Kelvinators – my faith has been restored!

by Alistair

OK, sure we had a few moments that were a bit dodgy. The tone was set when a chap walked in to the room and started giving Paul abuse as he could not find the venue (like that is our fault) however he gave a quick apology when he was chinned about his behavior. Everyone brought their invites and lots of people had read the newsletter on the site.

We had also told the local pub not to serve anyone that looked like a shifty Kelvin fisher anything stronger than Tennents.

Good Grief - and this was the "good" bit of the room. The best of a bad bunch!
Good Grief – and this was the “good” bit of the room. The best of a bad bunch! One guy in this picture looks as if he has actually died.

I am going to gloss over pretty much everything and cut to the chase of something I really should have noticed on the agenda.

5. Abolish rule 28

Actually it says something totally different on the booklet to the website however it is:

14. All brown trout to be returned to the river regardless of condition.

So the proposal was made and a lot of thoughts drifted through my head not least of which was that a lot of hard work could be getting chapped on the head this season and the Kelvin stocks quickly wiped out if this one got through.

There was a bit of a silence in the hall, I wanted to write stunned silence their however that would be a bit dramatic. However there was a bit of angry brow action from the guys that have noted the trout fishing improve. The bottom line is it did not even get close to being passed. It still amazes me that in this day and age people still have an attitude that big trout just magically appear instead of being assisted along a little, like by not killing them. To be fair the guy then asked about stocking the river with Rainbow Trout so his credibility dive bombed.

All the rest of the AGM was about Salmon fishers moaning at each other about who had bigger nets or something. I jest, Paul will put an update up on the Fishkelvin site soon I am sure.

In other news I am still without a laptop as we head towards this coming season and must look stuff up on either my phone or my netbook. My trusty laptop which I saved an age for was destroyed by the kids and even though I received some cash to get a new one they promptly destroyed my bathroom and it was then spent on that instead. So I am left without a laptop to scribble my thoughts etc. for the foreseeable future. Still, never one to let the mere access to technology curtail my ramblings I can still do my stuff after a fashion. If you notice photos looking the wrong size just let me know.Incidentally if you fancy donating to my current laptop fund you can do so by paypal here. If everyone on my email list donated a buck my wife would not make statements like “It’s all about that bloody website isn’t it!!!”  I have them saved on my Amazon wishlist – if someone actually buys something through amazon after clicking a link through this site I get a bung which is another nice way of donating.  If you spend ten pounds I get 50p or something however it all adds up,.

I have no idea why as I have hardly picked up a rod with purpose for quite some time. I logged on to that infernal site Facebook the other day to see that the Glasgow Angling Centre is having one of its famous open weekends. I gazed at the glossy advert only to see that John Wilson will be in attendance this year. I attended one of the events a few years ago and after sidling up to him asked for a quick photo, he told me he did not have the time and then went off to speak to someone leaving me standing there looking quite frankly like a dick. It was not the case with Matt Hayes who was happy to pose for a photo and a chat. Paul Young is another gent who is happy to stop and chat to everyone and I see fathers pushing their sons towards him so that some of his fishy luck may be channeled through them. Speaking of Matt Hayes I am reminded of a Kelvin AGM when one of the members stated that we should be contacting Glasgow City Council for money and help as he had a conversation with Matt Hayes at an open weekend and that was what he advised to do. It is kinda different down in England though as they do not have a lot of access to rivers with trout and salmon. What access they do have costs an absolute bloody fortune. If you took the Kelvin out of Glasgow and transported it 300 miles South you would probably be paying £50 a day with a limited membership and a keeper for the river. The last open day was great fun and I got chatting to lots of various folk and will definitely be heading along to this upcoming one!

Today I spotted my first wee green shoots poking up out the grass which means Spring is not far off – 35 days or thereabouts.

Hope you guys have got your stuff together!

14 thoughts on “Kelvinators – my faith has been restored!”

  1. What’s that they’re voting on in the photograph? I heard that fishing off the falls was banned- I’m surprised folk went for that one, was the vote a close one?

  2. You’re right, said guy on right does look dead, which is about how half my students look when I’m lecturing.

    Speaking of John Wilson, we had a ‘famous speaker’ (no names, but he ties flies and is mentioned in books written by Gierach , and his name rhymes with Rest) come recently to lecture at our trout club. He lived up to his name and acted better-then -thou. One of the cu-ups in the club (who kind of looks and acts like me) went up to him, after he had treated a kid like shite for asking for one of his flies as a souvenir, and said. “Can I get a free picture with you Mr. (sounds like Rest), or will I have to pay to do so?” Needless to say that person (that looks like me) was given dirty looks by the club president and he’ll not be asked to sit at the presidents table when the next club dinner takes place.

    Question, do I spy an actual female in the photo over on our left, with a cap on, or is that just a young dude in a hat?

  4. Was surprised you asked them to serve nothing stronger that Tennants, tastes like a chemical compound these days IMO LOL.Thanks for pulling my ticket out, for a nice Diawa 10ft x 4 piece spin. rod. Well done to the members for voting for continued C&R for trout and also for a more enjoyable and almost peaceful AGM.

  5. What a bunch of tossers! just kidding….At least there are some youngish looking folks there. At the monthly TU meetings (no, not THAT TU,the other more famous one) I’m in the middle ground…at 50+ !!!!! Having a ‘national’ fly fishing show here in Seattle next week, get to spend a day out..can’t wait

  7. Alasdair – I think the vote in that photo was for whether to keep you as a member or not 🙂 They were the “for” It was actually a total landslide to ban fishing from the top of the falls pool. We just presented it as we received it with no comment. There was only maybe a dozen against. Thing is the members must now police it. Oh, and some guy accused Atkins of fishing there all the time which he went hunting for him at the break about.

    Charles – I know of the speaker of which you write ! There were two women in the room – one young one and an older one around the mid thirties!

    Peter – Why did you not come up and say hello? Many thanks for the comments, a lot of preparatory work went into making sure it ran smoothly. With a few exceptions it all went well with only relevant issues being discussed. I think next year I may ask for a full 5 year C&R plan so that we do not get folk asking to kill trout each year.

    JP2 – Do they have criminal record though?

    Ken, Love the blog – we should meet up some time! In terms of just trout fishing for £100 I could get a few permits on the Clyde, Kelvin and one of the other wee Clyde tribs. Saying that you are right that fuel plays a big part in where to go fishing these days, I used to think nothing of driving 50 miles to a spot on the Clyde and now I am quite happy with a walk to the Kelvin.

  8. Alistair, thanks for the compliment. Your blog gave me the idea. Later on I’ll be visiting some of my true urban trout waters, where the fishing is free, but under threat from bait fishing trout murderers. I’ll keep you posted.
    P.S. Scotland is on my visit list every year, but still haven’t managed Wales.

  9. Alistair,Sent you a donation towards your new laptop.Sent you one for the last one as well but unfortunately the two joys of your life killed it deid.My Advice !!Find a high place to place it as soon as you logout.A.T.B.from Germany. 🙂

  11. Glad to help Alistair.I would hope that the people that you strive to keep informed think the same way.Robbie C.(Bit strange this WordPress)that i end up with a different username,but am happy to be connected.

  13. is it worth going down to kelvin on trout opening day?
    floating or intermediate line? wets or drys? as im new to the fly

I really enjoy reading your comments - say something!