It’s the 15th of March and the Brown Trout season is finally open. A year ago to the day ( albeit the equivalent Sunday last year, was the 16th!) I headed to the River Carron for my first outing on what turned out to be a great wee river over the entire season. I even managed to land two fish, one on a dry fly that day. The weather was similar, with less of a wind and I wondered if history might repeat itself.
Well to see I headed for the same spot.The short deep run I picked was unoccupied but just upstream there were a few anglers fishing bait in a slow deep section under tree’s.
Last year what I did recall was there were plenty insects coming off the water some quite big upwinged flies and a few fish showed on top over the session. Despite the near carbon copy conditions, that wasn’t the same today. In 3 hours I never seen so much as a midge, never mind an upwinged fly, and even more to the point I never seen a fish move. The water was very clear and a nice height, there having been some rain this last week. I decided to start with a type of fishing I do rarely but which is usually considered an effective method for the time of year.
An otter swims right by where I was fishing
Another shot of the swimming Otter
I started at the top of the run casting upstream and with a three fly team, a beaded Endrick spider on point, a Snipe and Purple in the middle and a Waterhen Bloa on the top dropper, all pretty small sized, no bigger than #14. Nothing, then something caught my eye over to my right. I though at first it was a Mink, I seen one down stream from here last year, but no, it was an Otter and it wasn’t shy! It looked right at me as it swam from below me right past my fishing spot hugging the far bank and headed away upstream. I wonder if he was finding any fish? I then moved down to the pool below and fished through here, at one stage I though I might have had pull but I never contacted anything when I lifted and it was probably just the point fly snagging. As I fished here ( this pool usually holds some fish) another angler turned up and started fishing in the run I had just fished through. The guy was fishing with a fixed spool reel and I assume a worm under a “float”. Actually it made me laugh. As fly anglers we try to be stealthy, move quietly through a pool and try to avoid making too much disturbance with 15 feet or so of fly line that maybe little over a mm thick. This guy was using a flourescent Yellow “float” bigger than a golf ball- more akin to something you would use as a boat mooring in a harbour! Subtle and delicate it was not. And made worse by him letting it drift down the run before he wound it back skipping across the surface to lob it in again. If any trout were sat there they were pretty bold if they were going to sit under this thing bouncing over the surface as it was retrieved to be re cast.
The River Carron under a grey March sky, not a sign of fish life to be seen
I was no longer hopeful of getting a fish here but as he exited stage left to join another bait angler now fishing downstream of me, my near hand options seemed pretty limited. I decided to try fishing through the faster section one more time but with small but tungsten beaded bugs to make sure I had covered right to the bottom. This never got me a thing ( hardly surprising) so I contemplated if I would keep fishing or call it a day. I decided to walk upstream for a wee looksee and see if the bait anglers upstream had had any success. However when I got to where they had been, they had left. I decided to fish the deeper water all the way up this section, maybe 30 yards of water.
I covered most of this section before finally snagging my flies on an over hanging tree and getting broken off when trying to get them back. Time to go, nothing doing but wonderful to be out, I even surprised myself I managed today!
was on the carron also today Kenny but not a touch, i was fishing the winchester avenue area and a bit upstream from there, i then went down to opposite the quarry downstrem of where i was speaking to you last year but never saw a sign of a fish, had a wee drive up the road to see if you were about and then went home, was fishing for couple of hours between mid-day and 2pm.
I wasn’t out until 2 so we must have just missed each other. Was surprised at the lack of activity and dearth of fly life as it was probably nicer than last year but there you go.
Water was nice height i thought and mild enough day but no fly life.
Totally agree- was quite shocked at the lack of fly life. Last year there was quite a bit on an arguably colder day. Not to worry. Have they put any fresh fish in this year yet? Not seen anything.