The Urban Fly Fisher

First Trout Trip!

Actually, looking at it this is my third trout trip.

I had a session at Carbeth Fishery with a group of disabled guys that I help through work and had caught a few slobs in the fly only pool including what might actually be my biggest rainbow on the fly. It was in the teens, I spotted it being stocked on the Carbeth Facebook page so I know it was the big one.

I then had a half hour session on my urban burn, you remember the one that had been cleaned out by guys looking for Pike bait. It has still not recovered.

So we decided that on Friday we would fish Paul’s new syndicate loch. A day bobbing about in a boat catching stockies while getting over a horrible chesty cold sounded great.

I had forgotten that the temperature would be horrifically low and that I was not yet fully recovered.

Paul had several new gadgets he wanted to try out, his electric engine and a couple of boat seats. As there was three of us I graciously sat on a soggy cushion however as Alex nearly tipped out the boat as his seat was wobbly I was glad I did not have the added stress of certain death to deal with.

Alex as usual consistently caught trout all day. If you take Alex to a dirty ditch I am sure he could haul in a couple of pounders caught on a humongous. I eventually worked out that he was fishing a lot deeper than we were and when I finally managed to get my fly deep enough i was awarded with a nice wild trout.

Alex told us a story about when he was fishing up at Lamington on the Clyde and he was fishing with a lure like fly to get deep. A chap on the opposite bank was observing him and telephoned some official to find out if it was against the rules. Finding out it was not he suggested that Alex go and fish for salmon or something with his lures and not trout. All this was overheard by Alex. If you fish all year with a bloody dry fly you are going to catch a fraction of the fish you would have by changing tactics lamented Alex.

Paul blanked however he was comfy in his seat.

Kelvin Opening Day (not opending) Photos!

River Kelvin Opening Ceremony ! 18th March 1100 Islay Inn

This Saturday it is all happening down the Kelvin. It is the annual River Kelvin Angling Association opening ceremony.

Here is a video from the past:

And that video was from 4 years ago so it is even more mental now! We now have rolls n sausage or bacon in the Islay Inn with a dram on the association and then a piper toots us to the river. Bring a pal and your wife and kids as I will be.

Here is another one:

Some actual quotes:

“A great couple of hours”

“We should do this every month”

“I thought a fight was going to break out any minute”

With recommendations like that how could you miss it?

Two Kelvin Videos!

Kelvin videos are like buses, you wait for ages and then two excellent ones come along at once.

The first is a video of some tree felling next to the river which at first I thought was going to be a bit of a bore however was actually very cool.

The second is a drone over the Kelvin. It was on Youtube vut was removed probably because they sold the footage to Glasgow Live however I may just by cynical – here it is!

Stocktaking

“April is the cruellest month, breeding. Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing. Memory and desire, stirring”

Not in this fishers life at the moment – the cruelest month happens to be February as that is the one that happens to come before March. March of course signifying the start of the trout season on the 15th. At the moment it is around 12 degrees in Glasgow and somewhere in the UK it was 18 degrees. The news called 18 degrees spring weather however those are damn near summer temperatures. Of course if this keeps up then we will have a bumper spring with fit trout however never hope too much as we could be a foot deep in snow on opening day.

Last year as most of you are aware was a washout for my fishing due to a fire in my house. I am hoping this year should be better and in preparation I opened my fishing cupboard door to survey my gear – I could not see it due to the amount of toys that had been thrown in on top of and around my gear. My fishing store was now being used as a general shite cupboard. I spent some time moving stuff around and found two of my fishing cameras. Some nice pictures on them too from a late trip last year.

last trout of 2016

And another of Alex..

This was before a most enjoyable night out in Aberfeldy where I ended up paying £18 for two double whiskies – I am sure I was ripped off. We then proceeded to have a few more drams before retiring to our tent at around 2am. We knew it was this time as someone shouted at us to shut up as we were talking too loud. I then proceeded to spend the next day drifting in and out of consciousness next to the River Tay after retching behind a tree a few times.

“Look Daddy, a dead man!” I heard as a dog licked my face. It was not my proudest moment.

I was glad I found the camera!

Not as far away as you think!

Good Times!

back of the car packed

Cortland Desire 10 foot 7 weight Review

So I was offered the Cortland Desire 10 foot for a 7 weight rod for review by Keen’s Tackle and Guns and it came kind of a surprise as I did not even know that Cortland make rods. The rod was the princely sum of around £50 which places it just above the budget conscious buyers – you can buy cheap rods for around £20 – £30 these days some of which are very good and some not so. I had won a Leeda 9 foot for a 6 weight at the River Kelvin Angling Association AGM that I love which costs around the same as the Cortland so hoped that it would be the same calibre.

Cortland is well known for their fly lines or at least I think it is the same company. Certainly Cortland do not make a big show of producing rods and seem focussed on their fly lines, perhaps now many companies can have a sideline on fly rods as they can be so cheaply made in China and be under no illusion that this is where this rod came from like pretty much every other rod these days. I think Cortland rods are better known in the states as over here we have our own budget rods usually imported from Europe.

I knew it was made in China because it had a “Made in China” sticker on it!

The rod was sent to me and I had to trundle my youngest in the pram down to the town center to puck it up from a shop. It was in a rectangular packing tube and I laid it across the pram where it was promptly blown on to the road in the high winds and nearly squashed by a delivery truck. I darted out on the road to retrieve it and it was blown further down the street heading straight towards the Clyde itself where in months to come some lucky individual would find it and would have a story to tell. Thankfully I managed to catch it allowing this review to actually continue. At least this proves it is nice and light.

The rod comes with a good quality tube and a cheap plastic feeling bag.

Obviously aesthetics mean nothing in terms of fly rods as it is more how it fishes however when I got it out of its tube I was impressed by how thin and light the blank is. My old 10 foot 7 weight is a bloody chore to use as it can put a lot of strain on your arm due to its weight but the Cortland’s blank was thinner than a very poor and shoddy Fulling Mill 5 weight I bought a few years ago. The quality of the cork handle is fine, it was certainly comfy in the hand and I did not see any defects or lots of filler.

Cork Handle – not overdone on filler

The reel seat was adequate and fit all my reels, it was maybe a bit thin but then I am being picky.The cork at the butt was poor and filler had not been applied – to be honest it does not matter!

Reel seat – aluminium ?

The thread wraps looked tight and the coats of varnish looked good, there was even a wee change of colour down at the butt of the rod which was an aesthetic touch.

Change of zone!

My next problem I discovered was the majority of my fly lines were destroyed in the fire (which is the reason for the lack of posts this season) so it was off to the depths of my fishing cupboard to find a selection of lines to try the rod out. The reason you try out a few weights of line is because sometimes a rod can fish better with a heavier or lighter line or maybe you can use it for something different than its intended purpose.

Nice wrapping and varnishing!

I am not exactly the world’s best caster however I tried it with a 6 and a 7 weight to see what would happen – I managed to get a good length out with lines and obviously the 7 was nice to use. I would like to say I got to test its fishy catching attributes however I will have to leave that for another day.

All in all if this rod had been released 10 years ago and the filler had been better you would have been paying over £100 for it and it would have been labeled by a big make. There are other rods in this line and I recommend you consider them if you are on the lookout for a budget rod. The 7 weight comes in at £55 and I see they also have the hallowed 10 foot for a 4 weight that is becoming popular!

Probably the best fish all year…

It was a perch caught surrounded by kids at the Arctic Circle!

Caught in the light of the arctic circle – bitten to death by mozzies!

Some LRF action at least!

I am getting sick of Facebook – every time I go on it all I read about is Kelvinators hauling in huge trout from the Kelvin on the River Kelvin Fishers page.

I am currently in a Holiday Cottage that is probably as far down the Clyde as on can possibly go without actually being outside the Clyde. Anyway, I had some respite this evening when I was dropping off some stuff at my house and headed down to my wee LRF spot.

First few casts I did not think I was going to connect to anything as it was a bit windy however then a wee pollock decided to nail my pink isome.

Yay!

It fair took some line and was safely returned. I then took another which was slightly bigger and then lost what I think was a wrasse at my feet. Their was no distinctive wrasse tapping, just a slamming take and a dive for the depths.

At my feet

I then cast far and felt what I thought was another pollock but tuned out to be a nice codling.

Codling

I decided after this it was time to head up the road as tomorrow I am heading back up the estuary to another holiday cottage – I believe the next one is near a Sea Trout mark.

Watch this space!

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