Fishing to me isn’t all about catching fish. Yeah, it’s really, really good to get a fish or two to make the day feel fully worthwhile…especially after a lean spell, but especially as I get older ( and mobility becomes more of an issue), I can happily spend a lot of my fishing time just walking and seeing new places.
While I have fished the River Clyde, irregularly it is fair to say as it’s not exactly on my doorstep, for a number of years now, I really feel I barely know it. I reckon if you put all the sections I know, of the upper Clyde end to end I probably have “fished” less than 10% really. The Upper Clyde is a fairly long river that winds back and forth from the Lowther Hills to where it slows and widens around Hamilton. If I look at a map of the river I can say I have been in most sections at some point and seen a good percentage of it but, then if you really zoom in you realise that away from the easy-to-access areas there are whole stretches that are real effort to get to and you wonder how many anglers bother?
I think we are all guilty of parking the car near access to the river and pretty much-starting fishing as soon as we see the water. I think this was brought home to me last year on an outing that turned out not to be an outing because I forgot my waders or at least my wading boots. I had already parked at a regular and convenient access, so I decided instead to take a bit of a walk. I walked for a good hour out, and the same back and when checked on my walking app and timeline I had barely gone a mile each way. Yet I had reached a section of the river that was entirely alien to me.
Yesterday I decided I would try to reach that section, but ideally needed an easier way in so I had spent a fair bit of time looking at maps trying to figure some way to get to where I was last time, but without the walk. Frankly, the walk would have been hard going in wading gear, really you would have had to have carried it in and got into it on the river bank. After much map scouring I found an access that looked possible. One of the reasons so much of the river remains off-limits to me is the simple fact that there can be miles of road with nowhere to stop near the water. if you are a local you can probably make miles of water almost like your own private river as walking is the only way to them.
With a potential stopping place marked, I arranged to meet John at the designated spot and was down there around 10 am. It was a beautiful morning with bright sunshine ( how much of a rarity has that been this year?) but around -2C as I left home in Stirling.
A per usual stuff was forgotten, for once it was John that forgot his reel so had to borrow one of my spares. That led to the usual slagging off that I have the reel wound the wrong way for a right-hander. I can’t help it, I simply can’t wind with my left hand no matter how I try it just feels wrong in the same way trying to write with a pencil in my left hand feels uncomfortable. So yes I have to swap hands with the rod when I want to wind in…always have always will! But it does mean I can claim a 75% ownership in any fish John catches as otherwise he would be on the bus home!
This wasn’t a day about being first on the water, it was just an opportunity to venture somewhere new, fling a few bugs for the Grayling and who knows catch a few fish. In the event, we probably spent almost as long walking as we did fishing. We tried four sections neither of us had ever fished and had a thoroughly nice day out in gorgeous Autumn sunshine. Did we catch anything? Yes we did, already my 2023-24 Grayling season is better than last, as both of us hooked a couple of small grayling each. Mine were just this year’s fish, little more than 6″ each that came a couple of casts apart in the first section we tried, but still gave off that wonderful Grayling smell. John had one first thing and then another right at the end which was a better fish and the biggest of the day by quite some amount. Of course I can claim one and a half of Johns fish as it was my reel. He claimed he would have caught more if the reel wasn’t “corrie-jook-it”.
Some of the water looked promising but was quite uneven underfoot so the wading was a bit sketchy, I was very glad to have my wading stick. Some were fast enough but a bit shallow, other sections a bit more towards the slower end of ideal for catching the Ladies, but easier wading and more fishable in terms of the amount of water you could cover and the depth.
Did we find any magic spots? That would be telling. I would go back though as overall it was just a nice place to be on a sunny Autumnal day like this, even just sitting on the bank chilling was enjoyable.
