Well, the Kelvin was on absolutely top form this evening.

It was a warm muggy day, hovering around 20 degrees with cloud cover and the occasional smattering of rain. Going by my water level app the Kelvin was at a nice height, up a few inches and it had that lovely earthy smell that gives it the name “Smelly Kelly”. Not that it is a bad smell as it is actually from rotting vegetation allegedly. Whatever, when I smell it I know I am in for a good one and it came up trumps as usual.

I actually fished at a few locations, sticking the rod in the car and driving from place to place – fishing several stretches from the bottom of the botanics right up the river several kilometres.

The trout were consistent in all the pools…

With some lovely ones amongst the smaller ones…

I was using a standard dry and dropper and the trout were equally taking both. The only annoying thing was I lost a couple of nymphs and realised that I really need to tie some up. By tie some up all I really do is wrap some wire around a hook, the trout seem to love the simplicity of it.

One thing I noticed on a lot of the trout I was catching was some kind of parasite on their backs and heads. it was like a wee jelly like thing that was easily flicked off. I remember someone asking about it on the River Kelvin Fishers Facebook group so I will have a hunt their to find the answer.

If you know what it is leave a comment here or in the River Kelvin Fishers Group.

Edit – turns out it is Argulus. Freshwater fish louse . Argulus is a common parasite of freshwater fish, found in fisheries throughout the UK. Adult lice are flat, round, jelly-likeparasites that feed on skin and mucus. Heavy infections can quickly cause irritation, condition loss and death

What always gets me is that you have know idea how big a trout is by the size of the rise. Big splashes end up tiddlers and tiny sips end up as good half pounders.

Another thing I noticed in a lot of the big deep pools was the number of Salmon splashing around. I think I counted at least 5 spread from the West End right up the river several kilometres.

I finished the evening at a rising trout in some slow deep water. One of those sporadic trout that has far too long to gaze at your fly. I cast a few times and it too my klink on the third cast.

I headed home in the fading light.

That is me shivering by the way.

I got to the river mid-afternoon for a couple of hours, the temp was to be a maximum of 11 and it certainly felt like it. I was wearing shorts under my breathablea and my toes were numb on the drive up the road to pick up the youngest.

Not that the ice cold wind put the flies or trout off, they appeared in abundance – not that I got to see many trout though.

My first trout from the Kelvin of the year was thankfully an unfluked trout – I spotted it rising, waded to it and then cast a few times until the drift was correct and then BAM!

Sadly my 2nd trout from the Kelvin and probably around 5 times the size of the first did not come to my hand, instead I cast for it, hooked it and it launched itself around the pool before getting below me. I had a brief flash in my head that at least I managed to see it and already knew for some reason it would not be posing for a photo when the line went slack and the trout and my fly was gone – bad knot (angler error).

I made a phone call to SEP reporting this rather evil looking thing and stuff…

It was only when I got home did I find out that there had been a significant discharge of something upstream and this was why I kept thinking their was a white sheen to the water – you can probably see it in the first picture.

As ever I was appalled at the amount of litter in the river and wondered why someone would chuck water tablets in the river – at first I thought they were benzo’s but turned out they were simply water tablets.

I watched a couple of guys ledgering catch a trout and then take what felt like an age before I watched them toss it back in the water with a splash – they looked down for a bit so I assumed it was struggling.

I waded back down the river covering a few trout on the way, at one point stopping to scale everything down as my comparadun was too big.

It was still great to be out and about.

Pretty sure I have written before about evostick and it’s ability to mend wading boot felt soles. I did not realise I would have to actually glue the whole sole back on to a boot however I spent an hour last night doing just that. Good job too as I noticed the other boots sole was coming away at the heel. Typical.

Look, I don’t go fishing to look good so I,don’t really care if it looks a bit messy. Then, seeing as how I had the glue out I stick the top joint of my beachcaster in the goop and popped on a new top ring as the last one flew off for some reason.

I have left it drying in position, the kids are asking to go shark fishing (as in dogfish) so guessed the sooner the better.

Next outing is being planned…..

So I am always partial to getting some free stuff in the post however generally the requests I get to review stuff or promote I knock back as they want to retain control of what you write about and usually the stuff is shite anyway.

I have had a few folk asking me to write about their flies over the years and I have never really needed to as I tie the majority of my own – I generally do not tie my loch flies but have a fair old stock anyway (or I steal em’ off mates).

So when I received an email from David at Fish 4 Flies asking me to take a look at their flies I was about to press delete when I remembered Spring is here and I do actually need a few flies. Firstly I needed some Stimulators as my meagre supply are all up trees and I ran out of hooks to tie any up (plus mine are rubbish anyway) and secondly I could do with some loch lures for my local ponds. “Aye ok” I messaged back and promptly forgot all about it until a wee packet popped through the door this morning and out popped the goodies.

I wondered where they originally came from, as in who tied them. I bought some lovely loch flies up in Lewis and it was obvious they were tied by a local, probably after digging up some peat for the fire while having a dram.

I suspect these come from slightly further afield.

On the Fish 4 Flies website it states :

Quality Statement

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so we understand the importance that every fly we have tied meets our quality standards and is made from the very best materials so that they don’t fall apart in the water.

• Chemically-sharpened Japanese hooks.
• Hoffman/Whiting hackle.
• All soft materials sourced in USA or UK. No substitutes
• Manufacturer has been in business for 35 years.
• All flies tied by experienced tiers, in factory, under constant supervision.
• Hourly quality control checks during tying.

Right, so what this tells me is that they are tied outside the UK – seeing as how I do not know any factories that actually advertise for tyers I suspected correctly they are from Kenya. Additionally after I asked they are also tied up in Sri Lanka.

Not that I am against buying flies from Kenya – 99% of the flies you buy online and in shops for that matter are from Kenya so I am not having a dig. Just stating that if you think some pipe smoking old timer is slaving away over the winter to fill up your box they are not. Fulling Mill have all their flies tied in Kenya and they are seen as the cream of the crop which they are not – in fact in my opinion Fulling Mill flies are rubbish (like their tackle).

So anyway, I opened my bag of goodies.

For hot days on highland streams Stimulators are the buzz and now I have a stock of them. Look buddy I am not making out I am some kind of expert reviewer here when it comes to flies – they looked in proportion to me and quite frankly I could not tie any better ones. In fact mine would be a lot worse.

I took a photo next to one of my wee parachutes just to show you how big they are (you can take that sentence how you want it.)

Look I am not going to lie to you I do not think I would ever tie up a fly like this but it looks damn fishy. The Hornberg is one of those flies that can be pulled as a stream or fished as a stimulator – it is a new one on me.

The Apache white and black

They say “

The Apache White is probably the most exciting and devastatingly successful pattern to hit lakes, ponds and reservoirs.

The pulsing movement of the white mink body plus the stimulating flowing and eye catching movement of the marabou and flashabou tail make it a serious killer.

Two to three short jerks followed by a steady retrieve, repeat and be ready for savage takes. “

Oh man – if there is something I like it is savage takes – especially on my local ponds. I reckon the trouties will love them.

All in all I am impressed – if you must buy some flies and you do not have access to a vice you could do a hell of a lot worse than going to Fish 4 Flies.

Back in February 2007 I went to New York to celebrate my wife’s birthday and bought myself a Lamson LP2 reel to accompany a Sage SLT that I bought at the same time. Happy birthday wife I said to myself as I waggled it around in the hotel – this caused an entirely different issue which you can read about here.

Anyway, the Lamson was prefect with my 5 weight SLT and many a trout were caught over the years.

However, at the end of last season it started to grate – unsure if it was a tumble from the car issue a quick email to Lamson and they confirmed it could be sent to them for a repair. Pals scoffed that a new reel should be bought however after Parcel Force managed to send it on a detour to Barbados it ended up back at Lamson who then fixed and returned it – absolutely perfectly.

The other evening I decided two new fly lines for my two main reels of the season – a Rio Perfection for the Lamson and a Barrio Smallstreams for the Vosseler.

All I need to do now is actually tie some flies.