Went off down the River Carron today, the weather was mild and I hoped the recent rain hadn’t mucked up the river too much. It was a little coloured but the biggest two hassles to fishing were going to be the amount of detritus from the trees, bits of tree blossom and the like coming downstream on the surface, and the globs of rock snot/river snot, call it what you will, filamentous algae coming down sub surface. Any attempt to fish a wet fly or nymph I think was going to be a trial of patience as I think the flies would have become coated in the green gunge. Not sure what’s brought on this bloom of rock snot, whether it’s the slight uplift in temperature or if there is a lot of nitrate making its way into the river from the surrounding fields. Either way it was dictating the only practical way to fish would be dry-fly. What a tragedy to be forced to fish dry-fly.
Not.
I spent 5 or 10 minutes watching the run I wanted to fish first, it was the section I had fished on my last outing, having lost a decent fish here. While there wasn’t anything of note showing up on the surface insect wise, the odd fish was rising in the areas I would expect. I had tied on a Greenwells glory dry fly ( or my version of it- I tie it with a cdc wing as I am rubbish at split wings and to be honest I don’t think the fish can tell anyway.
While I was sure the better fish, if there were any here would be in the main part of the glide, I decided to fish right at the top, where I could see what appeared to be smaller fish rising, they would at least give me a clue if the fly I was using might be right before I tried to tackle the bigger fish. My first few upstream casts were ignored but soon a fish rose and a very small but wild Brownie was brought to hand and released. I was about to fish on when I heard a disturbance in the trees and my friend Tommy appeared, he had popped down for a blether and very kindly to give me a few wee flies for the Coulter. We blethered a bit while fish continued to rise so I decided to cover it while still chatting. I was casting downstream into the glide where I felt there were bigger fish. A fish rose and took the fly, a little bigger this time, another wild fish I assume as it was a bit on the small side to be a stockie.
After Tommy departed for home I had number three and four, both similar sized fish to number two.
I then decided to move up to the next run, where I had not fished before. I had seen this section last time but it looked deep and difficult to cover but on closer examination I reckoned it was indeed wadeable and from the river I thought I could cover the faster deep water above without too many snag issues. I did initially get caught in the tree above me but having recovered the fly and adjusted my position I was away. I had not seen much sign of fish above me but reckoned there were a few little disturbances in the rippley water that could be fish feeding from the surface. The water was fast enough that any surface signs were going to dissipate faster than you could really see.
I had a few casts working my way up the run and there was a disturbance on the surface and a fish was on. Initially I thought it was a small fish but it jumped a couple of times and it looked OK. But it came right towards me and the only way I was going to keep tension on the line was to grab it. With the line in my hand it then became tangled in my forceps and pliers hanging on my jacket then the retaining cord on my landing net. I was in a right fankle with a decent fish swimming round my feet. Somehow I released the tangle got the net free and eventually the fish into the net. It was a lovely fat Brownie of about 3/4 lb. I would have hated to have lost it, but it went back fine and full of fight.
One of the biggest fish of the day takes on the far right of this image
I then noticed I had a wee bit abrasion on my tippet and I decided to replace it. Bad move. I snipped the old tippet off, wound it onto my monomaster line discarding tool and then discovered I had left my Stroft tippet in the car. I was sure I had picked it up. Doh! I decided that it was a sign, time to call it a day here, and go back to the car and move.
The trout is returned
I moved downstream again to a section I fished the last time but Tommy had told me you could get over the river a little upstream and fish it from the far bank away from the big boulders used to retain the bank. I got over the far side and there were fish rising through the glide. I realised that down the line of hedge that fringed the bank there was very shallow water and I decided ( maybe not the wisest thing to do at times) to wade down to the bottom of the glide and fish back up hopefully without disturbing it too much.
At the bottom I decided to have a few casts downstream under some overhanging reeds as fish had been here last time. Second cast a fish took. It had some weight to it, not huge but not a tiddler either, but it never stayed on and as the line came free it ended up with my fly caught on an overhanging branch on the other side of the river. I couldn’t get over to it to get my fly back so ended up having to snap the tippet and re-tie it with a fresh fly.
I fished up the glide and eventually rose and hooked a fish. This was another moderately sized wild fish, on the shy side of half a pound and it took the Greenwells. however I really wasn’t sure it was the pattern to be on here as fish were rising all around and it looked like tiny midges were on the menu.
With number 6 hooked I play the fish and recover line
I had a look through my fly box and decided to try a very small, maybe a size 20, Griffiths gnat. Lets see if that works? The big problem was again going to be the detritus from the trees coming down the river, how would a fish see the fly this small between the little bits of blossom and seed heads on the surface.
I was almost giving up hope when a fish rose and took the Griffiths Gnat. The tiny hook held and I soon landed a fish again about 3/4lb. Chuffed to bits it went back and really I was about done.
Great post Kenny.