You would have thought I could have been a bit quicker with this post however I not only managed to lose my camera charger I also managed to lose my camera data cable – I found the data cable tonight so managed to transfer some photos .

It might LOOK like Summer but just look at those trees
It was roasting – the hottest day of the year so far, I mean it was nearly 20 degrees going by the car temp thingy and it felt like it when the sun hit you on the face – it feels even odder as a couple of weeks ago it was still sub zero temperatures – people are saying that the trout don’t care but from what I am hearing they do care – they care a lot and are pretty scunnered by it all – they are demonstrating this by being damn near uncatchable – or even more scary missing.
Sure we did not see any flies however you would have thought we would at least have fluked a trout – actually – we did see one fly – I think it might be a male LDO – anyone fancy confirming this?

What's that fly?
Still, I ventured out with Alan (Vice Chair of the KAA) – he had already hit the Clyde the day before and totally blanked so we were optimistic the Kelvin would come up trumps – it did not – we did not even see a trout rise – he was using nymphs and I (ever the optimist) was using a single dry.
Secretly my plan was to move to nymphs as soon as he started catching however there was definitely no catching happening – we covered water and moved up to the Vet School.

Atkins
I seldom visit the Vet School as it is usually one of the busiest stretches of the Kelvin however now that a fly only on a Sunday rule has been implemented I decided to give it a bash – also Paul Reid the secretary phoned from his sick bed to ask us to check it out for guys fishing bait – there is still a few guys not paying heed to the new rule – over the coming months the Sunday fishing rule will be pretty strictly enforced – I would not want to be around when the Salmon are running and a guy is fishing bait on a Sunday. Anyway – Paul had been moaning that hardly any Kelvin anglers had turned up for the first FORK clean up day (1st one my boy had chicken pox and the 2nd I had man shit to do regarding my shed) so we thought we had better do our bit as committee members and head up there – we were pleasantly surprised – everyone we met were fishing the fly – I even managed to give away a few flies to a young chap who had only just started fishing the fly again after a number of years – he put me in mind of Mike from Tamanawis when I first met him all those years ago.

Off yer' trolley!
We caught bugger all in the Vet School as well as our other spot– guys were telling us that the river had better be stocked soon or people were not going to stick around, guys were going to fisheries instead – good, I am glad at that – the fishing should remain consistent as long as good practice is used – if guys can only catch trout that has been stocked then there is something far wrong somewhere – like I say, we caught bugger all at the Vet school.
It was then time to head home and play with the boy.

The Boy
Stuff I need to get sorted:
I have no tippet material – I know it was a long shot but 3 spools of Stroft went bad over the winter – three spools went bad in the space of a couple of months last Spring. Is there such a thing as a Tippet that does not go bad in a few months – trust me throw out any tippet that is older than 6 months – you could lose the fish of a lifetime because of it. I have noticed when tippet goes bad it does not all go bad – it goes bad bit by bit, so a few feet might be ok and then a few feet might be bad – the one bit you test could be the ok bit – throw it out.
I need to stop giving flies to random people – I need to learn that if I have absolutely no time to tie flies I need to try and conserve the 8 flies I have left – I need to bite the bullet and stop going to bed at 8pm and tie some flies – small ones just to keep my fishing buddies happy.
Anyway – I hear that we will have volcanic ash falling on us this weekend as well as more snow – enjoy the fishing boys, enjoy the fishing!