Better Out than In

2022 continues to be a year of fishing-unfriendly weather. If it wasn’t bad enough that we had a very dry summer we have now had a very wet Autumn. I saw on the news the other night there that we had had something like 130% of average rainfall this November. If it’s not raining, it’s either very windy, or as it has been this week, just damp, dark and dank.

Having freed up Friday; work weeks at 5 days feel far too long by at least 100% just now, I was hoping to head out onto the river for the Grayling. But Thursday was utterly soul-destroyingly miserable. It never rained as such but I went my morning walk and was soaked nonetheless just by the all-encompassing mist, and it was cold as well. While it has been a very wet autumn, you couldn’t say it has been cold- it has been the opposite, quite warm at times. So my enthusiasm levels when thinking about Friday and heading for the River Clyde, were not high. I decided rather than put my gear into the car in preparation the night before….it was just too horrible to spend the time outdoors putting kit in the boot in the dark… that if I awoke in time, to see if I could see the houses at the top of the village first thing. If I could then I would endeavour to head out. If not it was back to bed ( and a wasted day but at least it wasn’t work!).

Checking out the window on Friday, while it was still grey and damp looking seemed to suggest at least it wasn’t foggy….were we going to be on for an outing? I got up and got dressed for the expected conditions then went and made breakfast, then suitably fortified, opened the front door. I doubt Neil Armstrong stepping out onto the surface at “Tranquility Base” had more trepidation than I had on Friday.

It was actually reasonably mild!

Looks like it is on

Still miserable and dark but MILD! and I wasn’t soaking just moving around the driveway. So, I as speedily as I could, got my gear together, filled a flask with hot water, and after a quick drop into the local Co-Op for some sandwiches, was on my way down to the Clyde Valley. Now I knew the river was still holding a fair amount of water so wasn’t expecting it to be low, but the SEPA river level gauge suggested it was fishable. As long as it wasn’t too dirty it would be OK. I was set on the Clyde Valley rather than heading all the way up top, I couldn’t be bothered with the extra journey time, and I had to go seek out a permit as my last Clyde Season ticket expired back in March.

Permit Problems

I usually go into the Post Office at Crossford to get my permits as it’s local to the area I would fish and isn’t a detour to get to. it is though a bit of a bad place to stop and get parked. Having snuck my car in between another parked car and a parked-up bin lorry, I went into the shop. They were serving some of the bin men hot rolls and I waited my turn, only to be told they wouldn’t sell me a permit because the Post Office is closed for the day! I was staggered! I mean, permits have nothing to do with Post Offices in the general sense, it’s not like it’s a normal “function” of a Post office to sell fishing permits. You can sell fishing permits in Petrol Stations, tackle shops, cafes…anywhere. The shop was open, but because they had not opened the Post Office Counter they wouldn’t sell me one…after a 50-mile drive as well. I was not a happy bunny. You also can see why Royal Mail is struggling when the Post Offices aren’t even open in the daytime on a weekday! Anyway, I went to consider my options did a bit of Googling on my phone and discovered there is a shop about 4 miles further down the Valley road at Kirkfieldbank that also does permits. So off I went. The only other option was Wishaw and that was too far- I would have been knocking the day on the head.

I located the shop in the high street of Kirkfieldbank and while the lights were on it looked like there were maybe joiners working in the store. I went to open the door and it was locked….oh no! But then a lady came to the door opened it and explained they were in the process of changing over the shop…new owners were taking it over and so it was a bit upside down. I am not entirely sure it was even fully “open” but I said I was just after a fishing permit and she could not have been more helpful. She ushered me in and within a matter of minutes I was legal again!

Met up with John

I headed back upstream to Mauldslie, at least to have a look, I could either fish here or had a few other ideas if it was busy, but in the event, no one else had decided to venture out on such a grim-looking day…apart from John, who had a day off and decided to join me in his big Tonka Toy truck. He was busy getting rigged up as I arrived.

We had a blether and I went to get tackled up myself. He was keen to fish above the bridge whereas I wanted to go downstream a bit so that’s what we did.

The water was not in the slightest bit dirty, I had feared it might be when I spied the white water at Stonebyres Power Station, while I was getting my Permit. It looked a bit brown, but actually it was pretty clear. The river was though quite full, so it had a bit of pace to it and you couldn’t wade a long way before it was up high and pushing you along. The wading isn’t bad here though so it never felt sketchy, you just had to watch not to take a step too far into a hole.

As there was a bit more water I set up with a three-fly tippet with a heavy red tag on point, a weighted squirmy on the middle dropper and a small Frenchie-style nymph on the top dropper.

I was fishing right from the bank and as soon as I got to water about 2 feet deep, I hooked a fish, which didn’t feel bad at first but as it came to the net it was apparent it was a nice wee out-of-season Brown Trout; welcome enough but not the quarry for the day.

As I got further out in the river with the depth increasing, I was pretty sure my flies were not getting down in the faster deeper channel so I decided I would fish it best I could for now making sure each sweep covered the shallower water well, and I might come back and try the deeper water with a heavier set up later. Too heavy in the shallower water would just be a snag fest.

I picked up a couple of small Grayling as I fished down in pretty much the same depth as the initial Brown Trout. By the time I was stopping for a hot mug of soup John was coming downriver towards me. He had had the exact same, two small Grayling and a Brown Trout. He fished where I had just been and concurred with my assessment that we were going to have to fish a lot heavier to get down further across the river.

Heavy Metal

He tied on some real “heavy metal” and managed to lose a cast on the inevitable snags then before I re-entered the water I removed the Squirmy and put heavier flies again on the two lower positions. The top fly had taken all three fish and when we were comparing notes, it transpired that John had had his fish on a very similar bug with a silver bead and a bright red butt at the end.

I was getting down pretty well now out in the after water, but I soon decided that maybe the fish were not there. I picked up one more small Grayling as I was retrieving to recast- I thought at first I had snagged a leaf as I pulled the rod back then realised it was a small fish on the top dropper again! John had similar luck and did pick up a bigger Grayling maybe about 20-25cms right at the end and then I picked up another Brown Trout, a bit bigger this time though long and lean, which decided it was time for some aerial acrobatics before getting itself free. I was happy enough to see it go as I don’t really want to be picking up Brownies at this time of year so I wasn’t making much effort to get it to the net.

There was still about an hour of light left when we both decided that we had given it a fair crack of the whip, it was still an unpleasant dank day but at least getting out was better than being camped in front of the telly all day and it also let me beat the worst of the traffic on the way home!

I think it’s to be colder and clearer this week coming and next weekend I should be Annan-bound.