After a busy weekend studying for some work related exams, I was able to get some time Sunday afternoon to get out on the River Carron again. I wanted to try a new section and headed to Larbert to give the water downstream of the viaduct a wee go.
I wasn’t sure how you actually got there, access was not obvious to me looking from the bridge, so I decided to head down to the pool below the viaduct and see if you could wade down stream. My set up was my 3# Hanak nymphing rod with a two bug cast of beaded black and olive jigs. Ideally I would have approached each run from a downstream direction and fished upstream but the access to this section largely negated this, and I was obliged to enter the water from upstream, still I did my best to maneuver into a position quietly and fish it in small sections upstream.
Looking upstream from below the bridges
Immediately below the viaduct pool, there are some interesting looking fast runs under the two road bridges. I fished these first and caught probably the smallest fish I have ever caught while fly fishing! A wee minnow on the olive quill jig….. so not a blank then, pressure off 🙂
There are lots of bits of industrial rubbish under the road bridges and snags were quite frequent. Once downstream there were clearly fish here rising occasionally. I left the fish in peace for a few minutes to let me be sure having repositioned below them that I had not spooked them. The water was slightly coloured so I wasn’t too worried my wading had disturbed them. I then started fishing the bugs upstream knowing there were definitely fish here. I had one small pull but nothing took and fish even rose while my bugs swam through the run. I was inclined at this point to get out my other rod and set up with the dries but I decided to fish down on the nymphs and if that wasn’t working fish back upstream on the dries.
Eyes bigger than it’s belly- probably the smallest fish I have ever caught on a nymph- the fly was almost the same size as the fish!
I tried a few fly changes and eventually hooked a small brown trout on a small black nymph once I reached the fairly slow, deep water further down. I could see no way to make progress down stream along the bank, as it was very steep-sided here and the water was getting pretty deep. Over my wading belt in places.
I got to water where I was getting a little concerned it might get too deep to go further and fish were showing more on the surface than I was getting as offer to the nymph, so decided to make my way to a small gap in the bank and try get my other rod out and set up for dries. I was not sure what the fish were taking on top, it certainly wasn’t obvious, though there were lots of clouds of midges so I decided to put on a very small Griffiths gnat and try cover the rising fish using the downstream dry-fly technique.
Nothing had a look at the GG and I soon realised that slow though the water was the foam line down the middle was fast enough to make casting over it a bit difficult without throwing a few mends to stop line drag. The GG wasn’t working so I made another change putting on a CDC Greenwell’s, quite a bit bigger but a fairly general olive pattern that sits enticing in the surface film.
Nice trout about 3/4lb to a pound on a dry- released unharmed.
There were fish showing under the foam line all the way down and I cast above the nearest of them and there was a tiny but confident rise to the fly on this first cast. The rise looked like a tiny fish but it was in fact the best fish I have had on the Carron this season so far, Only about a pound but put up a great fight going all the way round me, luckily I kept the line clear of my wading stick and eventually got it to the net, a fish about a pound, and not marked or clipped.
It was then as I was returning it I got a really bad smell in my nostrils, I thought at first it was gas, then thought maybe I had stirred up the bottom during the fight with the trout and disturbed a pocket of methane from the bottom, though it did not seem that silty. Then I realised the smell was like Seafield sewage works ( the big sewage plant near Leith in Edinburgh) it was minging. Within a few minutes I was close to gagging and I really had no choice but to make my way out this area as I was worried I might catch something ( and I don’t mean a fish!). Once I got to what I then realised was less cloudy looking water I stopped for a minute and a guy shouted from the bridge above to ask how I was doing. I mentioned the smell and he said they sometimes dump sewage in the river through two or three inflows round this bridge*. It was enough for me, wading in raw sewage is not something I can tolerate with the drugs I am on these days. I was quite relieved to get back to the car and fresh air. So in all I probably fished for less than two hours but at least a fish of some note and on a dry, though I have to admit feeling a bit nauseous for a wee while after.
