The plan for today was to get on the road reasonably early and head down the River Tweed for some Grayling fishing with my new as yet unused Greys Streamflex XF2 Plus rod.
The river was reported as high and coloured early on the week but I have been watching the water levels on SEPA and it had dropped to 0.8mtr at Peebles on Friday. So I figured that if we had no rain it would be good to go. But overnight Friday here it was giving it pelters and there was quite a bit rainfall. I checked SEPA again and the water had risen about a foot, not too bad but I wasn’t sure if it was worth the drive. On heading on own the motorway I saw a few local rivers were the colour of Hot Chocolate- presumably with neither the flavour or the heat!
River Tweed Level Data 12-02-2011
So, fortunately, I had put a 7 weight rod and a selection of tackle for still water use on the off chance I got to Peebles and the conditions were unfishable- at least I could go somewhere to wet a line for a few hours. I was thinking of maybe Clerklands at Melrose orRoslynlee near Penicuik. But as I was aborting my trip so early I turned back at Falkirk and headed down the M876 to go to Burnhouse Lochans near Allandale.
You can read about Burnhouse on my fishery review page for the venue.. Its a place I have been threatening to visit a few times, I have actually been up as far as the entrance once before but the car park was packed so I never tried to get in.
It was quite busy when I arrived- they say there is room for about 20 rods on the lochan and I would say about 14 were taken.
Burnhouse Lochan on a damp February morning
I was made to feel welcome by the chap on the “gate” in the Swiss Chalet style Bothy.
The fishery has a Catch and Release option so I took this up with a 6-hour ticket which should have seen me through to the middle of the afternoon but very kindly my permit was marked up to 17:00 so a full days fishing.
The water was utterly flat calm and still and I decided to start my fishing on the South bank (the right-hand side from the entrance as there were two vacant platforms. I initially tried a couple of Buzzer/bloodworm patterns under a Parachute CDC buzzer. Both these red patterns have been working for me well recently but I was getting nothing from them on a floating line. A few fish were being taken here and there and from what I could see anglers were fishing mostly floating setups with big indicators or floats, so presumably hanging buzzers beneath. After about 30 mins I decided to swap patterns and shorten my leader beneath the floating fly, and replaced the middle Red Doritos Buzzer with a Tan coloured one ( also made from Doritos packets – this time Cheesy Flavour!) with a black “head” and red holo cheeks. The second cast with this and I was into a fish! It was a strong fighting Rainbow of about 3 lbs and took me a good few minutes to get to the net for unhooking and release. It had taken the Cheesy Doritos Buzzer. Dunno why I can’t stand the things myself- prefer Hot and Spicy!
After this, I was getting regular “knocks and must have missed 4 or 5 takes. I am not sure whether I was actually missing them or the fish were coming short on the take. Or was it the barbless hooks? Anyway, I hooked into a second fish and after a few seconds fight, it was off.
The chap next to me was having some success on a “small white lure” on an Intermediate line, so I decided to try this for a while fishing the white Bunny Leach on point and the Cheesy Doritos Buzzer on the dropper. I got nothing ( but was hooking the weed on the bottom a lot) and after about 45 mins of this I went to try my new 6# Sink Tip line from Pittsford Pirate and the same two flies.
This fished better- less snagging but I was still getting no more action. There were a few other anglers getting lost of sport on the other side of the Lochan both on Yellow Dancers and Okey Dokey Buzzers.
I decided it was time for a move anyway, so after a spot of lunch moved round to the other side. I tried a Yellow Dancer of my own with aCruncher on dropper, and had a couple of good pulls but those rubber hooks seemed to have found there way into my fly box again and nothing was sticking. I persevered with this for about 30 mins more and then decided to put a Pink posted Olive Klinkhammer with a Small Gold Head Hares ear on point and a Red Doritos Buzzer, these were tied to the Klink, NZ style- off the hook bend, with a leader of about 4 feet then the point another 2 feet down. As far as I could tell the loch was quite deep in front of me so I felt the length like this would be OK. The weather got a bit changeable and the rain came on for about 30 mins. Nothing was biting though. I persevered and the sun ventured out around 15:00 and it got quite warm. I felt my method was OK but I just wasn’t getting near fish. A fish rose right off the vacant platform to my right, and though it was quite a distance away- maybe 70feet- I decided to give it a go. I managed to drop the fly right on the ring but got nothing. Just then another angler who had been sheltering decided to come to this platform. As he approached I had cast a second time to the same spot and started my retrieve. I said to him- “go slow there is a fish right off your platform there, and my line is right in front”, he laughed and said it was OK ,just then I felt a sharp tweak and I was into a fish!
The guy was laughing saying “that’s the way to be doing it”. After a good wee scrap I netted a fine Blue trout hooked on the Red Doritos Buzzer, Bloodworm pattern that was a killer for me last week, of about 2lbs, again safely released.
And that was about it, I never really touched another fish and it got quite cold as the evening wore on, but a good days sport, 2 netted, 1 lost and I dunno, maybe 8 or 9 “pulls”.
Very enjoyable and a very friendly location.
