What a weekend we are having weather-wise. It seems summer has returned for one last flourish before I suspect Autumn starts to extend its chilly tendrils into our year.
With plans to fish Saturday and Monday (it’s an English Bank Holiday and consequently everyone is off at my work, so I took days leave too) I wanted to get out somewhere different. I don’t think I fished the wee burn last year, I don’t actually recall, it has been a while and I usually find myself up there when the finer weather around May and early June sees the wind drop.
The winds have been a constant this summer and if there is a mild breeze at house level, it will be blowing a gale up there and so it is incredibly hard to fish. But I observed that it was pretty still, so maybe one opportunity to get out on the hills if nothing else it is somewhere different to take my daily constitutional.
When I got up there it was evident there is still a LOT of water coming down off the higher ground and it was very peat stained. Right away I was thinking this might be a bit of a dead loss. I think I have encountered high water here once before and it was very hard to find a fish, in fact, that time I think I blanked which is unusual on the burn.
With all my gear packed and having donned waders at the house before I left, I was quickly off across the boggy moorland and down the valley. Two paces here is the equivalent of 10 paces on paved pathways, with the ground being so lumpy and uneven not to mention waterlogged. But at least it’s ( mostly) downhill. The trek back would be harder!
There are a few pools I like to fish along the way and the first one, I call it the Cascade, is a bit of a bellwether for the burn. If there is nothing doing here, you know it is going to be very hard to find a fish. I stopped here to set up my rod and watch what was happening. Usually, when I come here, there are fish rising freely and there re lots of insects about. Granted, it is later in the season than normal so the upwinged “Mayflies” have relented giving way to Caddis. There were a few Caddis about and I did see two rises to them but it wasn’t prolific. My set up was the French Leader with a heavy (ish) small bug with a wee orange collar and a small Greenwells spider on a dropper above.
My first few casts had no reaction at all, then suddenly my persistence in casting to a particular spot paid off and I had a fair old thump. The fish had taken the bug and definitely was not happy to come up near the surface. It pulled very hard for a burn fish and was racing all over the pool. That wasn’t a great thing I reckoned, It took me a good minute to get the fish ( a much bigger than typical burn Brown trout) subdued and finally I got its head on the surface. It had that oversized head look of totally wild fish and as I was about 2 feet from netting it, it suddenly was off. I can only think it was nicked by the hook and once I was taking the fish’s weight free of water it was enough to pull the hook. Still a great fight and a nice wee surprise to start my wanderings.
I stuck with this set up in this pool working my way up towards the waterfall and hooked a second much smaller trout on the wet fly but it soon flicked itself off my barbless hook as wee fish are apt to do.
There wasn’t really a lot happening though and the water while not dirty looking was inky black with the deep staining from the recent rains. I opted to head on downstream to my next spot, the Fence pool.
On the way, some of the riffles were deeper than usual. In the past, it’s not been unusual to pull the odd small trout out of some holes or behind rocks in this shallow fast water. If there were any in residence today they were keeping their heads down. I suspect with the amount of water ( evident by the grasses that were flattened out from the burn sometimes as far as 20 feet to the side) that many will have been washed downstream to slower water or simply just moved into the deeper pools to ride out the tempest.
A local councillor was telling me the other day, that the heavy rain we had in June was estimated to be a once in 350-year event.
There are a couple of small pockets I usually try and though much deeper than usual, again I had no interest. Crossing a collapsed wall something caught my peripheral vision, and there was a very small almost black lizard. I think it was 2014 when I encountered a very fat almost iridescent green lizard up these hills, and on looking into it learned these are “Common Lizards”. So common it took me 50 years to encounter one. It is surprising you get cold-blooded reptiles this far north. You can only imagine the cold these wee things endure up here in winter.
I thought I would keep an eye out for more on my way back up the valley on my return. At the Fence Pool, I stopped and watched to see if anything was rising. Nothing.
Changing Tack
I changed my point fly for a smaller lighter Perdigone and changed the dropper to a small black spider. No interest in the usual spots under the bank. I pondered my options. What about trying a couple of wet flies?
Off with the Perdigone and on with the wee Greenwells spider again. I cast it over a deep spot where another small burn converges with the main flow. Almost the instant they landed not one but two heads emerged from the water grabbing both my flies!
Like buses, nothing for ages then two come at once. Both were reasonable sized trout for the wee burn and though they seemed eager to head off in different directions, my 1kg tippet held firm and they were both netted.
I gave a few more casts but nothing more. I had noted that the two wets had been snatched the instant they touched down. I wondered if maybe a CDC Greenwells might be a better point fly. Thinking I had one on my patch I went to look. I was wrong, but the wee pale olive F Fly I tried on the Clyde was there. I could not be bothered going back to my bag to fish the spiders out so tied on the dry fly. The first cast it touched down and right away another fish was straight up and on the fly. Another nice sized fish. I suspect coming up here later in the season, has given this year’s trout that have managed to evade predation by Herons and Otters ( never saw any evidence of them here but it would not surprise me if there were some) a chance to grow on a bit.
With this fish released I decided another cast. Once again over the turbulent water and once again a fast solid take but this time a better fish. This one took me a lot more care to get to the net as it raced up and down the pool in front of me but netted it was. Easily one of the bigger fish I have caught up here, a lovely big finned wild fish, a giant for the burn, long and fairly lean with big fins and bright colours. It really made my day.
Activity dried up after that and I tried on down the valley at a few more spots, the Whispering Woods, Barbed Wire Corner, at the top of the “Gorge” and then down in the long slow glide by the Old Wall. This last pool can be a bit of a heartbreaker at times. It is very all or nothing. In past times I have fished all the way up and had some sort of offer or a fish from the shallow tail-out, through the deep glide and in the deep faster head of the pool. One of my best burn fish came from here. I did see a couple of rises as I sat and watched before wetting the line here this time but never had so much as a touch today. Not to the dry, wets, or in the end a wee run through with a nymph.
Fickle creatures.
Not like the Lizards. I became aware of lots of winged ants appearing on the top of the wall that runs parallel to the pool. Then I caught sight of a lizard. This was dinner time.
The wee lizard bolted at my initial movement but waiting patiently it re-emerged. We watched each other for a few minutes, as long as I moved slowly it didn’t seem bothered, then losing interest it moved off to find more ants.
A Common Lizard 
Head shot of a Common Lizard 
Lizard on a wall 
Lizard in the cracks 
Through the grass
The sun was already behind the woods and I decided that I should start to head back as I was on Dinner making duty when I got home and the walk up is never as easy as the walk down the valley.
I did though keep an eye out for more lizards and found more ( again where there were flying ants around) and managed a wee bit video and a few photos.
A very enjoyable afternoon, fishing isn’t just about catching fish.
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