With Friday looking set fair weather-wise AND having the Easter weekend off, and my Mrs was out for the day, I pondered what to do. Fishing somewhere was the plan, I did think about maybe going and getting a ticket for the River Devon which I haven’t had for a few seasons, but its still a bit early yet for that wee river, bonnie though it is, or should I take a run down the River Clyde and make use of my season ticket. A plan hatched.
I decided to forgo the early start to be on the river at sparrow fart, and instead take a leisurely run down to try land on the river around lunchtime and see if there were any fish taking an interest in the sometimes sporadic hatches of early-season flies, like the March browns, Grannom or smaller Blue Winged Olives. The latter tend to be around all the time if there is any heat at all but whether the fish show an interest in them is another thing entirely.
I even sat down at my vice on Thursday evening and tied a couple of Jinglers, a famous and rightly popular Clyde March Brown imitation, though I was sure I had a few more in my dry fly box.
The section I chose to fish I have not fished in less than a decade, and getting parked nearby is a bit of a nightmare. However, I did know a place “relatively” nearby where I thought I might be able to walk in from with easier parking, though never having tried before, it was very much up in the air if it was possible. The big question though was, could I get across the river.
I drove down and was parked up and getting the waders on by 11 am, it was a beautiful spring morning and there was some pleasant heat in the sun. The sky was totally clear, wall-to-wall blue sky. I decided not to set up any rods as I felt they would just get in my way in trying to ford the river. A walk down a couple of fields and I was don’t he river bank at a spot I fished for the Grayling just over a year ago, and was looking for a safe crossing. The river was clear enough to see the brought depth and I had my wading stick. I felt it was totally possible to cross here, the question was could you do it without falling in and in my case, getting my camera wet which was in the top of my rucksack? (note to self…remember to bring a wee dry bag)
The river has a reasonable amount of flow here but I remembered from fishing here that I was able to get to within about 5 metres of the far bank when fishing that time, I had not tried to venture closer that day as) I had no need and b) it looked like the far bank was a bit deeper and the water was a little higher than now.
Taking small steps I got to within 3 metres of the far bank with no problem at all, the water was no more than hip deep. The question was, could I find a route that stayed around this depth all the way across? With my Polaroids on I could see there was what might be a bedrock shelf with small pockets of gravel, so if I could edge across this I was sorted. I literally leaned on my wading staff, took small 6-inch steps and while the water did rise a wee bit higher, it never even got to the bottom of my rucksack on my back, and I was able to step onto a higher shelf about a metre out from he far bank. A bit of a scramble and I was out of the river. Phew!
As on this side, it all looks kind of samey, I took careful note of where a nearby tree was, and found a fallen branch that I laid on the bank pointing at my exit point, so I knew the way back….otherwise, the alternative might either be a soaking or a very, very long walk.
I did have a plan B upstream had I not been able to get across but I suspect that might have been less easy to fish due to the depth of the river. Anyway, I didn’t need that so now to find my way downstream. It was a bit of a hike, up a very steep slope with a lot of bushes and gorse to try get past, but it took me about an hour and a quarter to get to the rough area I hoped to reach…it is only about a mile and a half but cross-country like this carrying gear and wearing waders isn’t so easy.
In the rough area, I carried on down stream until I reached a spot I felt looked ideal. I couldn’t remember this exact spot from my last time here but the run above it I did recall as it was tree-lined.
It was now after 12 so I sat down and rigged two rods. My 9ft 5 weight is an ideal bigger river rod for fishing dries and wets, the other was my 3 weight for nymphing if it came down to it. I initially tied on a Klinkhammer with a small nymph under on the heavier rod as I thought I might need to prospect a bit for fish in the absence of any signs. On the other rod I tied a heavier nymph on point with a couple of spiders on the droppers. As I was setting up I became very aware of the sound of rising fish though when I looked up to see I wasn’t seeing any obvious wake, but the river boils and moves fairly fast here and rings fade fast.
There were though flies about that looked to be March Browns. Then all of a sudden just load of them rose off the water and suddenly the river came alive!, One, two, …five rising fish. The water was almost boiling. I grabbed the 5-weight rod and cast across river with it. I could cast fairly far but couldn’t enter the water as there was a very deep sandy hole right at the side. I was able to get my flies across the areas where I spotted fish move but the drift was rubbish in the varying eddy currents and I knew my approach was wrong. The Klink was a reasonable March Brown merger kind of style…a Pheasant tail body but it was ignored. Then it all went quiet again. I carried on fishing for maybe 5 more minutes but nothing. Then another flurry of flies hatching off…I nipped off the Klink and nymph and tied on a Jingler. The tippet was really too heavy to fish this fly well but needs must in the time… Again it was ignored and the drift was poor.
As it quietened down again I decided to stop and have a bite to eat, while doing that tie on a dry fly leader and then look for a way to cover these fish from a little further downstream. I did this and also noticed what I initially thought might be Grannom coming off the river but then realised these were probably Stoneflies, not lots but here and there, one or two landed on my gear.
Anyway suitably refreshed and fed, I found a way onto the water about 30 yards downstream and made my way in. The tippet was a 6X Dry fly leader and I was a wee bit concerned it might be too light as that put the point at about 3lb- pretty light on a big river.
Then another flurry of flies came off, less than before but enough still to get the fish rising and with the 5 weight I was able to reach them pretty well and turn the Jingler over nicely. I found at first fish were rising to the fly in different places from where I was targeting a fish by quite a distance, so clearly there was quite a lot of fish around. I must have rose 4 or 5 and was thinking maybe I needed to change something with my fly…maybe it was too small ( the March Browns looked a little bigger, to be honest) when a fish took the fly and I was able to net a lovely wild Clyde brown maybe of 3/4lb after a short fight…its hard work getting these wild fish to the net in a fast river. I was confident though my fly was good enough for now with one in the net.
After releasing it, I tried again and this time hooked into a bigger fish about 2 casts later. I honestly should have had this one to the net, but as I was using my Action camera to get some video and it kept flopping off to the side I spent too much time sorting that out and allowed the fish time to get free. It was sitting in fast-flowing water below me and I was trying to get below it without it moving further down and could see it in the clear water almost sawing at the line with its teeth. Just as I got level with it, it took a leap and a second and the fly and line parted.
The fish was gone, probably a fish about 1lb or so with my fly. I was in two minds, cut back and tie on a heavier tippet, or was that my fault entirely? I decided to blame myself and tied another (this time a slightly fatter-looking Jingler) still on a size 12 hook.
I cast out where I spotted some activity, the fly hatches were coming in short waves, and then it went quiet. I decided to turn off the camera thinking I might need to wait for another flurry of activity. I was just casting across the river further out when a head like a salmon emerged from the water and grabbed my fly. This was a big fish, and it just took off like a Bullet train across River…..
It was all I could do really to hold on as it was spooling line very fast then….ping! the tippet parted as I feared it might. Whether even a 4lb tippet would have held that fish I do not know, it was a good size brute, I decided to cut back the 3lb leader tip and tie on a 4lb fluorocarbon tippet, with another heavier Jingler dressing ( as I should have done the first time…)
Things went a little quiet again for a short spell then once again I rose a fish and this time another decent fish of a little over a pound was a little easier to get to the net with the reassurance of that slightly heavier point line and success!
The activity pretty much dried up after this, with no more hatches evident, after what had been a good solid hour to hour and a half of action.
I decided to make a move as another angler was fishing up behind me, he looked to be bouncing nymphs off the bottom.
I moved to the tree-lined run which turned out to be a lot shallower than I remembered though was still fishable. There was another angler upstream….an American which is unusual in these parts. I have a suspicion he has the big new house that’s been built here as he was carrying no gear other than quite a heavy rod….at first I thought he was using a switch-style rod (two-hander) almost like salmon fishing – there aren’t any salmon in the upper river, then later I noticed he looked to be spinning. But I asked and he was OK with me going in below him.
I fished a distance up along the tree-lined section until it got too shallow to fish and then moved again up to the faster pocket water above. I would be a liar to say I fished this in any way other than half-heartedly, I wasn’t seeing any movement on top and wasn’t in the mood for nymphing. By now it was moving towards 4 pm- how time flies when you are having fun so I decided to start my walk back. Having a better idea where I was going I found a slightly easier route and it maybe took me a little under an hour on the return leg, though getting back over the river proved even more butt-clenching than in the morning but I made it, and was home for around 6 after a really thoroughly enjoyable outing on the dries.
There is some video to post with this which I will upload to YouTube separately when I have time to finish editing it and will add it to this post later, it will be linked on the Facebook Page first.
