The Urban Fly Fisher » brownlining http://urbanflyfisher.com Brownlining adventures...mostly! Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:21:38 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Fisherman’s Stories (morphing misinformation into factoids) http://urbanflyfisher.com/fisherman%e2%80%99s-stories-morphing-misinformation-into-factoids/ http://urbanflyfisher.com/fisherman%e2%80%99s-stories-morphing-misinformation-into-factoids/#comments Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:29:55 +0000 Alistair http://urbanflyfisher.com/?p=3407 This is a post about how stories can grow arm and legs and eventually morph out of all known facts into a completely different scenario. It is akin to someone telling another angler they caught a trout on a dry fly and then eventually the story ending up as being they were attacked by [...]]]> This is a post about how stories can grow arm and legs and eventually morph out of all known facts into a completely different scenario. It is akin to someone telling another angler they caught a trout on a dry fly and then eventually the story ending up as being they were attacked by a herd of wild donkeys under the control of the evil committee.

The Kelvin has a great angling community, There are lots of very good dedicated anglers – lovely guys, salt of the earth n’ all that.

The river is made up of three types of anglers – dedicated Trout anglers (who occasionally have a bash at Salmon), dedicated Salmon anglers (who sometimes fish for trout until the runs of Salmon arrive) and the chuck it and chance it anglers who fish with no dedicated method and are happy to catch any fish at all. I have got to say the chuck it and chance it anglers are on the decline due to the clamp down on set lining. They either go elsewhere or slip into the other two camps and become better anglers for it.

What unites them all is their capacity to gossip like a group of women at the Bingo.

Stories about catches, rule breaking, and devious plots by the committee all get banded around by everyone – people add on other wee bits they heard until eventually usually story fades away into obscurity or becomes legend.

I wonder if all rivers have the same focus and attention as the Kelvin though – I mean I have ran this blog for ….good grief around 7 years now and it has grown from just a few visitors a day to several hundred. Plus the Kelvin forum is frequented by a nice bunch of guys – I set that up as I get quite a lot of emails from people asking for advice (as if I know what the hell I am talking about) so thought a dedicated place for a bit of peer support would be useful.

I have heard a few things about myself – a few years ago I was attacked and had all my gear stolen off me (not true – I have never even been threatened other than by email). I have had several huge trout from the Kelvin (not true sadly) and I only ever catch tiny trout (kinda true – I just love em’). I have also heard I am a sullen bastard who refuses to tell anyone spots that I fish – kinda true.

A new one reached my ears the other day – I take it you guys read my post about my stupendous blank salmon fishing on Saturday morning. Well, we never even see a fish and did not see anyone catch a fish – what we did see was a few anglers fishing for salmon and Atkins told someone they could not set line – I never said a word as I was on another planet mentally – shell shocked at carrying a spinning rod (the amount of stick I have been getting for that is unbelievable by the way).

Anyway – the story goes that not only did we witness three salmon being caught but we advised the angler who only had a single tag to take all three fish – breaking three of the association rules: one salmon per day and all killed salmon tagged (or was that 2 rules just 4 times)

Even Lord Kelvin hears gossip!

This story was recounted to the association secretary on one of his jaunts to the river – there is still some confusion about dates etc as he thought it was last week they were talking about and he knew for a fact I was not fishing as I blanked the clean up day due to a kids party and I thought he was talking about that Saturday just there. However the facts remain – seemingly this is what I did.

Additionally – someone telephoned the association this highly important piece of gossip even though they did not even meet us that day.

There are a few problems with this – most guys know who I am on the river even if I do not introduce myself (which I don’t do anyway as I am a shy bugger) and can you imagine the amount of stick I would take if I ever did condone someone breaking the rules – after all the preaching I do about trout conservation? – there would probably be ski masks, shovels and shallow graves behind the Art Galleries involved.

Wry smiles all round…

]]> http://urbanflyfisher.com/fisherman%e2%80%99s-stories-morphing-misinformation-into-factoids/feed/ 0 Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-07-11 http://urbanflyfisher.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-07-11/ http://urbanflyfisher.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-07-11/#comments Sat, 10 Jul 2010 23:00:00 +0000 Alistair http://urbanflyfisher.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-07-11/ Powered by Twitter Tools

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  • River has risen .. I might look out the metal work and have a cast for salmon! #
  • Planning a dawn raid on the kelvin for sea beasts! #
  • Up at half four – dawn raid for salmon! #

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    ]]>     http://urbanflyfisher.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-07-11/feed/ 0     Salmon trip – dawn raid (outcome blank) http://urbanflyfisher.com/salmon-trip-dawn-raid-outcome-blank/ http://urbanflyfisher.com/salmon-trip-dawn-raid-outcome-blank/#comments Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:31:31 +0000 Alistair http://urbanflyfisher.com/?p=3385 It is Saturday evening at around 10pm – it is pouring with rain, like really teaming it down – cats and dog’s rain – if you are reading this in Glasgow and you have not looked out the window it is pissing it doon by the way.

    I am talking [...]]]> It is Saturday evening at around 10pm – it is pouring with rain, like really teaming it down – cats and dog’s rain – if you are reading this in Glasgow and you have not looked out the window it is pissing it doon by the way.

    I am talking about the rain for two reasons:

    1. It has not rained like this in around 4 months meaning the trout fishing will improve as the Kelvin has had a good flush (some people unkindly say like a toilet)
    2. I went Salmon fishing today and rain plays a big part in Salmon fishing – for a start it actually brings the fish into the river.

    Before I am heckled by people telling me I know nothing about Salmon fishing (and the Salmon in the Kelvin) let me state the caveat that I know nothing about Salmon fishing on the Kelvin – the only info I have gleaned is through chats with people who do fish the Kelvin for Salmon and people that Catch lots of Salmon on other rivers.

    Who Knows #shrug#

    Ok – stuff I have gleaned about the Kelvin:

    1. A lot of people fish the worm on the Kelvin and consequently it is known as a worming river.
    2. Not many guys catch Salmon on the Kelvin with flies – pretty much nobody knows the holding pools in the middle of the river that they rest in – or whether they just bolt upstream missing out lots of water.

    So this morning I decided to join Atkins in an early morning dawn raid for Salmon – my alarm was set for 0430 as I was being picked up at 0500. Atkins meanwhile decided not to set an alarm and instead use my phone call at 0515 to find out where the hell he was as a fishing prompt.

    The river was at a good height and was clearing very nicely – we started with fly rods and later moved onto metalwork – metal work meaning spinning rods and “Flying Condoms”

    Any moment now.....

    It was good – I enjoyed it – we were doing something a little different – we had identified a few pools that were lovely fly water and covered as much as we could – we had never seen anyone else use the fly on these pools – we knew that one person has caught a salmon on a worm from one of the pools so we just have to keep plugging away until finally we hit it right. It was obviously not today as we caught bugger all at those few pools – it could need more water it might have to be clearer – who knows!

    They could be in any nook and cranny!

    It could have been any country river – not a soul around and absolutely beautiful – only the smell of diesel from the petrol pool gave the game away.

    This could be any country river!

    After a while I got the thirst – I wanted to catch my first Salmon so we headed to where everyone heads to on the Kelvin when they want to catch a Salmon – we went to the Sea Pool – this is a pool just below the first proper weir on the river. Needles to say a lot of guys fish it.

    They use this Alien Gear!!

    When we got there two guys were fishing and another couple turned up. When we left another couple of guys were arriving  – it must get busy.

    It was like fishing on another world – huge heavy stones littered the river bed – you had to traverse some pretty big slabs and the water was in chutes and then long deep channels. I had seen this part of the river when it has been in spate – huge amounts of water flood down here – I suppose that is why the stones are so big – all the wee ones have been swept away.

    You might not see me in this picture - I have a new camo jacket on!

    In the end we never touched a fish – or seen one for that matter – we have heard stories of lots of Salmon in the river from reliable sources however they were obviously somewhere else – or possibly right in front of us – I suppose that is the funny thing about Salmon fishing.

    If I am going to make a prediction it might be that like a lot of people I might have my first Kelvin Salmon on a Flying C or even a Toby (I had better actually buy some extra terminal tackle as I reckon people are getting annoyed at me borrowing their non fly gear – and then promptly attaching it to the river bed)

    Anyway – as I was writing this I suddenly realised that the burns I fish will now be full of water and fishing well – should I forget the Salmon next week and go after trout or actually just keep on at the Salmon.

    Decisions, decisions!

    ]]> http://urbanflyfisher.com/salmon-trip-dawn-raid-outcome-blank/feed/ 7     We have changed conditions! http://urbanflyfisher.com/we-have-changed-conditions/ http://urbanflyfisher.com/we-have-changed-conditions/#comments Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:16:07 +0000 Alistair http://urbanflyfisher.com/?p=3378 I have fished twice over the last week – one was on Saturday evening (before all the rain) and the other was on Tuesday evening just as the rain started.

    Both sessions were what I can only describe as “pish” – I am glad that you guys do not just [...]]]> I have fished twice over the last week – one was on Saturday evening (before all the rain) and the other was on Tuesday evening just as the rain started.

    Both sessions were what I can only describe as “pish” – I am glad that you guys do not just come here to read about huge trout being caught and fantastic flies being tied as if that was the case I would probably post around once a…..well not often anyway.

    Saturday’s session was just before this turn in the weather – I arrived at the river and found it dead low with some flies on the water however no trout making any kind of show. This is my usual wee spot however I doubt I will be back as for some reason all the trout appear to have scampered off somewhere else. It is like that on the Kelvin – you will find a pool that will fish very well for a season or two and then suddenly you will never see another fish in it again for another few seasons – I have spoke to a few Kelvin fishers about this and we think it has something to do with the floods moving the river bed around. To get to this spot you have to manoeuvre yourself down an embankment made up of stones, earth and bricks – I was just thinking about local angler Derek and his rather tragic accident (he jumped over a wall resulting in a smashed heel, broken shin and a broken arm – then the wall fell on top of him) when the brick I was standing on gave way causing me to fall downwards about 3 feet on to my back – glad I had a lucky escape – even my waders were not damaged.

    Anyway – the session was poor – caught a couple of micro broonies (you can tell brownies from parr as brownies have spots on their gills) and that was about it. And then the rains came on Sunday – the river rose well over a metre and then plummeted back down again. I went out after work on Tuesday with Atkins – it looked great conditions – overcast, a slight breeze, warm – once we started casting it started to pour down with rain – only a passing shower – said Atkins – yes – only problem was it was around 2 hours long.

    A passing shower my arse!

    I eventually caught another micro trout on a nymph.

    While we were fishing we heard a chap from the forum had caught a Salmon up at the park closer to the city. Sadly we also heard that three Salmon had been caught on the Monday evening and left the river without being tagged. Damn shame that guys cannot abide to rules that they themselves voted in – the reason the rule with the tags came into force is to conserve stocks so that you can catch more salmon in the future – essentially if this is true what these guys have done is try and ruin the salmon fishing for every other angler on the river.

    Looks like more rain over the next few days – looking forward to it!

    ]]> http://urbanflyfisher.com/we-have-changed-conditions/feed/ 0     Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-06-27 http://urbanflyfisher.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-06-27/ http://urbanflyfisher.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-06-27/#comments Sat, 26 Jun 2010 23:00:00 +0000 Alistair http://urbanflyfisher.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-06-27/ Powered by Twitter Tools

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  • never too young to hold a rod ..http://twitgoo.com/14lkww #
  • First day back at work after a fortnight break ! #
  • On my way home from a sea fishing trip … lots of doggy action ! We all love a bit of doggy! #

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  • Getting ready for a camping trip – cunningly chose a site near water! #
  • Loving camping in the lake district! Home tomorrow! Booo! #
  • It is still roasting hot – what is this, some kind of summer ? #

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    ]]>     http://urbanflyfisher.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-06-20/feed/ 0     Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-06-13 http://urbanflyfisher.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-06-13/ http://urbanflyfisher.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-06-13/#comments Sat, 12 Jun 2010 23:00:00 +0000 Alistair http://urbanflyfisher.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-06-13/
  • Pouring rain can only mean one thing – sea beasts in the salt! Eta 8pm #
  • Heading home from the salt … lost a sea trout! #
  • Planninp on hitting the kelvin this evening – anyone want to join me? #
  • Cold east wind …overcast though…what you think? #
  • RT @kelvinmeadow URGENT! Objections to the death of Otago Lane must be with the council by 16th June: http://is.gd/cMsGu #
  • Heading to the friends of the river kelvin gala day ! Free music and fun! #
  • Even the police bought raffle tickets from the club! http://twitgoo.com/zmnaq #
  • It is going to go to penalties! #

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    ]]>     http://urbanflyfisher.com/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-06-13/feed/ 0     Friends of the River Kelvin gala day + misc report! http://urbanflyfisher.com/friends-of-the-river-kelvin-gala-day-misc-report/ http://urbanflyfisher.com/friends-of-the-river-kelvin-gala-day-misc-report/#comments Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:59:01 +0000 Alistair http://urbanflyfisher.com/friends-of-the-river-kelvin-gala-day-misc-report/ Ok- so I have missed out a few sessions on the kelvin however you have really not missed much. On my last post I was sitting by the river waiting for dusk and monster trout to rise – it did not happen – to add insult to injury I left a lovely box of [...]]]> Ok- so I have missed out a few sessions on the kelvin however you have really not missed much.
    On my last post I was sitting by the river waiting for dusk and monster trout to rise – it did not happen – to add insult to injury I left a lovely box of newly tied flies sitting on my kitchen table…

    A cold weather system has moved in with the wind coming from the east which is notorious for killing the action stone cold dead. Last night I was down in the park with Atkins..we met Paul – new club secretary- and Dougie- old club secretary.
    Paul was made of more manly stuff than us as he actually stayed until dark….we shot off early.
    It should have been the other way about as Paul was manning the association stall at the annual friends of the river kelvin gala day – Atkins and I turned up in the afternoon with the kids!
    What can be better- live music,good fishing chat,a responsible beer in the fresh air and the police don’t seen to mind – they even bought a raffle ticket !
    Atkins even put aside his hatred of people in canoes..however was then raging again as they were charging four quid a ride in a river that he actually pays money to use – classic!

    image

    It was also a bit of a kelvin forum meet up – I met a fair few guys including the legendary Andy and Davie C – two guys that get to fish far too often as far as I am concerned !

    -grin-

    Anyway- possibly raining all day tomorrow however the weather guys never seem to get it right just now so who knows – I might be catching fish – or tying up flies – got to admit it is probably more productive to tie flies than flog the water to death !

    image

    The barometer has not been steady it has been up and down like a yo yo all day – still it did not seem to bother the guy wet wading having a cast right next to the gala day canoe trips!

    There was a half dozen bailiffs and a few office bearers a few metres from him – nice one mate – you seen a nice pool and just went for it!

    image

    ]]>     http://urbanflyfisher.com/friends-of-the-river-kelvin-gala-day-misc-report/feed/ 0     On the kelvin… http://urbanflyfisher.com/on-the-kelvin/ http://urbanflyfisher.com/on-the-kelvin/#comments Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:12:46 +0000 Alistair http://urbanflyfisher.com/on-the-kelvin/ I am sitting by the river waiting for dusk. There has been a lot of fly life but none of the big trout rising……..yet!

    Related Posts: Lake district fishing! A walk in the park – part two. A walk in the park – part ten! Watching trout rise at the vet school Part fourteenPowered by Contextual Related Posts]]>     I am sitting by the river waiting for dusk.
    There has been a lot of fly life but none of the big trout rising……..yet!

    image

    ]]>     http://urbanflyfisher.com/on-the-kelvin/feed/ 0     Attack of the Rottweilers http://urbanflyfisher.com/attack-of-the-rottweilers/ http://urbanflyfisher.com/attack-of-the-rottweilers/#comments Sun, 06 Jun 2010 23:01:48 +0000 Alistair http://urbanflyfisher.com/?p=3284 So I am just back from the Kelvin – before I tell you about the session I thought I would tell you my experiance with the dogs – I have the best scary dog story to beat anyone now – you see lots of guys down the Kelvin complain about the dogs and dog [...]]]> So I am just back from the Kelvin – before I tell you about the session I thought I would tell you my experiance with the dogs – I have the best scary dog story to beat anyone now – you see lots of guys down the Kelvin complain about the dogs and dog walker agencies that let the dogs run wild and generally mess up the fishing.

    Never again will I complain!

    Blissful Calmness

    There I was calmly fishing away at a nice riffle, I had noticed some people in the bushes – drinking by the looks of things but I paid them no mind – suddenly I heard a commotion – out of the bushes came five huge Rottweilers running towards me – barking, growling and snarling.

    I kid ye not – my life flashed in front of my eyes – this is it – I thought – I am about to be in the papers for all the wrong reasons – I am about to be eaten!

    I have no idea what you are supposed to do when this happens – I guess getting down to their level and baring your teeth and growling back is not the thing to do – which is good as I raised my rod so that my fly did not catch one of the beasts and looked at the river with a faint smile on my lips – one of them had its face and jaws so far up my ass I thought it was going for my balls – my penis by this point had retracted into my body – and my heart was racing akin to a cannibals drums when a very fat man has entered the jungle.

    Times by 5 - you get the idea!

    “Back Sabre” –  a chap was shouting.

    “Release, release Titan” – a women was shouting.

    “Here Polly” – someone else was calling.

    I just stood there – amongst the growling barking pack of hounds that had come straight out of hell.

    They were running back to their masters and then running at me again – circling around me – obviously looking for weak spots – If one had started to hump me – by heck I would have let it.

    Eventually they were back with there owners – “any broonies mate?” – one called.

    Around a dozen witty come backs sprang to mind not least of which was “only in my pants you bastard” however I shook my head and moved on.

    Anyway, the fishing – I met one guy who had caught around 20 small trout in the runs I was just about to fish – which is why then I caught bugger all until I moved down the river to some fresh water. There was a tremendous amount of fly life on the water…

    Good fly life!

    However the trout did not start to respond until after a rather heavy burst of rain – I almost decided to head home however thought I should stick it out until dusk as the rain stopped.

    You can see a chap fishing if you look close enough!

    First few trout were small ones at only a few ounces – they were leader shy in the slow water and it took a while to get a proper drag free drift – eventually I had to use a very small cdc pattern.

    A few ounces..

    Still, they were a lot of fun – I found some slow moving deep water and some larger trout were slurping down a mixture of yellow mays and other olives – I did not see any Sedge on the water.

    I finally caught a trout that gave a good account of itself – I had been targeting it for a good few minutes however in the failing light it was difficult to get a decent drift – I ended up using one of my standard (giant) comparaduns.

    A nice wee Kelvin trout!

    It must have been just shy of a quarter of a pound – possibly a smidgen under. As the hatch petered out I managed a few more smaller ones and then another slightly larger one.

    Carbon Copy...

    Again probably just shy of a quarter of a pound  - I forgot I had my tape measure in my pocket – I kinda wished I had measured them now.

    As the light faded instead of the trout becoming more active the action died out – I did see one drunk guy staggering along the path though – I mean really staggering – totally blind drunk – he fell into some bushes and then wandered away – I decided if he was still around when I walked up I would check and make sure he was ok however he was gone.

    All in all a lovely session – well, apart from having the shit scared out of me!

    I suppose that it is all part of the joys of brownlining the Kelvin.

    I think!

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