Ok despair is a bit of a dramatic term, this is “only” fishing after all, but my recent outings have not been much to write home or blog about. A bunch of big fat blanks seems to be the order of the day. I was out on Sunday evening for a few hours along at Swanswater. I spotted a couple of freshwater eels that looked to be getting “jiggy wid it” maybe you can see them in this wee video I have attached.
It was a lovely night to be out but the fish weren’t making it easy. On the contrary I spoke to a couple of guys who had been there for a full 8 hour “shift” and had barely had a touch, never mind a landed a fish.
As I arrived a chap was landing a belter of a Rainbow by the dam wall but he admitted he had not seen much move in his time there either, and was fishing damsels to get some interest. In my couple of hours I seen plenty wild brownies but would have to say nothing of meaningful size made itself known to me.
So this blog I was going to write about a few items of tackle I have “discovered” this season but, it will have to wait, ‘cos I made it out onto the river Carron last night and though it initially looked like I was set for another blank, it all came right in the end.
I fished a section upstream from the Horsemill Inn section that I have fished a couple of times before. Its a bit of a trudge through some fields to get to, and I seen there were a couple of bait anglers at the next corner up from where I intended to start so that sort of put the kybosh on any option to wander upstream.
I set up with a single dry fly on my Furled leader and 4lb tippet. I was just using a small BWO type pattern. There were a few fish rising but they all looked small ( though you can never really be sure unless they leap out the water) and it was far from clear what they were taking, likely opportunism as there were everything from midges to duns on the water. The next couple of hours ended up a test of patience. I tried small and I tried large but had nothing but a few flicks from tiddlers to show for my efforts. I would return to my spot on the bank and watch a while to see the fish rising then move to cover them but was shown disdain. By this time I was down to 2lb tipper as 4lb looked like anchor chain on the water and I felt it must be spooking the fish. Even the 2lb Stroft looked heavy on the water, despite the fact I can barely see it to tie a fly on. It also tends to twist a lot with more heavily hackled flies and I was getting in a bit of a mess after a couple of dozen casts. I decided to rerig to a Varivas Dry fly leader and with a tippet ring on , tie a length of 4lb Stroft again hoping the ring might sink the leader a bit more. This worked better on the night I have to say, though the Varivas leader had a bit memory I could not get rid of and was coiling up a bit when I presented the fly.
A spinner with its egg sac on the River Carron ( well on my finger actually)
On the way down to my fishing spot I had noticed a few fish rising in the shallow pool above the shallow rocks that allowed water to run into the pool I was fishing. I have never really seen fish here before and it is pretty shallow so figured it must be small fish. I thought I might give it a wee cast as I returned back to the car. It was looking like this time had been reached, and out of the corner of my eye I could see more fish moving on this back edge of the long shallow pool. I had tied on a “spent” split wing CDC pattern to hopefully replicate the many tired out looking bugs that were falling on the water. I managed to catch a wee fly with an egg sac attached to the tail (see photo), so there was scope for spent flies I felt.
Fish rising on the back edge of a pool after sunset
My second cast over the rising fish got a take and I had hooked a small wild fish, not really tiny, but not a fish of any size, about 6 or 7 inches, it flicked off the hook as I brought it to hand. With the fly dried and re treated I covered more rising fish. By now there were loads of fish rising as the sun set beyond the horizon. They were rising no more than a couple of feet from me. I reckoned they would be mostly tiddlers though. My next cast proved this wrong, there was a tiny rise to my fly and I thought I had a small one on, it was kind of hard to tell with the 3 weight rod, until the fish decided to pull back, it was a very decent fish, that I reckon is probably another grown on wild fish, it had no marks to suggest otherwise. Maybe around half a pound or so, quite long and it had really taken the fly so it was a return to my kit bag for the forceps I had left on the bank, before I could let the fish go, it swum off well though.
A surprising fish from fairly shallow water caught on a spent fly pattern in the dusk of mid summer. Fish released
I fished on into the gloom and had another two nice slightly smaller fish before I felt I ought to be getting back to the car before it got too dark to see. As I packed up my gear beside the river for the walk back the rises stopped and the river felt silent. You wouldn’t think there was a fish there.
