Your Voice is the Souch o the Wind Throu Birks

” your voice is the breath of the wind through birches “, the opening line of the Poem Lanarkshire by Matthew Fitt. It seems oddly fitting for the conditions encountered at Newmill Trout Fishery yesterday by myself and arriving short while after me, Radek.

When I left the house though grey and overcast it was unseasonably mild and it has to be said, still. But down at Newmill, between Carstairs and Lanark it was in the grip of a fairly fierce at times South Easterly wind.

Down on the Catch and Release pond where I had started my visit to this multi-pond complex, it was bearable surrounded as you are by trees which fring the banks of the Mouse Water that runs round this part of the site. Were they Birches? No idea. My tree identification skills are poorer even than my bird identification skills!

The chap at the well-stocked tackle shop on site, where you buy your very reasonably priced ticket, said to me the C&R pond had been stocked the day before so there should be fish to be caught. However, the two chaps ( regulars I understood) fishing on the promontory that juts out in the middle of the loch, suggested it was a bit slow. One was fishing the bung, the other using a lure on a very slow retrieve. They said the fish weren’t up for the chase.

First cast

I had tied on a black Humungous and a Flourescent pink Blob on the dropper. I had noticed when I arrived that the water looked very coloured up and I wasn’t thinking small and natural was going to work. But we will see. I too was on the promontory, and as I was spooling out flyline for my first cast a fish rose between me and the other two anglers. I cast over it, gave a couple of pulls to straighten things out and I started my retrieve. A slight sensation of a fish, I lifted and yes I was in, first cast! The stockie Rainbow had taken the Humungous. The two others looked kind of astonished.

Number two

Literally, as I was getting set to cast again, Radek arrived. I think I cast maybe 4-5 more times and had my second, again on the Humungous. Again the take was fairly subtle but the fish was well hooked.

Radek looked kind of impatient and said he preferred to fish at the top loch which was bigger. When I arrived the chap selling the tickets hadn’t mentioned any other ponds, I had seen two others on the way in but he was quite specific that the one I was on was the Catch and Release pond so I took it that was where I was limited to. Radek said that you could fish anywhere, he had been a fairly regular visitor in years past.

We went for a wander, and up at the top loch there was only one angler there away up the far side, fishing bait. The water here was gin clear. It was also very, very windy. Even though it blew from behind us it was a bit of a nightmare, and Radek ended up with line wrapped round himself as the wind took the line.

Spider Sense not Tingling!

I stuck it out though for maybe half an hour though never had so much as a touch. Radek had itchy feet though, his spider sense wasn’t tingling in the presence of trout and he tried a few spots, then the adjacent other high loch then the one immediately behind my location by the big shed. Nothing doing though we did see a bait angler catch on this last pond.

The wind though was hellish and we headed back for the shelter of the trees and Radek opted to try the other small pond surrounded by trees. For my part I headed to the shop to get a couple of drinks for us and a snack. It was a different chap there and I asked him about the other lochs. Catch and Release was restricted to the pond I had started on right enough, the others you needed to be on a take ticket. Radek did have a take ticket I didn’t , so I owned up and apologied and I have to say the guy was Ok about it and said as long as he was aware it was not a problem.

I headed back to the C&R pond and the same spot as before. Radek eventually followed. Almost right away I had a third fish. Radek then had one before I lost one as it really grabbed at the fly, pulling the line from my fingers, meaning I failed to get properly set on the fish. Radek soon had his second and third, and then a fourth. As he was readying to head home, I too had a fourth.

The wind had dropped a fair bit by the end and in fact, there was a bit of a rise got going. I dared to try a dry fly and a wee buzzer on a dropper just sub-surface but despite one very near rise, but never had any interest, probably wishful thinking in mid-February!

On the fry

The take I got for the fourth though, was a funny one. I was back on the humungous and on the dropper I was trying one of Radek’s favourite flies, the Fireman. He had caught a few of his on this. There was a kind of a splash as the flies landed and it looked like a small fish jumping clear of the water right by the top dropper fly, there was a swirl, then a good take and a better, maybe 3lb fish was on.

I think the fish were hitting small fry that were shoaling out under the surface and in the commotion a wee fish had a lucky escape but my fly became the victim. We saw a few more similar splashes so it seemed this was what happened.

By three I too had had enough, four fish netted and one lost wqsn’t a bad few hours sport, time for tea and medals.