….and so it begins

After 5 long months, it’s finally here! The Brown Trout Season opens in Scotland on the customary date of 15th of March, and with that my club water, Pendreich. I have to say while I am sure many of my readers get a bit fed up hearing about my outings up there (there are plenty of them after all) I rarely tire of my outings there. It’s a great wee water with some gorgeous Brown Trout. Yes, it’s stocked, but I would say the great majority of anglers catch and release their fish. Certainly last season I had near on 70 fish up there and released all but one which had swallowed a hook and it had lodged in its gills.

Possum bug took first Brown of my season

I had a little time today to get up there and was looking forward to it until I seen the weather forecast late on Thursday night. It was to be wet all day. I wasn’t hopeful of an outing. I am no faire weather angler, I will fish through any conditions I can but at the same time I am not stupid, and am not deliberately going to head out if it’s lashing down. As it was, it was murky cold sort of drizzle all morning but it seemed to brighten up at lunchtime so I decided to throw a few rods in the Disco and head up for a couple of hours. I wasn’t optimistic of a fish especially as I was talking to oe of the regulars up there, on arrival. He was leaving, but hadn’t touched a fish all morning though said a few were moving further out. I had come equipped with my 4# dry-fly rod and the very soft Dicksons 5-7# rod and rigged both. The heavier rod with a sink tip line and a couple of nymphs and the other with a single dry ( well you live in hope, eh?).

On heading down the North bank the wind was gusting straight in and I figured I was going to struggle with these rods unless I used the boat or a heavier rod. I decided to take the boat out and also to take along my HM3 just in case. I feel the 6/7 weight is a bit heavy for the style of fishing up at Pendreich, you can totally overpower the fish and it’s not a lot of sport, but in the conditions, I was willing to compromise.

Brown Trout Number two is safely released

As it turned out I never used it and the Dicksons rod performed admirably, though I notice these days it lacks what i would call sensitivity, it feels a bit mushy when feeling for knocks or touches. I had not been fishing overly long when I got my first fish, and it took a tiny orange Tungsten beaded nymph I had tied a few days ago.I got a great fight from the fish and it mast have been about three-quarters of a pound I would guess, and was fully tailed. It was one of these silvery fish that I seen at the backend of last year. Very attractive. Suddenly there were little brown upwings hatching off all around and the fish started to move all over the place, time for the dries! I tried a suspender emerger for a wee while with no interest before swapping to my trusty PT Klinkhammer. In not too many casts out of the blue I rose a fish but was way to slow to respond and missed it. 5 months of subsurface fishing has left me rusty at this game!

The Unfamous Pheasant Tail

Despite my best efforts no other fish were willing to take though plenty were rising. It was only as I was thinking of changing back to nymphs when I realised why: the fish that I had so nearly hooked had torn the fly ripping the hackle off so there was no way it was going to catch!. I changed back to the Nymphs and soon had a series of steady knocks on one retrieve. I kept them coming in steadily varying the pace then there was a hit and my second Brown was on. This one gave quite a spectacular fight, jumping at least once . He had taken the rather outsize Pheasant Tailed Nymph. After this I had quite a few knocks and a couple that should have been hook ups but the water was so cold that my fingers were going numb and I have to admit though I had my fishing gloves in my pocket I was too lazy to stop to put them on and it cost me these two missed fish I reckon.

Nonetheless, a more than satisfying couple of hours out so early in the season and I packed in content for the day. On the way out I got talking to a couple of nice guys, one of whom it transpires lives right beside me! And it turned out he is a bit of a fan of my wee site here! Good stuff, glad you enjoy it!