I love surprises, I pass over this river on the way to a rehab centre – sometimes I have to go there for meetings when people are being discharged. Today I left my gear in the car so I could have a quick cast on my lunch break before the meeting. The water had a blue tinge to it, did not look healthy. I thought it was dead and then I saw a rise – a pod of rising trout with a few nice ones in their as well – fairly slurping at the surface – I got into position and cast – two trout must have been competing for flies as they both went for it – the trout was on and putting a fair old bend in my wee 4 weight Orvis – it was at this point me reel fell off.
I then spent the rest of the fight trying to manage with the line I had out – it turned out ok and then I secured the reel again.
Looking forward to my next meeting already.
Not to bad for a quick lunch 😀 I had a wee go myself last night at one of my favourite spots up at Torrance, when out the corner of my eye i noticed what seemed to be a decent sized broony trying out for the 2014 gymnastics. I set myself up for nice wee cast and drift right over the top of the same spot when!! A salmon, easily double figures, lept clear from the surface and made the biggest k-sploosh i have ever seen! I dont no about you guy’s but something about it just gets me shakin like a little school boy. The morale of this story is? Guess were im going tonight?? 😀 Keep you posted!
So the Salmon are well and truly in then – the Salmon boys will be having a whale of a time –
Let me know how you get on 🙂
Hey Alistair, is that stream a tributary of the Kelvin? I know better than to ask you where it was? 🙂
We had a couple of days fishing the Lochay up at killin last week. Difficult fishing cause of tree-lined banks and crystal clear water, but a beautiful river. Had some success. The guy at the shop in Killin said the river is little fished because of the difficult access and he’s had come big fish out of it. Might fire back there again at some point this summer.
meant “some”, not “come”
Alistair !!you should go back near that little light house for some night action !the fish are plentifull.2lb bars of silver running like trains!kid you not !
@Andy – its not actually – a lot more further afield – looks a bit like the allander though – although with bigger trout !
Nicolas – Yup – will need to make a date to get down !
ok, yeah I guessed that when I read a post of yours from near the end of last season….
A question for you, I was on the kelvin again today and I’m going mad trying to find a fly imitation for these mayfly that are hatching. They are a really light/bright green or a very pale yellow, hard to tell. Quite large, but not duns I don’t think. I have this little hole that I like to fish were I caught a nice 13″ fish a week ago and today the trout were going mad feeding off these flies, but ignoring the brightest olive I have. Any ideas? What is this fly?
Hmmm, I dont know of a bright green fly – I am pretty sure though that they were Yellow Mays – a comparadun would cover them I reckon – congrats on the nice trout 🙂
Hey Alistair, hows it going? my bro-in law and myself set out the other night for the “kelvin monster”! Only to discover almost 30 anglers fishing the point between the allander pool and the torrance bridge!! Decided against squeezing in so headed of to another wee hotspot were the fishing was plentiful. A handfull of brown and a superb looking sea trout about the 1lb mark was enough to satisy! For the moment anway 😀 Gony hit the kelvin big this week in search of a big 1. Enjoy 😀
Hey Frank – yup that place is getting well known and is usually busy – I reckon it is a lot of anglers from the Leven heading down to fish.
Well done on the Sea Trout 🙂
What did you catch them all on?
Interestingly, i remember seeing sulphur coloured mays coming off the Kelvin , but always the trout would have a preference to the nymph and i rarely saw the fish take the duns. Even when fish are on the duns, i find Dick Walker’s mayfly nymph in smaller sizes always killed on the kelvin
As for the salmon. Some fish will run with water up to the Torrance area, however, when you get a quick rise and fall like we ‘ve had recently more fish that you would think will linger around the lower reaches and may not traverse the many weirs in the Glasgow stretch. So don’t always go with the crowd, remember salmon and sea trout can be there one day and gone the next, spring fish run further up the river than those coming into the system in the summer and autumn. The key is to know where the fish will lie at different times of the season AND at different water heights. Once you have this info, its just a matter of getting them to take, which will happen at least once in a 24 hr period, so not that big a challenge then !!! In the meantime, i’m off to my favourite east coast river for sea trout and large summer salmon
Hi Alistair, the browns were takin yellow mayfly patterns and green olives and the sea took a blue dun recomended by my local tackle shop!! I only tried it on the advice given and was shocked (or more acurately s**t myself) when the line tightened! If im being honest im a lucky boy as the hit was made out of sheer panic :L