It’s birthday fishing day. I always take the day off and go fishing. If I can at all my preference is river fishing for the Grayling but I will settle for some stockie bashing if not. Usually I try to head to somewhere I have not been if it’s fishing a river, whether a beat I don’t know or river I have never visited.
The great plans of mice and men though can come to naught when fate takes a hand into the lead up to the “big day”. And so it came to pass…
A Tyre’ing Story of Woe
A few weeks ago a tyre sensor came on in my car. The front right was apparently soft but when I looked it seemed OK and after a restart the light went out. Whenever I have been a longer journey , on it comes, and when up to the Tummel on Sunday it came on again on the way up, but didn’t appear when coming home. Yesterday ( Wednesday) I had a few minutes to spare between calls and it being bright and sunny thought I should nip out and check the pressures. The accused tyre was a little below nominal pressure ( so I inflated it back to the manufacturers pressure). I checked the other front tyre and it too was the same ( hadn’t alarmed though!). While I am doing the fronts I should check the rears I thought.
This was when it all went “Pete Tong” as the saying goes. The metal valve cap turned a couple of times then seemed to seize on the rear left. I applied a bit more force, a bit corrosion I reckoned, and instead of the cap coming off, the valve sheered off! in a blink of an eye I now had a totally flat tyre!
So now I had to change a wheel. I have driven or worked with Land Rovers and Range Rovers since the early 1990’s. Changing wheels can be a total pain, the tyres are huge and the wheel and tyre very heavy, even when alloys are involved like mine. (Mind you, one Landy made getting the wheel off easy for me, once, it just fell off as I was doing about 70 miles an hour and bounced up the road in front of me! )
I managed to get the wheel out the boot without giving myself a hernia ( just), then went to remove the nuts on the problem wheel. Three came free OK but two of them would not budge. The stupid wee spanner they give you can in no way exert sufficient leverage. I had to rig up a long lever with socket set extensions and in levering the nut loose it gave with a jump…and so did something in my back…. I felt a ping. Ouch.
With gritted teeth and nearly tears in my eyes I did manage to get the wheel off, getting the spare fitted was a nightmare and then I had the problem of getting the flat wheel/tyre in the boot as by now I couldn’t start to lift it. My back felt really, really bad.
Fishing off, Back out?
I spent the day with prescription strength anti inflammatories and a hot water bottle and last night had a hot bath. Today, on the whole I can do everything but bend over. I feared the fishing was off. I certainly didn’t fancy casting a long way.
When I got up this morning it was still sore but I reckoned as long as I wasn’t spending a lot of time bending down to pick stuff up I could probably fish a light rod OK. Living with arthritis as I do I have learned that staying sedintary rarely helps, regardless how reluctant you are to move. Moving stops you stiffening up and tensing up against an injury.
That said, I wasn’t going to chance a new river as if I had to abort it would be a waste of a day ticket and a long drive. So instead I went to the Clyde to where I had early success at the start of the season.
It’s fairly deep here but the river is low just now, and has to be as good a place as any to locate a Grayling. I was surprised at the colour and clarity it has to be said, it was a little murky, I couln’t see my feet in three feet of water at all. I am guessing the little rain/snow is working its way through the system.
Black Death
It was icy and cold as I somewhat gingerly tackled up trying not to bend or stoop, but when upright or walking I was fine. A big swarm of Cormorants flapped away noisily just downstream as I got to the river bank and one landed to perch on a tree a little distance away.
I am undecided how to feel when I see them, does it indicate there are fish here so prospects might be good? Or have these nuisance birds emptied the river? Either way I don’t like to see these in our inland waterways. It is the first time I have seen so many on the Clyde ( personally speaking).
Lower than before
The river was lower than last time, I reckon 6 inches to a foot lower and I waded out to about midstream and lobbed my bugs along the edge of the seam between faster and slower water.
I tried several different bugs and tried a bobber with a couple of bugs out in the deeper flow, but nothing showed. I spent several hours all in, trying below and above my start position, In between times I made a few videos for the blog site/You Tube Channel ( coming soon) and flew my drone above and below Garrion Bridge, and also took a wee run into Dalserf, somewhere I had never been before. I caught nothing but aside from the pain in my back, had a pleasant day out on the Clyde.
