Into the Freezer

Sunday was a River Annan winter open day for the Grayling. Usually, the meet-up point is at the Lockerbie Truck Stop but this one was based at Johnstonebridge Community Centre where Rolls and Bacon and a hot cup of tea or coffee was ready for anyone intrepid enough to make it. It has been very cold of late and much of Scotland was subject to a Yellow Weather warning for snow, though to put it in perspective, Yellow Weather warnings these days are more common than mail deliveries or trains running on time! We barely have a day without one so I barely pay attention to them.

While it was forecast to be exceptionally cold and indeed Saturday had been, when I took a deep breath and opened the front door to head out to the car it was surprisingly mild. I don’t mean it was actually warm, it was still about zero degrees C, but there was no frost and little to no ice to speak of. The drive south though soon ventured into colder conditions as I headed into the higher ground south of Glasgow and it was soon about -4C and there was snow on the motorway, and snow falling though not especially heavy.

I can’t deny a little trepidation and I wondered if the rear-wheel drive BMW estate I now run, was a great replacement for the 4×4’s I have had for the last 10 years. Maybe that wasn’t so clever, we shall see. My mate John was already nearly at Johnstonebridge as I hit the grim weather and assured me it wasn’t bad at all down in Annandale. He was in his big chunky Navarra. He should have had Radek and Marcin along as well but….”too early” .

At Johnstonebridge there were about a dozen of us hardy foolish enough to have made it out of 30 who had signed up. Maybe not great for the organisers but on the flip side we had a choice of where to fish. I fancied trying somewhere new to me and as time was kind of knocking on once we were done with breakfast, I wasn’t really looking for a long drive further. I do fancy an outing to Newbie this winter but I think I will leave that for a day when I just head straight there and basically start fishing as it’s a long run from home anyway and to add the extra on to the open days seemed a waste of maybe another 45 minutes potential fishing time.

We were offered basically the whole Upper Annandale Estates beat to ourselves and the parking location was little more than a couple of miles from Johnstonebridge….Ideal.

Now don’t get me wrong, if winter Grayling days are a numbers game for the angler, UA probably isn’t the section for you. I have fished the upper river lots of times and this would be the second time for me on UA water. It’s not an area where you are going to be filling your net with fish. But when you do get one its almost bound to be a good one. Small fish are notable by their absence this far up the Annan. I had as yet to catch a fish on the UA water, though last time we were this far up, John had a couple in as many casts at the start of our day before like me, having nothing for the rest of the outing!

The road to the parking spot was short but pretty sketchy in the Beemer and the traction control was making itself known but nonetheless, we made it. As soon as we both exited our respective vehicles to get tackled up the cold really hit us. It was utterly Baltic. I was already wearing about three layers anyway and donned a further two in gearing up. I have to say though, while I may have looked a bit like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man from Ghostbusters I was never cold to any real extent all day…there is no such thing as too cold just inappropriately dressed!

We wandered down to the river, which was just across a field and it took us to a fairly deep, clear pool that proved to be impossible to cross ( I tried), John had a wee fish in the deeper water and its partner back-eddy while I went to find somewhere easier to get in. I ended up sliding down a snow-covered bank about 10 feet high- it was quite fun, to reach the water. While it initially shelved off quite fast it then as suddenly shallower off again and I was soon able to reach the far side. I did have a wee fish in the gin-clear water as I went but I reckon had there been anything there I would probably have seen it anyway such was the clarity. I went and fished upstream and though it looked very flat and canal like it was slightly deceiving as the water though not moving fast or with any great force, was moving more than you would imagine from the bank, was deeper than it looked for a fair stretch and was perfectly fishable in an upstream direction which was ideal with the clarity as it was.

I managed to fish pretty thoroughly a stretch about 50metres long at most covering a fair bit of water quite well but never encountered a fish, though there were one or two spots that looked like they held more promise than they evidently did in the end. John had gone the other direction and around lunchtime we met up, neither of us having had any joy and running out of fishable water within easy reach. We would need to commit to either upstream or downstream it seemed after a break for lunch in search of deeper water or maybe a promising pool.

We were both quite warm by the time we reached the cars, though it was a cracking day to be on the river with no wind, and bright sunshine that made the cold air totally tolerable though it never got above zero all day.

After a hot soup and some tea we made our way downstream a bit further, John had spotted some water a bit further down that held promise and we headed off. I fished a section John had tried from the other bank earlier, there was a very fishy-looking corner and though I had a few tugs, I suspect it was just the flies snagging bottom.

John fished a long straight and then down where the river split and then further down still. I followed along at my own pace and fished some of the deeper water here too, before the old aches and pains started to catch up with me a little and my hip started to bother me. I don’t know if it is the weight of my wading boots, or the bulk of all the layers but I find sometimes when I am out in winter I start to get pain that stops me from lifting my right leg more and more like an excessive strain on the tendons in front of my hip and it comes on quite rapidly. I knew I could walk no further without the risk I might not make it back to the car!

I had put my rod down to watch John from a distance…when I went to pick my rod back up- the second top section had broken! I have no idea if I had put the rod down too heavily or had in someway damaged it and not noticed but that was the kybosh put on my day. I did have a couple of spare rods back at the car but it was a good distance away and it would have been dark by the time I reached it and got back assuming I could have walked that far with my hip pain- I barely made it back to the car as it was so there was no chance! So not the best end to an otherwise fishless but nonetheless lovely winters day out. Not sure when my next Grayling outing will be, probably after Christmas now I suspect.