Three Outings in a Row

The long Easter weekend has had some really good weather and its combined with me not feeling too bad, and for the first time in a very long time I managed two and a bit days on the water on the trot- technically three outings.

First outing on Pendreich of the year

What stunning weather we have been getting for the Easter break. While I still have aches and pains I haven’t been intolerably bad, and have been itching to get out on the water. On Friday I decided I had to go have my first cast up at Pendreich, not having been there yet this season. The high winds most weekends have blown that out and while a few week-nights might have been fishable for a wee while up there, I have been on nights at work so needed to catch up with some sleep. I arrived up there in glorious sunshine and fully expected it to be mobbed. However once along the newly re-done track ( the forestry commission seem to be doing timber work in the woods and have put in a new track), arriving at the car parking area there was only one car and a old gent starting to get tackled up. Once I myself was ready to go, imagine my surprise to find that the boat was out and there were at least three other anglers on the water from the bank! Not sure how they had got there but their cars weren’t obvious. (it transpired some were visitors with permits so maybe parked up on the Sherrifmuir Road)

I decided to use my new New Era rod, the over wintered fish can be pretty solid and getting snapped off remarkably easy now. I decided to start from the dam ( not my favourite ) as it was a bit busy up the sides. I had set up with a couple of buzzer patterns and a wet fly on top, on a floating line and a long leader so I was going to get down OK. I had only had a few casts when I had a follow to the  top fly but the fish lost interest and retreated. To cut a long story short this ended up being the nearest I got to catching a fish. I did see a few rising fish right in front of me up the North bank but never got a touch. Fish would rise occasionally but it was not regular or in any one area.

There were about 8 anglers on the water by now and one guy had a fish from the dam wall, and later, another had one in the same spot. The guys who fished deep from the boat got a couple of fish too. But what a gorgeous day to be out. I got home a bit red from the sun despite wearing a hat.

Tenkara on Carron

Saturday was another beautiful morning though maybe not quite as warm. A day for moving water and I fancied taking the Tenkara rod on to the Carron. I decided to fish the same section I was on , on my first outing here but took my 4 weight streamflex rod too. I was encouraged as I made my way down to the river bank when I seen a fish rise in the run I was going to fish. At the side of the run the fish continued to rise occasionally. It seemed logical that a dry-fly was likely to be most effective but I really could not see what it was the fish was rising to. There was the odd fly coming off the water but it really didn’t look to be these that the fish were after, as they were drifting right over where the fish was rising and I never saw the fish come for one of these pale olive flies. I reckon it was some sort of emerger they were on.

Can you see it teasing me?

So close but no fish!

However I wanted to try the Tenkara rod and while you can fish dries I felt I should be a purist and try a Sakasa Kebari at least for the first run through. I picked one that was a pale olive and tried to cast it out. This was a problem, there was a bit of a downstream breeze, quite stiff at times and if you know anything about Tenkara you will know the one thing that kills it, is a breeze in your face. There isn’t enough weight in the very light line to  straighten the leader. I was getting in a bit of a fankle at times and really it wasn’t working unless I timed the casts between gusts. I fished 2 or 3 different wet patterns then tried a wee shrimp pattern but never got any show of interest from the fish which continued to rise near me. I then decided to put a wee Emerger pattern on, one like Davie McPhail tied recently on You Tube. My first cast was right on the correct line and then I seen the fish, slowly come up and up and it got to within about an inch of my fly before turning away and heading to the depths again. In typical fashion it never rose again for me to this fly. I decided to change to my conventional rod and had already tied on a Quill Jingler so decided to give this a swim. A fish rose a little further down and I went to cover this. I had a couple of casts and then at last a fish rose to the fly and it was hooked. It was though a fairly small fish, a Salmon Parr I reckoned, and I was hand-lining it in when it jumped off the hook about 2 feet from my hand. That was fine it was just a wee thing about 6 inches long.

A nice wee half pound wild looking Brownie on the Jingler

Having dried the fly I cast again and almost immediately had another fish, this one rose slow as you like but took the fly very positively. It wasn’t a big fish, certainly no bigger that half a pound but what a fight! It took me ages to get it in it just get fighting and took me two goes to net it. I fished up the rest of the run with this fly but rose one more fish but never got a look from the bigger fish further up the run. I tried a Klink and dink too when the rising fish stopped showing, but never had any more sport.

I decided to go on my wanders and went further up this beat and fished a couple of deep sections with the Klink and a couple of different bugs underneath but only saw one, probably small fish and never had any more sport.

By now it was time to call it a day. It was a cracking day to be on the river and I am pleased I went.

Clusterf*cktastrophe at Coulter

So unbelievably ( to me anyway) Sunday was another nice day and I wasn’t suffering from the previous two days exertions. Well maybe a wee bit but I thought if I could get on a boat and sit for my fishing with a wind behind me I would be OK. I decided to do the trio and head up to Coulter, for only the second time this year. It was unsurprisingly a little breezy still up there but nothing bad, but it was surprisingly quiet. I thought I might struggle to get a boat, but in fact there was only one out and one other group of anglers getting set up.

I went through the convoluted rigmarole of getting a boat in from the moorings, and tied up at the pier and getting my own gear on the boat I was to use. I have to be honest and say, while I fully understand the arrangements with the boat mooring its a hard job for me on my own. Between rowing out and back towing another boat, and trying to get that boat moored properly along side the pier- its very difficult. I did eventually get it moored front and back and got my own boat in a position to get my gear in and the outboard mounted. Finally set to go about 45 minutes after arriving, I set off. But there was a problem. My boat wasn’t making much headway and the motor seemed to be vibrating a hell of a lot. I lifted the propellor out the water and it seemed to speed up and slow down OK but there was a distinct knocking. I tried again, it was getting worse. Out again I had a closer look and realised the nut that holds the prop on was slightly loose and the washer below was rattling.

Something wrong here.

Return to the mooring.

Once I had the motor off I could see it was very loose and went to see if I had any tools in the car. I did but neither had the right size spanner (imperial size) nor the right kind of screwdriver to fit the shaft. I was utterly knackered by now and decided that was it, enough was enough. Put everything away and go home. This then meant having to go through the reverse process of towing the boat I previously brought in, back out again, trying to get it tied off on a barrel and then row back in to re-moor the first boat. Once this was finally done ( after two laps of the bloody mooring buoy trying to get the boat I was towing to turn in and let me get close enough with the boat under tow), I got back in and went through the final palavar of tying up my boat properly front and rear.

I was shattered. I put most of the heavy gear in the car and went to sit on my boat box on the dam wall and have a drink. I then decided it would be a real same not to at least wet my line while I was there so I had a slow couple of dozen casts along the dam wall to the boom then called it a day just as one of the other boats returned. I was talking to one of the gents that came off this boat and he said I had missed nothing, thay had had one fish in 4 hours fishing and hadn’t seen any other than the one caught. The guy then went on to complain that the young guys who went out behind them only left one boat on the pier. This was the boat I took. I was relating to him that what they did was right, you always need to leave one boat on the pier so the next person can get a boat in. They’d left two boats when they came in. I was suggesting that this wasn’t right as now the young guys wouldn’t be able to get alongside the pier for the two boats moored there. Obviously some existing members don’t really “get” the boat mooring situation. I was too knackered to care and went off home.

I discovered that the shear pin has broken in the propeller shaft so have spent half the afternoon trying to locate one online. What a pain that is, the part number in my Minn Kota manual for the propeller and split pins, doesn’t match the part numbers for replacements in the various outlets even though the description reads correct. I have taken a chance and ordered some bits. A spare nut, three split pins and a new propeller. I notice where the old one broke it gouged a bit of an oval in the retaining groove on the old prop so I fear it might vibrate with this so might be safer to change it. I reckon I did this the last time I was at Coulter and was trying to moor a spare boat on the jetty and the wind kept blowing the two boats in to shore and shallow water every time I stopped the motor to try get the boats tied up, and ended up grounding the motor on my boat.

This evening we took a slow stroll along by Swanswater. It was dead quiet but still looked open Fish and were rising everywhere- I ended up wishing I had saved myself for the evening. I took this pic with my wifes iPhone. Glorious.

The sun going down over the channel at Swanswater

100,000

This week the site had its 100,000th page view and regular commenter on the site here, and blogger Ronnie Sheppard ( Fly Fishing Old Fart ) was the name drawn out the hat. I have contacted Ron  and we will be going to Glensherrup sometime inthe next month or so. I look forward to meeting Ron and our day on the water.