A cold but otherwise fair day beckoned and I wasn’t sure what to do with myself on the fishing front today. There is still a stiff breeze that cuts you in two and while Pendreich is a ten minute run away, with a chill wind at ground level I did not fancy it much up there. I decided it was time to get myself back onto the River Devon and so popped along to Angling Active to pick up a season ticket.
Once I was packed and ready to go I was ont he river between Tillicoultry and Dollar in fairly short order. There was no one about as I arrived and I decided to cover two options with a Klink and Dink approach with a small Baetis nymph under a small black Klinkhammer. There were lots of fish rising in the water in front of me on a bend in the river, though I suspected they were small.
A few casts in and I had my first rise to the fly but it did not connect. This was to be the story for much of the day. I changed flies a few time and removed the nymph, and eventually caught a tiny little chap- a wild Brownie on a size 22 F Fly.
dry fly on the Devon
I covered the run below the bend with a Klink again but there was nothing showing. Then moving further up past the clattery bridge on this section I fished the deeper water in a couple of the pools. The top pool I reached had a lot of fish rising and I reckon a few decent sized ones. There were intermittent hatches of what I think are LDO’s and the fish were onto them.
I tried various patterns to try match the hatch managing to get one small Salmon Parr on another F Fly and missing a few rises in the tricky light. Despite a lot of fly changing and leader adjustments I never managed to lure a decent fish to my fly, though I think I managed to get one to at least have a close look without a take.
A pleasant outing though it did not half get cold towards the end.
