I had a pleasant if cold day on a fairly high but clear, River Tweed today.
Greys XF2 Streamflex Plus 4#
Never touched a fish but it gave me the chance to try out my new Greys XF2 Streamflex Plus rod with the Czech Nymphs.
The extra reach and the lightness are really good and you get a lotof feel, you really can feel the heavy bottom fly bumping along the bottom a lot more. When I picked up the odd “stickfish” it was really apparent right away that something was there- a lotof feel is transmitted. Had a go at fishing small bugs under a big Klinkhammer too, never caught me anything but was pleased with my casting and doing my best to maintain a drag-free drift on my trusty John Dicksons 9ft with a 5# line on.
I was using the Orvis Hi-Float leader today for the first time- I like the way this fishes. It was recommended to me by Hywel Morgan and it certainly does a lot to keep the fly up in my view. I fished this with a micro-ring and a 2ft length of fluorocarbon to the fly.
Stretch above Manor Bridge
I fished basically the same stretch as my last visit but I extended my area covered much further up and downstream, covering quite a bit of river. I parked at Manor Bridge and started off fishing at the spot where I caught the decent Graying a few weeks back. The river did not initially seem that much different but was a little higher, howeve,r it was really pushing along and wading was challenging.
Downstream from Manor Bridge and Manor Water
It was like standing on a river bed of marbles as standing in one spot anywhere more than about 3metres from the bank was impossible- you were pushed downstream by the flow. I would not call myself the most confident wader at the best of times ( my dodgy knees don’t help at all) but today there were a few scary moments. I won’t dwell on them here!
I bugged along the stretch opposite the tree line where I had previous success- I thought I might have had one very gentle take but nothing really positive one way or the other.
As I could not wade over the other side of the river- I tried the NZ style duo technique with a couple of small bugs- a PTN and a Bobs Bug. The midchannel current was murder with the dead drift and hard to mend for.
I decided to give up here and went on a wander upstream. About 500 yards you come to a gate at a bend in the river and above here is a nice 300yard glide. I entered the water near the foot of the glide and fished most of the way across the river and about 30 yards downstream. The bottom was level and wading was much easier than before so I decided to try fishing most of the glide from further upstream. Entering about 200 yards above the bend- I was able to fish most of the river all the way down.
Looking upstream at glide
Checkerboarding across there were a few sections where the push got very dodgy and the depth started to increase but on the whole it was not too bad and a stretch I would return to in future. A walker was telling me he seen a 2lb Grayling pulled out this section a week before, so there should be fish about. The water felt very cold to me today though and hands were getting nippy.
Looking towards bend
I never had so much as a knock here- I had put a double beaded red tag on bottom by now as the push was making me unsure I was really getting down with the bugs. The double bead definitely helped in this regard.
After finishing here with no joy I decided to try downstream of Manor Bridge. The water seems quite riffly below the bridge and once there it was quit eobvious how much higher the water was- the wee island beside the confluence of the Manor Water was pretty well submerged and I doubt you could wade it like you could a few weeks ago.
Its always going to be hard to bug in this strech I reckon and was too fast today but I decided to have a wee cast withthe NZ duo down here. I covered about 50% of this section from the bank and drifted the tam all the way down to the foot of the strech where the bank becomes impassable. never touched anything but was interesting trying it out and it seemed to fish well.
I them moved down the arched bridge section. This is a really nice glide all the way to the arched bridge and looks very much Grayling water. Unfortunately others thought the same and there were 3 other anglers here already bugging. It was too deep to wade but these guys were just fishing from the edge of the flow.
They were telling me one of them picked up a nice 3lb plus fish in the morning and one other of about 3/4lb on a burn- I think they must have meant Manor Water as I am not sure of any other streams here.
Other than that the other guy had blanked in the same spot on the same bugs.
I had a wee cast beyon the arched bridge in a narrow channel but kept getting snagged and time was knocking on- so headed back the way. I sptopped for a wee cast near the top of this glide and tried out the duo here which fished so weel I thought I was bound to catch- unfortunately not!
A blank day!
