I was lying in bed, it was about 9am and I was contemplating what to do. Fishing was in the plan for the day but exactly what that would entail I really was not sure. The river (Carron) was mostly discounted as it was so low last time and I don’t think there has been any rain of significance since I was out there. I could maybe go to a local fishery but wasn’t sure where….then I picked up my phone and noticed I had a missed call and there was a message in my inbox… “did I fancy some fishing today” it said, a message from Radek.
Long and short was he fancied a day on the Tummel, I think with a view to reconnaissance for his competitive exploits in the SNFFL league. I agreed (assuming there was much water) that it was worth a run, so I was up out of bed, a couple of slices of toast scoffed and the gear thrown in the back of the car, after logging in and getting a permit. I wasn’t rushing particularly, Radek had said he was just having his breakfast anyway and he lives down Hamilton way so he has about 30 mins more driving to do to get up to Perthshire.
He wanted to try at East Haugh which is a funny section to access…..when you know you know, when you don’t you are probably the cause of either a 20-mile queue of traffic behind you or a ten car pile up. This is the first time I have been to a beat with an access track like this since I sold my Rangey and in my replacement car, I need to drive a bit more gingerly to avoid ripping the backside out of it.
There were other anglers kitting up at the end of the track and it transpired they were guys Radek knew from the SNFFL as well. We were all tackled up about the same time, they seemed to be heading upstream ( not a direction I have ever been before) and so we went downstream. Radek wanted to know what various spots were like and as I have fished this lower half of the beat fairly often I was able to tell him a few areas where I have picked up fish before, especially when the water ( as now) was fairly low. It wasn’t “on its bones” but the main river channel is fairly narrow by Tummel standards.
As we had geared up at the cars, the sun was shining and while it wasn’t roasting hot, it made me swither whether to bother with my undersuit under my waders. I thought probably if we were going to be walking much I might be too warm. As I entered the river for the first time I realised this was maybe a bit of a mistake. The clouds suddenly covered the sun, that cold breeze that’s characterized the weather this last few weeks of otherwise fine weather, and the river was very cold feeling. I was almost ready to head back to the car ( not a short distance) to put the undersuit on. By the end of the day I was probably glad I didn’t but the morning was not the warmest time I have spent on the river. Not that I was in for long on my first efforts.
My line was set up with a tapered leader and a three fly tippet for fishing wets and I headed to the tail out of the lower pool and fished the wets in here for a short while. I never had any obvious offers to take my flies but I did notice what I think was a bit of a boil on the surface as if something perhaps followed the flies up as they swung round below me on one cast. Radek had started up where I had pulled a few ( small) fish out on my last visit here and seemed to be hitting a few fish on the bugs. He had a nice Brown and I witnessed him netting a Grayling just up from me and he was getting them all off the bottom so I retreated to the bank to rerig for Euro-Nymphing. This took me 10 minutes to swap leaders and choose some flies. I was pretty sure I knew what fly was working for Radek and when I asked my suspicions were confirmed…..we all have favourites don’t we?
I fished the area Radek had fished through already so my optimism was not high that I would pick up any of the “scraps” left by him. He had wandered off further downstream and I decided to try a little further up in a spot I picked up an ( out of season) Brown Trout previously. While there the sun finally emerged, and there was a little heat in it when the breeze wasn’t making itself felt. That wind was really annoying through the whole day, either swirling upstream or changing and blowing downstream. It made line control in particular very difficult indeed. Suddenly, in the heat and sunlight, I was surrounded by fly life. I had not seen any flies on the water since we arrived, now I was surrounded by quite small upwinged flies, which judging by the tone of their wings more than anything, I would say were Blue Winged Olives, no bigger than a size 16 but loads of them. As the wind dropped for a second they were landing on my hands and on my baseball cap.
I tried to get a shot ( left-handed) with my phone while still holding my rod in my left hand as well but it was incredibly difficult to manipulate the phone and inbuilt camera like this, so the resultant photo isn’t great but you get an idea of the flies that appeared. No fish rose to benefit from the sudden bounty of life released from the river, but it just shows how the sun and temperature suddenly triggers events on the river. When I returned to meet with Radek, he said he had seen the explosion of flies where he was as well. I think he said he had had one other small Brown Trout to his name. All I had managed was one potentially “turned” fish on the wets and I think I had had one knock on the bugs ( and even that might have just been a snag into weeds).
We mulled what to do next and headed upstream to initially try some water I know then we wandered on up past the fishing hut to explore pastures new. I ventured off the track and across what in higher water, would be an island and decided to fish the channel beyond. This turned out to be a deeper channel than maybe at first sight you would imagine and I gave it quite a thorough fish through. Radek had wandered a bit further upstream and eventually returned reporting that the water was all kind of flat and featureless and not much good for anything other than maybe wet fly or dry fly fishing. I do like my dry fly fishing but in general, you need to be getting some sort of indication that there were fish looking up, so far there had been none.
Radek had a go in the run behind me and was losing a few bugs on the snaggy bottom which I think was frustrating him somewhat. So far I had only lost one bug though I was definitely getting down as evidenced by the weed I was having to clean from my point fly now and again. I think Radek does fish a bit heavier than me and the Tummel with its bouldery bottom is fairly unforgiving when your flies land in between the rocks.
He wanted to go somewhere else after maybe getting something to eat up in Pitlochry, I was content to explore further here so after a blether he headed off with a view to maybe come back down to the river again in the evening ( not sure if he did) while I opted to give it another hour or so before heading back home. I wandered upstream and indeed it was pretty flat and featureless but I was keeping an eye out for signs of fish rising. It was a little warmer now and where I was regretting the lack of undersuit earlier, in the hazy sunshine it was pleasantly warm when the wind dropped and I was glad for not to be overdressed. That wind though was a constant nuisance, and could not make its mind up whether to blow upstream or down.
As I wandered along the track I spotted a receding ring of disturbed water, It may have been waterfowl or may have been a fish or even a small bird bathing, so I kept my eye on the area and other it was again, then again. I was getting close enough now that I could be pretty sure this wasn’t a bird. I chose to skirt around a tree and stay back from the bank as I got closer so I did not get into the fish’s line of sight. The disturbances were small, and not always in the exact same position. It might have been a smaller fish, it may have been several. I now had a bit of a visual marker for the location as nearing the river I notice a rowing boat tied to the bank and it gave me reference to judge where these potential fish were sitting. It became evident that there was also a sparse but nonetheless visible foam line hear- in other words, a feeding lane. I decided to remove my nymphing leader and replace it with a 12foot 7X Varivas Dry fly leader and to put on a small size 16 BWO pattern. I honestly could not see any fly life in any volume to suggest the fish were picking flies off the surface but it was all I had seen at close enough range to have any frame of reference to try with. I did however notice a couple of flies land on the water in the vicinity while I sat observing, and these were larger and looked almost bright yellow- akin to the Yellow May Duns you sometimes see on the Clyde around May Time. If that is indeed what these were, despite their movement and their size, the fish took no heed and they were ignored as they crossed the position the rises had happened in.
I was by now not that optimistic my own fly choice was right but give it a go. The wind, for now was almost head-on and despite the tapered leader and properly sized fly for my tippet, getting a nice presentation without the wind making the line coil was a problem. There was I reckon three fish in the vicinity of the boat but none rose for my fly, though my casting wasn’t putting them off at all as the dimples appeared in and around my casts.
I still could see no surface activity and wondered where they feeding just below. While I was with Radek we had been discussing some other rivers, the Dee and the Don, two I have never been to. I had mentioned a fly that one of the fly tiers at the Stirling Fly fishing expo a few years back had espoused as a favourite on these rivers, a wee Snowshoe Rabbit merger. I had one in my box now and decided to give it a go. It has the benefit apart from looking very buggy of having the prominent and visible white tuft of snowshoe rabbit that makes tracking it downriver easy.
With this on and the tuft of white fur dusted with Dessicant, I put it over the positions of the fish I had so far observed. The rises had slowed a little and I wasn’t sure if maybe these fish had gone off the feed. Nothing looked at my flies though again some of my presentations were not great with the wind. I then spotted another fish rise right out in the river, maybe 10 metres out. it was a bit of a reach with a 3 weight rod, and a DT line in the wind, but I decided to try angling my cast so that it was slightly downstream and only the fly would be seen by the fish. Both my first and second casts to this fish were perfect but no interest was shown. I was even getting a long drag-free drift as long as I kept pace, walking with the river as my line drifted down.
Then another fish rose maybe 3 metres further out again and slightly upstream. I really did not fancy my chances as this was a very long cast for such a soft rod, but I threw in a double haul and somehow fly and line went out arrow straight, the fly landed maybe 2 feet above the rise position, it drifted down right over the target and then disappeared in a dimple. I lifted and fish on! I really should not say this but it was one of the best bits of dry fly angling I have managed in a while. If only there had been cameras!
Anyway, I still had to net the fish, at first I thought it was a grayling as it flashed silver but then the explosive runs it made soon had the characteristic that only a Brown trout has and I was soon able to net the fish, as bonnie a wild Brown Trout as you will ever see with hundreds of tightly packed spots like a leopard. The hook came out in the net and the fish bolted as soon as I released it from the net. It made my day and the rise activity just ceased probably due to the disturbance of mee playing that fish, so I decided to head back towards the car satisfied with my day after all.
