It is sometimes easy to see why some people think the Kelvin is not an urban river – especially from the pictures that I post on this site. You see – there is a green corridor that cuts through Glasgow and down this passageway the Kelvin runs – the corridor has its own compliment of wild animals including its very own deer population. The whole length of the river is covered in bruises from its industrial past – a lot of the river bed is not just made up of gravel – it is made up of masonry from old mills and destroyed bridges.
I love walking along this green corridor – you feel as if you are doing something secret – when you see the ruined bridges and old abandoned mills it makes you think of what the river will be like in another hundred years – in fact it makes you wonder what the whole city will be like !
While fishing the river you feel as if you are doing something secret – especially if you are somewhere only an angler can get to – this is why I like to find wee spots that are not easily accessible – you are still guaranteed solitude.
To the not so Urban..
I took reader Ewen Thomson out for a trip to the Clyde on Friday night – rumours of my death from swine man flu have been greatly exaggerated by the way.
(Ewen is a TV Director – his current show is on Sky 1 and is called “Ross Kemp in Search of Pirates” – seeing as how he faced up to pirates I reckoned he was man enough for the Kelvin however it is desperately needing rain – the last time I fished it an evening rise just did not occur)
Turned out the Clyde is in need of rainfall as well- the rocks stuck out parched like bones…
Still, we both managed to catch some trout on the dry fly and Ewen managed to catch his first Clyde trout within a few minutes of starting which took the pressure off things.
Ewen is sporting a rather nice pair of Polaroids bought using the discount code I mentioned a few posts back – I forgot to ask him what he thought of them – I found them great in the low light conditions – this section of river has treacherous wading which means a good pair of quality Polaroids are a must to see ankle breaking boulders never mind your fly on the water.
At around 11pm the wind picked up blowing sedges and upwings into our faces, hair and mouths – the trout responded for a few moments and were then gone.
Talking of sedges – they are out in force on the Kelvin – now where is my cdc and deer hair – I have a dozen sedges to tie up!
Good to have you back in circulation Alistair. As you say the river is that low you can see the old wooden supports for the old bridges. I was speaking to a couple last week who had been raised in Glasgow but had move away many years ago and were back on a vist. As I was fishing down at Belmont Bridge they were asking all about the river and remarked how lucky we are to have such a gem on our door step. Just as they went under Belmont bridge the lad fishing down river hooked a nice trout about 3/4lb the couple where amazed at the size. Is this you lining up another T.V. appearance or a nice documentary on the River Kelvin.
Glad your not deed as we all expected! I was out on the clyde on saturday, what a tough day! I didn’t manage any until about 10.30pm! The wind was playing havoc with casting, chucking the fly upstream of your leader etc and keeping the fish down. I have to say though, i’ve never seen that many fish in a river! The entire river is stuffed full of them! Have to say i do love the clyde, that was my first time fishing WAY up the river and it’s very nice!
Hi Al,
Its good to hear that you’ve recovered – was swinehund flu after all?
Please put it too your TV producer guy that the whole Clyde System (especially all the urban waters) would make a great angling tv series…I gabbed to you for ages about this before, so I won’t bore you any further.
Need to meet you toot sweet to get a club member to show me the Kelvin.
Cheers
Roddy
what hair???
Combat fishing….ya gotta love it…