Fly Fishing Lightweight

I am guilty of carrying too much when I go out fishing, far, far too much. Too many flies, too much other unnecessary stuff, cameras, mini tripods, a wading staff when arguably it isn’t needed, a drone, a drone controller and batteries…snacks, drinks…the list goes on. But then fishing is only really part of what I enjoy when I am out and most of what I carry allows me to make the content I want to have to share on this website.

Well on Sunday I decided, f*** it, not today, I stuffed a few fly boxes in my pockets- OK I probably still had too many with me, but it meant I could swap tactics where I saw fit.

I was however fairly fixated on fishing dry fly, unless I was really, really pushed towards nymphs. I decided to head down the Denovan Road, a convenient roadside section of the River Carron which has on occasion provided a lot of good sport. OK, it does tend to have more small fish than decent-sized on overall balance but the odd half-decent fish can often be found as well in amongst the tiddlers. I hadn’t fished here since pre-COVID believe it or not, so fancied the change. And finally, being on call meant I wasn’t to be too far from the car if I had to head home at short notice.

I took a wander to the riverside before I even tackled up and watched what was happening for a good ten minutes. Nothing obvious rose, I thought I heard the odd plop but never took it in visually. I couldn’t help but notice a broken tree in the section, the water was clear, but not gin clear, and there was enough to tell me that the deeper pockets would certainly be deep enough to shelter larger fish. As I was about to turn back to the car to get geared up and still mulling over whether Owas I really going to stick to the plan and fish dries, a fish obligingly rose about 20 metres downstream in the shallower water. It was pretty evident it was no big fish but it at least swayed me to decide to try to find a way into the river further down and fish up approaching the more promising sections from below which had to be the best way.

As I got my gear together I was putting it in my rucksack when suddenly I thought, nope, don’t need that, don’t need that, ..what can I fit in my pockets…and that was it I was fishing lightweight, unencumbered by a tackle bag, camera or anything else unnecessary. The only exception is a bottle of juice (a soft drink for the non-Scottish). It was really quite liberating, I didn’t have to think about putting my bag on the bank and collecting it to move every now and then or returning to it when I needed something that wasn’t in my pockets.

I found access to the river through some thorny bushes and made my way across the river to the deeper side which made casting easier in the stiff breeze that kept appearing. So far it had been dry all day but rain never looked far away especially when the breeze lifted.

There was nothing of real note fly life-wise on the water, plenty of tiny wee midges ( a size 30 representation would still have been far too big). So I tied on a general CDC and Deer hair dry as this has worked for me before. It’s a fairly useful prospecting fly. Not that small but it would certainly be seen.

After covering the first 10 metres or so, slowly and methodically and not seeing a single fish move, I had another fly change, this time a Jingler. Maybe not the time of year for March Browns but again it can be a reasonable attractor. Again nothing though I did finally see a fish rise about 10 meters ahead in the main flow. I covered it to no reward and decided another fly change was on the cards. A small black midge pattern now- I could barely see it but again, nothing doing.

Would Klink and Dink be better? Only one way to find out, on with a Pheasant tail Klink indicator fly and a small 47 Nymph, a favourite and creation of now passed, Cailean Moore, a fly he developed on this river. Nothing doing to that either. Even in the deeper holes under tree branches and between roots. I tried along the line of the fallen tree thinking something might be hiding there. Not a touch. By now though as soon as a nymph had gone on the point under the dry a fish had risen further upstream, again probably a small fish. I was quite prepared to change tack again as I got nearer should it show itself again.

It surprised me how deep the water was along the side of the fallen tree. I managed to snag my duo in some branches and had to try to recover it but it got too deep for comfort trying to get across. I had to try a sharp tug figuring the tippet would part losing both flies but no, the leaf ripped away and I saved the lot!

It shallows up again so back to a single dry fly, I went back to another deer hair pattern, this time a very small LTD Sedge. Then witnessing a few slashy rises I thought actually the fish might be on emergers as they were trying to get them before they lifted off ( whatever “them” was). No fly type was obvious. For the first time, I managed to rise a fish on a very small black parachute fly. In fact, I rose a couple, again pretty small I reckon but encouraging.

What was evident though was having been fooled to at least take a look, they weren’t coming a second time.

Yet another change, a very small nymph solo on a high-sticked rod just to cover some pretty hard-to-access holes. Still nothing. Frustratingly looking back downstream I witnessed something rise not once but at least three times under an overhanging branch where I had tried earlier and where I have caught several fish over the years. Why could it not do that when I was back there? Typical.

I was running short on ideas, but now on with a CDC Greenwells, a pattern that can be very effective but can also be incredibly hard to spot as it sits right in the film and is all but invisible as it drifts towards you. First cast and something rose at it but missed. Then a few more casts later and literally not five metres from me a fish did, for a second manage to hook itself on the fly. I say hook itself because as I say it’s an incredibly hard pattern to spot its position in the water especially when drifted on changeable currents like here. I could really only guess where I thought it was and by the time I realised the wee swirl was actually at my fly, and lifted to feel the wee trout for a few seconds on the 4-weight rod I was using, it had already flung the hook and was off.

No more activity was offered in my direction and as the skies darkened indicating another July downpour was on the cards, I decided to call it a day….I had pretty much run out of ideas by then anyway. The fish were fickle and were not going to be fooled more than once. But it was nice not having too much gear with me for once and made for an easy few hours on the river.