I have been out less than I would choose recently, partly as the weather has been frankly, really cold and windy for the time of year, but also I am having problems with my hands and feet and other bits and pieces to do with the aches and pains, so it kind of holds you back. But yesterday was the first proper warm sunny day we have had this year. it wasn’t scorching or even “tapps aff” weather but it was wall to wall blue sky and the rather cool wind of late seemed to have abated to tolerable levels at least. It looked like summer! I could not resist trying my luck on the river for a few hours. I should have guessed, despite actually getting out much earlier than I usually manage, that others would have the same idea. I decided to go to the Horsemill Inn section and there were five cars all parked up. The pool under the bridge, of deep fairly slow water was already being staked out by bait boys. Am I right in thinking if you are fishing bait for trout in Scotland you should be holding the rod at all times?
This section has changed with the bed of the river being pushed around. The pool exit is narrower and steeper now.
I decided to venture upstream in the hope I would not encounter anyone else “camped” on a fishable stretch and I was fortunate for this to be the case. The river has really changed down here since last season. The stones and cobbles that make the river bed have been pushed around a lot and some of it is barely recognisable as the same place. Also a few trees that were either in the river before, or were near to ending up in the river, have been moved around. So when I was wading I was treading warily, though for the most part it wasn’t much above knee-deep.
The wee bug the fish seemed to want last night
A fish rose right in front of me when I got to the first spot I wanted to try, but covering the spot with my size 16 beaded nymph and two spiders didn’t glean the desired reaction. I fished half way up this first stretch before stopping to change flies and continue on. Putting two beaded nymphs on with a solitary spider I continued up. The top half of this pool/glide has really changed a lot, and is much narrower than before. After completing this I decided to try below the fast water exiting the bottom of the pool. This used to be a bit on the shallow side, and while i have fished it before it seemed rather thin. Now its a bit deeper, faster and narrower though the tree that used to obstruct the exit into the glide below still seems to have survived the ravages of winter. As I approached a wee back eddy a fish rose and I cast to cover it. My flies landed maybe 6 feet above where the rise was and almost as soon as they hit the water a fish grabbed at the point fly, an orange ribbed bug that is one of my favourites. Its was only a wee wild fish but welcome nonetheless and extracted itself from the barbless hook as I brought the line to hand, it wasn’t worth netting. I worked this area a bit more and made no further gains so moved down a little further, I had just seen a fish jump maybe 20 yards below. A cast into another corner and a fish swirled at my flies, I felt the tug but was too slow for these fast wee fish and missed it. They were taking off or near the top though and I decided to change my top spider for a dry March Brown Jingler. There were plenty flies on the water but most seemed small olives or midges, nothing of any size. My first cast with the dry on rose a fish but it didn’t connect or turned away shy. However I kept fishing a longer and longer line down stream and connected with another small but strong wild fish of 6 or 7 inches again and again I popped it off untouched as the line came to hand.
The river has been dramatically reshaped here but loads of trees are obstructing the river
It was getting dark now but it was a very summer like evening. Pity it is to turn utterly Baltic at the weekend though!
