Several seasons ago, probably eight….where has the time gone? I got a Lamington and District Angling Improvement Association season ticket. I think it was a winter ticket for Grayling. Though I fished the Clyde a few times that year, the weather was particularly cold, and the fishing brutally hard and I never actually made it on to any of the LDAIA water.
While I have hoped to visit many times since it just has not happened. When I have occasionally had a UCAPA Clyde season ticket, I have wanted to get the value from it and tend to fish that water. Add into the mix that it is quite a run from Stirling to this particular stretch and maybe you can see how a visit here just never happened.
Yesterday I changed that. I was in Motherwell to sit the CAA PCFO exam. ( That is a Drone pilot exam if you have never heard of it) and being done by 2pm I decided to head to the Clyde, and literally on the spur of the moment opted for the Lamington stretch. I nipped into Anglers Attic at Wishaw ( somewhere else I have never been!) and purchased a ticket which meant I had no annoying detours to find somewhere to get a permit, I could focus on just getting there.
As I say its a fair drive, and the long and the short of it is that I found myself at Wolfclyde Bridge. There were a few motors there already ( I was a little surprised it being mid-afternoon, midweek) and after a look over the bridge started to get tackled up.
Good Karma
As I did so a van pulled away on the other side of the road and turned round to head back over the bridge, but then pulled in. I kind of spotted the driver glance at me, and thought maybe it was someone wanting info about the fishing here ( not exactly the best person to ask it has to be said!) or maybe they thought I was someone else.
It turned out it was Marc, one of the followers of my Facebook page and who had won a wee collection of flies from a wee competition I was running only last week. I had no idea who he was, but he knew me and introduced himself. What are the chances of that? it isn’t like Marc is a local to the area either, he comes from Midlothian.
We had quite a chat as I got geared up- so that took a while, as Marc commented, I take an awful lot of gear when I go fishing…. but there is always the blog to think about! It also turned out I had in my haste to put fishing gear in my car in the morning, ( my focus was on drone stuff for the test) I forgot my net. I was not going to worry myself, I probably wouldn’t catch a thing, but Marc convinced me I really should as pound to a penny I would get something and regret no net. He had a spare in his van and very kindly loaned me it- trust me Marc I will get it back to you somehow…. maybe need a wee meet up on the Esk?
On my way
Anyway, he was going back to work and I headed off downstream. I don’t know this water at all so had no real idea where I was going and both Marc and an older gent I was talking to down the bank a bit both said they thought it was still maybe a bit high and coloured after recent rains. It looked OK colour-wise to me ( a dark stain but not dirty) but maybe higher than normal here I really don’t know.
I was taking the opportunity to fly my drone as I had it with me, to get another segment for my Let’s Fly the Clyde Videos and then as I was talking to the older guy a few fish started moving near the far bank. I couldn’t see what they were taking, the swirls suggested emergers just subsurface. I only had one rod with me set up for nymphing on a French Leader so decided to have a go. One heavy bug on point and a pale olive wet spider on the dropper. The water was shallower than it looked and wading was pretty easy here though the water was pushing through a bit. The wind though was much worse than I had anticipated and line control was a bit of a nightmare. I got very close to where the fish were moving but had no show of interest despite a few fly changes too.
Glad I had the net after all
Eventually, the activity stopped and I realised time was passing, though I had fished a reasonable patch of water, so I carried on my way downriver. There were lots of spots that looked promising though maybe a bit deep- very dark looking, so I stopped where access looked easier, some fairly fast water and started to fish. I realised soon enough the pace was pretty fierce here and I could not get that far out from the bank before I was starting to “roll” on the bottom. Not a nice feeling. However, with two fairly heavy bugs on I was getting down OK and very quickly hooked a fish. In the very fast water, it really put a bend in the rod but there was no mistaking the headshaking of a nice Grayling that I got to Marc’s net; about 25-28cms long.
Once returned I felt kind of confident that despite the wind I might get more fish here but though I did feel what I thought were a few knocks I never hooked anything else Until I changed my point fly for a Red Tag Jig and almost right away hooked a fish that was clearly pretty small and it flicked off as I brought it close. I never actually got to see it but would imagine it was another ( smaller) Grayling.
I fished on for a good while and got no more offers when I did manage to venture further out in the water I took the opportunity to try swinging some wets through the water I had not been able to reach when bugging but this never got me any results.
I slowly made my way along the bank and was thoroughly enjoying my evening on the water on the Clyde. There wasn’t much showing and maybe the conditions were not “perfect” but it was nice and it had me thinking about my fishing and tactics which is no bad thing.
There was a very obvious looking feed lane as I walked up and I decided to see how I fared wading towards it. I couldn’t quite reach it as close as would have liked and I ended up having to use a three fly set up, two heavy bugs and a wet fly to get on the bottom and I did, I think ,detect a couple of small plucks though who knows, maybe it was just an obstruction. The river was though on the whole kind to me, and I never got fatally stuck on the bottom at any time, I was always able to pull things free.
Again I was fishing fairly methodically taking a step, casting twice, then another step, covering all the water. As it got darker and cooler I detected movement above me and I stepped back to watch and there was one fish definitely, rising consistently about every 30 seconds. There was a distinct cadence to its rhythm.
Damn, no dry fly set up…. but then I remembered I had thrown a spare reel with a line on, in my bag. It was actually a 4# line and I was fishing a 3# rod but I figured it being a DT line and keeping the range short anyway, it would do. In the event, it cast quite well. The only problem was, what to cast?
I could see sedge on the water but they didn’t seem to be over the feed line and it really did not look like this was what was being taken. I also saw a lot of small spent, pale olive ( nearly yellow) flies stuck in the surface film come by me as I was wading into the bank and decided to try something of that nature. I was torn whether to try a CDC Greenwells ( which I had fished already with the bugs to no effect but it was so like the spent flies I could see) or try a wee CDC Comparadun pale olive. The wee Comparadun won and I tied it on. It was about a #16 or #18. I waded as close as I possibly could get, which was very hard work in the current, but it really wasn’t close enough to be able to get more than a couple of feet of drag-free drift before the fly was visibly being pulled by the line. I was trying a slackline cast and while it helped it never got any attention from the fish.
I retreated for a moment and tied on a small F Fly as I suddenly realised my sedge patterns were in another box in my bag. It was getting too dark too quickly for me to really have the time to go back in so the F Fly would need to do. With it on I think I cast maybe twice, my casts looked fairly accurate and at no time was I even close to lining the fish but suddenly activity just stopped. Whether it was me, the encroaching dark, change in temperature or what, I won’t ever know. The river was telling me to go home.
So I did, but like Arnie says, “I’ll be back”.
