On Friday after work, I looked at the weather forecast and thought if I wanted to wet a line, it might have to be tonight.
An Evening Patrol
After getting my tea down me it was off down the River Carron. I had the thought to go fish just off the Denovan Road but on getting to the spot, it was almost stagnant at the pool which provides enough depth and cover for the fish.
Nothing moved.
I got back in the car and carried on down the river and drove straight by the place I had thought to stop. Someone has filled in the entrance where I used to park. I soon realised and I reversed back up the road and tucked the car in as best I could beside the discarded remains of several Indian takeaways by the looks (and smells) of things.
The wee glide below the road was very low looking too but there were fish rising here and there. Probably small but you don’t really know until you try.
A Dry on a French Leader
I tackled up and tied on my attempt at a French leader specifically for dry fly. The basis is a Daiwa tapered carp leader and having removed the forward 7 feet I attached a 12 foot Varivas dry fly leader. Cutting at 7ft matches the diameter of the carp leader with the butt section of the dry fly leader. The end result as I hoped, is it turns over well, even with a small fly on the point.
I fished a CDC Greenwells first, casting over where I saw a fish rise a few times. Not a sniff. I changed down to a size 16 CDC Iron Blue and first cast it was taken by a small wild Brown Trout but though I saw it as I brought it close, it managed to unhook itself.
I rose a few more but they were turning away at the last second, so I tied on a very small dry around a size 20. This didn’t seem to have any more success than its bigger neighbour.
I fished on halfway up the whole glide and nothing seemed interested though as the sun dipped below the treeline, fish seemed to stop rising above and below me. It went very quiet though there were a lot of Spinners around.
I stopped and changed my set up to fish nymphs and spiders and fished this the rest of the way up the run… Nothing.
Fed Up
I was, to be frank, a bit fed up, and wandered back to the car. There was still enough light it being only about 21:30 and rather than pack up I opted to drive back where I stopped for a look and try the nymphs through the faster water above.
While it was light enough to fish, changing flies would have been impossible for me now and I left my small double bead jig on point about a size 18 and 47nymph on the dropper.
I had high hopes, I was sure there would be something willing to bite… But no. To make matters worse, the one and only fish I saw rise did so right where I had just fished through a few minutes before. I drove home.
No Fishing until boredom strikes
I had no plans to fish Saturday but was bored out my head by lunchtime and the weather while a bit damp, wasn’t bad. It seemed my Mrs had no plans for me and I decided to sneak back out and try my luck on the River Carron Lottery once more.
Already “someone” fishing
I tackled up in light rain with much the same set up as I ended on the night before and headed to my first target run. There was already another fisher there, but I felt sure when he saw who wanted to fish the water he would let me in, and I was right, the Heron took off as I got near.
I fished the tail out of the spot I really wanted to be in, under the trees then moved into the deeper channel. I fished it very thoroughly giving near, mid and far sides of the channel a good few runs through each before stepping up and starting over. To be honest I was a little surprised at not getting a thing. I was constantly clearing rock snot off the bugs, I will be happy if we could get a decent dump of rain to wash this stuff through as its a bit of a nuisance on the Carron just now.
At the head of the run I had nothing to show, though felt I had one knock. I was planning on moving and retrieved my bugs a last time and noticed a bit weed once again attached to the point fly. Had my last few casts been “polluted”. I cleaned it off, and decided a couple more throws….
Right away the indicator dipped, not a hard take by any means and I was into a fish around 3/4lb. It jumped and leapt all over but I kept the tension on in the fast water, and went to net it, and missed and had to repeat the whole process!
Very probably a stockie, though fairly lean if it was but he went back no problem.
The options now were upstream or down. I prefer to explore down the way as it is away from the dog walkers and kids so down the river I went. The corner below seemed to be packed with small fish. I lost count how many I caught, mostly small wild Browns but still a few Silvery Smolt among them. With the river so low I was able to get around the far side and try the lower reaches of this section from the far side, as being fringed with big boulders on the near side, it is hard to access and fish well on a fly. Still just more small fish.
A lucky escape
As I climbed out at one spot I felt something by my hand and seeing a piece of visible plastic pulled on it, it was a panel saw! I very nearly either kneeled or pulled on it!
I moved down further fully confident I would get a few more decent fish and fished the deeper holes I am aware of pretty thoroughly but even the offers of the smaller fish dried up. The slower areas that usually have a bit depth I tried with a drop shot set up and the rest with the French Leader. Right at the bottom of the day’s wanderings, there was a low, wide, flat tail out from some fast water, and I was amused watching a small trout chase a fly. I saw the fly ( a good sized pale olive) pop-up out the water and almost as soon as it did, the fish tried to take it and missed. The fly tried to lift off but only got about 6″ before landing again and the fish tried a second time and missed again. This time the fly lifted off realising I think, the danger it was in and it lifted about 2 feet in the air to be blown about 4 feet down the glide. It landed again, probably relieved to be safe, then the fish simply rose and took it. End of the fly.
What a difference right enough
With the water so low and shallow here, I decided to swing a few spiders with the current, trying my best not to kick up too much of the ever present rock snot which was swept right down to where you were fishing below if you were not careful but I never saw any signs of interest though there were small fish here and I decided it was time to head home. One decent fish and lots of wee ones, were still a lot better than the night before.
