This weekend started as a disappointment on the fishing front. I had Friday off and with the reasonably mild and settled weather of late I was really hoping to get out for a few hours on Friday afternoon with the new rod and give it a cast. Then of course there was the opening of the season on Saturday. A bit spoiled for choice this year as to where to fish, my idea had been to take the new rod up to Pendreich, or if I had gotten out on the Friday I might hit the river on Sunday.
Well Fridays weather meant all the plans went to ratsh*t. It blew really hard all day, if anything getting worse as the day went on. One thing that can totally stymie fly fishing is high winds. Saturday while pretty bright and mild was more of the same, I decided to do something productive on the fishing front and took my lines off my spools and gave them a clean and recondition. Good thing I did as I discovered my 40+ floater has a split at the back end of the shooting head where it runs into the running line. This line is one of the “new” design ones, I believe the older 40+ line suffered from some sort of similar issue where they cracked behind the heavy front section. Clearly whatever was done to resolve this issue hasn’t been totally successful, looks like I need to get a new one.
So Sunday dawned grey and more high winds I was really wanting to get out. It still wasn’t cold and I decided the only real possibility was to try the river. Having had a good wee recce last weekend and in my belief that time spent scoping things out is rarely wasted I decided to head for a few spots that look to be quite fishy, certainly if I was a fish there were a few bits where I would lie. So I put a couple of boxes of river nymphs and flies in my rucksack, along with my kick sample net and my 4 weight rod and off I went. I wasn’t going far and as it was 2 in the afternoon when I headed out I hoped I might manage a couple of hours fishing before the aches and pains got the better of me. I was pleasantly surprised to find that a) there was no one on the section I decided to head to, and b) while it was still windy it wasn’t nearly as bad as it was at home.
A selection of olive coloured clingers and caseless caddis from the Carron
Once I was by the river I set up my rod, and reel fitted with a French leader. I felt the short line methods might be good on this river as its not especially large. I then set about doing a wee kick sample to get an idea whats in the river. There was no shortage of bugs, mostly olive in colour. I also caught a huge stonefly nymph but it fell from the net before I could get it to my water dish to have a look. Very black with bright yellow bands.
On the first run I had selected I soon found that maybe the French leader wasn’t optimal at all. The water was quite deep at one side and looked ideal fish holding water just out of the main current. But the stong gusts of wind were picking up the light leader and despite having a small but heavy bug on point it wasn’t getting down, the wind was holding everything up. I withdrew and tied on a much heavier jig hooked bug on point. Now the point fly was getting down but I was having big problems with snagging. The river isn’t especially weedy, in fat I would say it was the opposite, and I could not really see what there was to snag on but time and again I was coming a cropper as I worked my way down the run. What i did notice though there was a steady stream of small flies coming off the water. and as I neared the end of the run I heard a slight plop and just turned to see the receding rings of what looked like a fish rising. Taking off the top? Much as I love my dry-fly fishing above all else, surely it was too early for the dries? I decided to run the bugs through where I thought I had seen the fish rise. first or second cast in and I felt the distinct tug of a fish on the line but as i reacted the line seemed to be lodged rock solid on some obstruction. I was sure there was a fish there but by the time I freed the snag, only a matter of a sharp tug, whatever I thought I had, was gone. I felt if I had jagged the fish there was little chance of getting it back so decided to move on.
I walked up to the next promising run under the branches of an overhanging tree. The wind was much stronger here and I was struggling with the leader, so decided to bite the bullet and remove it. On went a fairly stiff tapered leader with a nice bushy pheasant tail klinkhammer tied on to the leader, This would be my indicator and to the bend I tied on two nymphs, an olive and a tiny beaded hares ear. I was surprised how well this Klink and dink set up cast, my choice of a stiff leader was providing a nice turn over to the whole set up and while I wasn’t casting far I was at least able to cast into the gusts of wind and get a reasonable dead drift down stream. I fished out this whole section and the next two above but never seen or felt any sign of fish. Before I knocked it all on the head I decided to cross back over and head back to my starting point and have a look downstream and maybe a final fish through there now it had been rested a couple of hours, and with the NZ style rig.
My first fish of the official 2014 season, a brown on a nymph from the River Carron. Safely returned.
I seen another promising wee run downstream and was able to get to it without too much trouble and had a wee run through there but again no luck. I was contenting myself with an enjoyable few hours but no fish as I returned to the spot I felt I had hooked the fish earlier. To be honest I don’t consider myself much of a river angler (much as I love it), and in particular early season fishing always seems much more difficult, so I hadn’t really come out with any expectations of fish on a new river today. I changed the point nymph to a black beaded variant and cast out upstream over the lie. As the team drifted down towards me I took in the slack then the Klink vanished. Fish On! And it was a pretty good one too. In fact i don’t think it realised it was even hooked at first but then it woke up and took off heading for the cover of the tree, I grabbed my video and caught the last of the fight as I then brought it to the net, a bit of a chubster of a Brown Trout of about 3/4 to a pound in weight. I was well chuffed. I am pretty sure this was the fish i hooked earlier as it had a bit of a ragged mouth and looked like a hook might have pulled through it. I reckon I did hook this same fish earlier and getting snagged on the bottom gave the fish the chance to rip itself from the barbless hook. It hadn’t put it off feeding though, and it went back fine. I decided I would fish upstream the rest of the run above and then head back to the car.
Brownie number 2 and on a dry fly- top sport!
I cast out just above the tree where the first fish was getting shelter behind. As the Klink drifted down stream I seen a flash of gold slowly rise from the bottom and follow the fly down, ever so slowly and confidently engulfing it right from the surface. Number 2, on a dry fly, who would believe it on a windy grey second day of the season? A smaller fish this time and again went back fine. I fished out the rest of the run and as I was packing up to head for the car noticed another fish chasing something on the surface, so they are definitely there!
But very pleased I decided to head out on a less than promising day, for a spot of river fishing.
Good day out Kenny, nice fish from a wee river, I was out on the Clyde on Thursday and blanked ,
It seems to be a nice wee river, the water is clear and there seems to be lots of aquatic life, the surroundings even here in the relative countryside are a bit “urban” so there is a lot of litter and rubbish on bits of the banks, though its mosly been washed downstream over the winter not dumped here necessarily. I think it might be quite challenging in summer when the trees are fuller. The water level has also dropped quite significantly from even last week. Must be quite low if we get a proper dry spell. Would probably need to head further downstream.
nice report Kenny, was on the river for a wee while on saturday but didnae get a touch,spoke to one guy who said he had eight and another guy who had two. it was stocked on friday, you will recognise the stockies as they have the adipose fin cut
Hi Tommy. Where were you fishing, down beyond Larbert? I have not looked that far down yet. Neither fish had the tattoo marks on, and looking back at the pictures I didn’t notice them having the Adipose cut. The second definitely didn’t. The first looked a wee bit more like a stockie, certainly it was well fed, but that said it was clearly a bit of a pig judging by its feeding activity. I wouldn’t like to say either were wild fish, I don’t think they were as their tails weren’t huge so suspect they were stocked at some time whether it was recent or not I couldn’t say. Was very windy for anywhere else so I guess you won’t have tried up the Coulter yet?
i was fishing in the area next to the industrial estate at winchester avenue. started at the top where a burn comes in and fished down stream for a couple of hours but not a touch. saw a few small olives flying about but no thing rising. going to coulter tomorrow”thursday” with mate to let him try his new outboard and get the hang of it but dont think i will be fishing. will probably visit the river again as i have a lot of learning to do on river fishing, maybe see you down there, tight lines.
We need to meet up and you can show me where to go! Parking seems a bit of an issue round the bits I have looked at. Where is Winchester Av. Larbert?
Just looked it up- I know where you are now. So you were upstream of me though not far
Kenny, on u tube there is a guy called barry gibb with a few videos of fishing the carron. Have a look at the one “late october 2012” where he walks almost the whole river and you will get an idea of where to go. if you want to meet up give me a shout.
found it River Carron