before heading for home. It had been a great day, reasonable weather, maybe not ideal for fishing but OK, but I had a new Personal Best wild river brownie and had been in my happy place. What’s not to like?
