With the end of the Brown Trout season rapidly approaching now, and having had less free time in evenings to cast a line recently ( been doing a lot of night shift) Saturday was a case of weighing up my options. I already had plans for Sunday, so would Saturday be a visit to the 6 monthly open day at GAC or some time on the river. The weather was set fair, the wind hadn’t come to an awful lot, the forecast had been for stronger winds, so I decided the River would be worth a visit. Set up with my three weight bugging rod, and dispensing with the French Leader so I could quickly swap methods, as conditions dictated, I intended to fish bugs on a short line. I also thought of maybe visiting a stretch I hadn’t been to before but then decided if it was my last session of the year on the River Carron, might as well go where I knew there was some chance of finding fish.
I got down by the water and I could see there was a fairly brisk upstream wind and there was negligible flow, the river was pretty low, I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised as there hasn’t been a lot of rain of late really.
I decided to move down to the very shallow water and fish upstream towards the deeper water where I have caught fish before, fan casting up the middle of the river fishing a single dry fly and a small nymph underneath. I worked my way up maybe 20 yards and the water was rarely deeper than my knee’s and I only seen fish move further up in the deeper but very slow water ahead. I was hopeful a few fish might make themselves known under the bough of a tree where the water turned deeper, but if there was anything there it never showed. I decided to change flies, and went for a smaller darker Klink on top and another nymph, but still never got a touch. By now I was nearly waist deep in water where i wouldn’t normally be able to stand in. Fish though were moving ahead though I suspected they were mostly small. The flow though was so slow that with a dry on it was often drifting upstream under the influence of the wind rather than the push of the river.
There were clouds of midge like flies where the fish were showing so I down sized to a small dark olive dry fly without the nymph but still no reaction from the fish. The next section was much shallower water but there were fish showing there too and before I moved here I changed to a small CDC dry, think size 16 Yellow Owl and you wouldn’t be far away. First cast and a fish took, but alas it got off as it was merely a tiddler and maybe I lifted a bit hard. I dried the fly off using the rubber band method ( with out this today I would have been changing flies all the time) and cast again, rising another fish and this time bringing it successfully to hand to be unhooked. Only a wee Brown not much bigger than hand length but welcome. A few more rises and off’s and then a better fish this time close to half a pound, brought in and released. Almost immediately another, slightly smaller and this one had incurred a wee bit damage to its mouth with the struggle against the hook. Not sure what the source of the bleeding was but it didn’t look too bad when unhooked and he swam off OK. Hopefully it will heal, it was to small to take in any case.
As I worked my way up this water no more than deep enough to cover my wading boots, I was getting quite a few small fish many didn’t stay on but it was good fun. Soon though I realised I wasn’t getting a reaction, and on checking the fly I could see the rib was broken and it was looking a bit sorry for itself, but had done OK considering the action. The next section is deeper and pushes a bit more purposefully so I hoped I might pick up better fish here. The slightly “poplier” ( that is a word, right?) water though made it hard to see the fly, but I changed to another similar though not exactly the same fly. I initially rose a fish and then hooked into a better fish, but never realised I was right under the branches of a tree and as I lifted into the fish, I caught the tip of the rod in the leaves and branches above. I couldn’t move and the struggle with the rod and tree was enough time for the fish to escape.
Once released from the entangling twigs, I moved up the run. The problem here was the fly was very small and the water was very disrupted and trying to keep sight of the fly in this was near impossible. As it fished down towards me I thought I saw the slightest change in the pattern of water around where I thought my fly was, again I lifted and there was a strong pull in protest at the end of the line, the fish headed own to the right and I kept tension on but suddenly something didn’t feel right. There was stil weight on the end of the line and I kept the tension on but it was coming too easy, and then the reason became obvious. The fish had headed down into a large clump of weed and managed to extract itself from the hook. On one hand I was disappointed to not have the fish, on the other I was amazed I even seen the fish take in the first place.
I decided to swap onto a more visible Klinkhammer, and fished the rest of the run, as I had fished up I seen a much bigger fish jump near the small falls at the top, maybe a big trout but more likely a small grilse or even sea trout. When i got to where I had seen it I never got any sign it was still there, and the water was still quite shallow.
I decided to run some bugs down the run on the way back to where I entered the water, the movement was conducive to this style of fishing, so I removed my leader, and fixed a couple of bugs onto the line, using the leader loop as my makeshift indicator. So back down the run with my two bugs. About halfway down I got a fish, just wee Brown Trout of no real size and that was it. My Brown Trout Season on the River Carron was done.
Its been a great wee river and I hope maybe next season I will be able to try some other spots. Over the winter I will try to maybe get out for a walk in a few new spots and see how things look.
I have some video from this outing that once I have time I will post on YouTube so remember to subscribe to my channel