Changed water

A final outing for the grayling was calling to me. I wasn’t sure where to go, though my thoughts in order of preference were

• Tweed
• Clyde
• Tummel

They are all equidistant from me, with approximately an hours drive time. As it was a Sunday the Tweed was out, the people I hear fishing the Clyde haven’t been having much success this end of the season and the Tummel is a big water that can be intimidating at any time of year but especially winter. However the Sepa Gauge was at 600mm on the Tummel so that had to be OK?

Permit purchased online and I was at Ballinluig for 09:00 on a beautiful (very) crisp winter’s morning. It was -5 C and felt all of that and more out of the sunshine.

A photo from pretty much the same spot about 18 months ago

This is Ballinluig today, some changes from 2014 ( sun excepted!)

As I was getting tackled up and wader’s on, Euan Martin arrived to fish the same section. So after a wee blether we went our separate ways and I was ready to fish. I forgot to put my feet warmers into my waders while I was getting set up, and this was a major error. Within a couple of minutes in the higher than I expected water, my feet were hurting with the cold. The boulder beach here has either been scoured to the extent that it’s now flatter than it used to be, or the river was higher than the gauge would suggest. Eaun commented that a month or so earlier it showed over 1mtr on the gauge and wasn’t so high looking.  The water was close to all the way over all the beach area. Only about knee deep but about 4 metres out from the bank particularly at the upstream end it was pushing very hard indeed and rolling the rocks from under your feet. It was too hard for my aching joints I have to say. So I didn’t feel like I was covering the water well at all. As I worked down though, the pressure of the water relented and eventually you could get out to waist deep in the gin clear water and reach water with a decent pace and depth. The water was utterly gin clear and unfortunately I failed to get so much as an offer which was disappointing. The foot pain was too much though and I opted to return to the car, get  my feet warmers installed in by socks and decide what to do from there. After undressing, fixing things up and getting ready again, I thought I would be as well to have a move. At that point Euan appeared from upstream. He was saying he found some fishy looking water that he would have banked on catching from but failed to get so much as an offer like myself.

The bug Euan Martin gave me lying on river ice

I decided to move upstream to the East Haugh section, Euan was going to try where I had been and then head for Moulinearn I think. That section lost a major section of banking in the winter storms.

Upstream now the sun was shining very brightly and it was starting to feel very pleasant in the sun. I dispensed with the winter head gear and was fine in my usual Simm’s fishing cap.

The river banking has taken a bit of a beating here too, with defences to prevent erosion being totally engulfed, and the bank behind having collapsed leaving the defences in place with a crater behind. All the fencing is down and you can see how high the water reached just looking at the gate to the field. The river was an astonishing height. The main beach seems much the same but the riverbed is now much larger boulders all the smaller stuff being scoured away. It was reasonably Ok to wade, though you had to watch as there were some big holes that have appeared and it went very deep very fast indeed. All that said I was able to cover a lot of water here and fished it through fairly methodically and thought if there was a fish to be had I would get something.

Another angler came by. He was I think a local and said but for a couple of wee brown trout up near Pitlochry he hadn’t found a fish either. He was also commenting that the river was near unrecognizable in places such were the changes to the riverbed.

Bugging through at the bottom of East Haugh
Still no fish.

A sun drenched hilltop with snow

It wasn’t the worst days fishing, as it was glorious to be out on such a nice day and I enjoyed it a lot. A fish would have been nice but it wasn’t for lack of effort or trying. I tried  loads of bugs, lost about half a dozen ( so I was getting down!) and  even went down to very fine tippet as the water was so clear just in case. but failed to get so much as an offer. I wonder if the reshaping of the river bed has reduced the places for the fish to get shelter behind rocks and outcrops as they all seem to be gone. And who knows where the insect life is now either. It might be a tough season ahead.