It is funny how quickly things change. Last week we were steaming in a high humidity fug, and days later there is a nip in the air. There has been some colossal rainfall at times and rivers have largely been off the radar for me. I was surprised though that it had stayed moderately dry through Monday and was sunny if a little nippy as evening approached, so I decided to get out on the middle reaches of the Carron before dark ( which seems to encroach on the day faster than you would expect just now). I blame the cloudy skies.
I headed to my regular parking spot for this section and I was astonished how many other vehicles were there. There must have been 5 cars parked up. Usually, there might be one here already ( if any), five had me wondering if I would find anywhere to fish. I needn’t have fretted though ( is it just me that gets weird about finding my own space when fishing?), one chap left while I was gearing up, I didn’t see where he came from ( up or downstream) but I did notice he looked like he was moving elsewhere, as he drove off fully kitted. A bad sign maybe?
Decision made- Downstream
I opted for downstream, there are a couple of spots that can hold fish ( on a good day) and I wanted to try them. The river is as high as I have seen it while fishing in this area. Spots that are normally dry even after rain, were a good 4-6″ under the water and all the river had a good pace. However it was not dirty, was reasonably clear though very deeply stained like strong tea. My set up was a couple of jigs, one black with a UV collar and the other a scruffy with a fluo orange rib.
I kind of started in the middle of the section I had chosen to target and working upstream, I could have gone right to the bottom and started there but a) it involved wading downstream to get to the start ( which might be counterproductive in the disturbance it causes) and b) by the time I reached the spots I wanted to focus on, there might be other anglers around- remember those 5 cars? Starting midway kept me “in control” of this section of water. Selfish?
I fished around a little pocket under the far bank and had no offers but then managed to snag up in an overhanging bush and though I managed to recover one fly from the branches the scruffy was gone. In retreiving my fly I did try to wade over and back as quietly as possible but it was not ideal.
With my tippet retied, (for a change, I was using 4lb fluorocarbon as the river was high and already I was detecting a lot more snags than usual ) I fished on. Reaching a promising spot I was kind of surprised after 5-6 casts, not to get “some” sort of offer, even if from a wee thing. I was about to move on up another couple of metres but then thought, “give it another half dozen casts just carefully watching where your bugs are going”. With this slightly more detailed approach – trying to get each cast into a slightly different spot, on my third there was a pull as the bugs trundled by me and I was hooked into a fish probably this side of 1lb. I managed it upstream of me and it was soon netted. It looked to be maybe a stockie. Not sure if the river has been stocked this far into the season or not, if it has, maybe that accounts for the cars parked at the same location as me ( though I was yet to see another angler after all).
The fish, taken on the wee black bug with UV collar swam back fine and I returned to fish some more. In a few more casts a little further upstream I had a small brownie, also on the point fly. I kept working upstream though and soon reached the next area of real interest. Just short of it, I was a little surprised when the line tore off again, not quite from where I would have predicted. This was a stronger fish and at first, I thought I had a sea-trout, it looked quite silver at the outset. I think though on reflection it must have been the fish’s belly I caught site of first. This fish was very quick to head downstream taking about 6 metres of the line before I was able to stop it and start working it back towards me as I edged into the bank.
Soon enough a second decent fish was netted, this was slimmer, longer, heavier and very fully tailed Brown Trout. I would say the second wasn’t a stockie or certainly not a recent one.
I was yet to fish the real spot I intended, this fish came from just short of it, however, I think the reason became apparent when I got to the target area. I think maybe there is a bit of tree or some sort of snaggy plant in the hole. Cast after cast I was snagging. Most times I was able to work it free but alas did lose a couple more bugs. It might have been an evening to try drop shotting but all the fish I had caught were on the point fly hard on the bottom so not sure if that would have been tactically worth trying. In any case I had only been out about an hour and already it was getting dark. Dark enough that I was struggling to change flies.
I wanted to make some ground so fished through the deeper pocket water all the way up the pool at the top. I was really surprised not to get so much as a touch all this way up. The run out the pool was though very fast and much deeper than usual and again a bit of a snag fest…another bug lost. All the way up you could see where the river had been with the plants flattened down- the river had been very high I think. It has done the power of good though all the rock-snot is gone which is good.
By the time I reached the spot for climbing out I was in two minds. Finish up or one more spot? There was still a little light on the horizon now I was out the trees and upstream was a lot more open than where I had just fished so I decided to give it ten minutes.
There were fish actually rising where I went next but I was struggling to see my flies by now so changing my set up completely wasn’t a timely option. I did put on a small spider just to give a rising fish a chance but they didn’t go for it and then the heavens opened and the rain just came straight down…..enough. The river had given me two decent fish and taken enough flies for one night!
