The Urban Fly Fisher

Did you know SEPA have a new river level data site?

Most anglers in Scotland have used Sepa’s pretty good river level site in the past and I reckon more folk will be using it even more in the future.

There is a full update of the changes to the site here.

For us on the Kelvin there are now three monitoring stations – the lowest down being Killermont and also one on the Allander at Milngavie.

Kelvin at Killermont

SEPA River Level Site

Of course it is not just the Kelvin – it covers most rivers in the UK so you can see what has been happening with a river you may be travelling to.

How often do you guys use this?

Urban Fly Fisher Kicks Ass!

Hello new and old readers – the spring appears to be springing (although we could have -15 temps back any moment).

Just thought I would make a boring old post about housekeeping – don’t panic, do not run away you might actually hear something interesting and possibly slightly controversial – I know there are some folk that wonder what this blog is really all about so I suppose I had better explain it to new folk and remind some of the oldsters.

Essentially this blog started more years ago than I care to remember due to extreme boredom during my summer holiday from university – it had been raining and I could not fish the Kelvin. I had been toying with starting some kind of diary and consequently I dreamt up the fun name of “Urban Fly Fishing On the Kelvin” It was the first fly fishing truly dedicated blog on the internet – I should know as I hunted long and hard to find another one so I would not feel lonely. Of course now fly fishing blogs litter the internet and it was nice for a while there when folk got in contact with me to say I inspired them to start their own – of course the buggers then went on to outdo me on design and coolness but I don’t hold grudges (that is a total lie I hold grudges for years – if you ever meet me in real life ask be about the bus driver I set a voodoo curse upon)

So “Urban Fly Fishing on the Kelvin”was a simple diary of fishing trips which then over time became a sometimes social commentary of fishing in Glasgow as well as heckler of the association that held the fishing rights of the Kelvin. I then changed the name to “Urban Fly Fisher” (should fly and fisher be all one word I never know?) as I learnt to drive and could travel to other rivers. During this time I opened the Urban Fly Fisher Forum and gained a stalker – interesting times all round.

Anyway – posts these days are made up of social observations, posts about fly fishing trips, reviews of gear, weekly water photos, pictures of “things” named after the mighty River Kelvin (we call it Kelvinography) and whatever else takes my fancy, for example why I think the brand Hardy particularly sucks.

Something that has always puzzled me is the fact UK brands shy away totally from the internet – they point blank refuse to have much to do with trying to promote there products on blogs. This is in total contrast with US bloggers who are accepted by the big brand names and whose opinion are sought when testing products.

UK brands appear to have no faith in their own products – they worry that after a few months it will fall apart and we will complain about it. Airflo for example have a policy not to provide products directly to bloggers – I know this because I asked them for a fleece to review a while ago (I only ask for gear I am going to use) and their Product/Marketing Director Tim Hughes wrote back stating “…we don’t generally send items out for review on blogs.” I would have suggested Airflo needed a new Product/Marketing Director that understands how internet marketing works however I reckon I may have ended up with a sore face. Nope – they would still rather send their gear out for reviews to magazines where they are buying huge tracks of adverting space which in turn is keeping the mags afloat – the mag is hardly going to give a poor review and risk losing the advert revenue is it?

Folk in the fishing world that do understand the value of the internet are few and far between – considering the number of fly fishing shops shutting down and magazine sales plummeting you would think manufacturers would be cottoning on to this fact and looking to the future however they appear to be sitting on their asse

However , there are good companies that have cottoned on to how the internet works – one of which is Orvis. They are the most canny out the lot – they have a slick website (have you guys checked out Orvis News), they have a most excellent podcast and customer service that frankly leaves our UK manufacturers looking like a bunch of chumps. It is whispered that if you write the Orvis PR Contact’s name three times he pops up to ask how the fishing is: James Hathaway…..

As a direct opposite of Orvis has anyone tried to use Greys “unlimited” warranty? You end up giving them the cost of the part you have broke as a “handling fee”

As you can see folk do not like sending me stuff – because I tell them if it sucks I am going to say it is sucks. Which is probably why you only ever see positive reviews on this site – only the manufacturer who stands 100% behind his product is willing to send it out to someone blindly on the understanding they have absolutely no power over what is written.

Of course sometimes the manufacturers do actually try and embrace this new fangled internet thingy and start blogs – however they then get totally mixed up on what a blog is and call each post “a blog”. For the record a blog is an online ongoing thing and a post is an entry in the thing – jeesh, it aint that difficult – there are sites that help you to sort it out – Sometimes it is like watching your Dad trying to disco dance!

One of the only times I felt humbled by a manufacturer was when I was sent my Jvice – jeepers that guy played me – he knew I was going to love it, he knew his product was the best vice out there – that vice was made with skill and dare I say it quite a bit of man love too.

More than a little manly love went into this bad boy!

Anyway – now that I have thoroughly pissed off most of the UK manufacturers I should really tell you all to please support our UK fly fishing magazines – the problem with the amazing internet is that it is difficult to read it when you are on the toilet – sure sometimes I read stuff on my smartphone however sometimes you just want an honest to goodness mag to read. So please, if more people bought Fly Fishing and Fly Tying, Trout Fisherman etc they would not have to rely on the advertising poppy.

In a couple of days I am going to show you how sex sells fishing gear and how one company have finally taken things too far – watch this space.

#smile#

So there you have it – a rough and dirty history of Urban Fly Fisher with a hint of what has yet to come – one future might be “Urban Dad Who Used to Go Fishing But Now Just Gets Sent Free Stuff and STILL Complains About It” however I am betting the ten minutes a week it takes to drag my fingers across my keyboard to compile something that keeps my loyal band of readers (all eight of you)) happy will also ensure I receive absolute bugger all attention in the mainstream media ever again – other than possibly this:

It is now 22 days until the trout season opens – I fear that Trout Madness may be setting in!

A man can dream cant he?

Diver Dave’s Wader Repairs!

It is 22 days until the brown trout season opens – I am hoping to get out after Pike fairly soon however I have a bit of a problem – my waders have a bit of an evil leak in them. Not a horrific leak or anything but certainly a couple of creepers – one is right at my crotch as well so it means that any sneaky sessions after work will be hard to explain away.

So I was looking at the price of new waders in the Sportfish catalogue that thumped through my letterbox the other day. I nearly chocked on my porridge – how much for a pair of waders? For the price of a pair of these waders I could put my car through its MOT and probably get some new brake pads (possibly)

And remember the chances of these waders actually lasting a long time are somewhere between slim and slimmer – by a long time I mean more than a couple of seasons of serious fishing. Sure my old Vision Endurance lasted a while however those bad boys had seen more aquasure than…..well someone that likes sticky stuff:

And that was just the start..

After mending my old ones at the crotch I then managed to fall over a barbed wire fence ripping big gashes down both legs – I mended them as well.

Eventually I acquired a new pair of Scierra’s from the Glasgow Angling Centre – a trade for some advertising and they have been with me for a couple of seasons – however like I say they have been leaking – I just cannot face going at them with a torch and some Aquasure – I just know it will be the beginning of the end.

However, I then learned of a certain Diver Dan who is fixing problems with waders before they even start sometimes:

For the last few years I have been repairing anglers waders. For many years I was a diver, running my own business. A large part of the business was dry suit repair, as they are very expensive and only last about 5-10 years.

However like most anglers I found myself replacing my waders every second season.

I decided to attempt to pressure test the wader’s using the same technique as I used for dry suits, and then to repair them to dive suit standards. I got a loan of all my friends waders, most of which had a leak or two and pressure tested them using compressed air. I found that they all leaked in the same places, and that the problem was always the manufacturing technique, they were simply not made to last, the seams, particularly in the crotch and feet being the common leak points. I then compared the seams of dive suits and waders and found that the taping was very poor, however this was an easy fix.

Diver Dave also has an absolute classic tag line – No one has a patch on us!

Seemingly some folk send their new waders to him to have them sealed properly to ensure they do not actually start leaking.

To cut a long story short I wrapped up my waders in a bag last week – first of all it was a white bag however someone in work told me it looked like a huge big maggot and it gave them the creeps so I swapped it for a black bag which looked less creepy however will now probably get lost in the black hole that is Royal mail.

I will keep you updated on their progress!

24ish days until the season opens – buy this book as well!

Ok – so you bought the book I suggested yesterday – you will be reading up on all the insects you will probably meet by the river so you will actually have some kind of idea what fly to put on – but what about the times you do not actually see any insect activity at all – the answer my friends is in this book which I also have a rather subtle affiliate image to:

oooOOOH – he looks aggressive all right – crouched over like some kind of pantomime villain – A bit like Pale Watery who likes to kid on he is all tiny flies and insect life instead of giant Wooly Buggers made out of tortured sheep for the smell (only kidding Jim)

Anyway – it is a good book – I do actually have these books by the way – I don’t just pick books on Amazon and then try and punt them to you – this is why I keep on recommending the same book a few times, its because every year I get them out again usually at this time of the year.

Enjoy!

25 days until the season opens – buy this book!

Seriously, if there is one book you are thinking of buying then buy this one – until next week when I tell you to buy another one.

(The image is an affiliate link to Amazon)

Essentially the book breaks down the UK hatches into Spring, Summer and Autumn detailing what artificial flies you can use to cover all possible insects – the aptly named “Dirty Dozen”.

I like this book as it is easy to read and reminds me of what the insects are when I find them on my hands. Plus it gives you extra brownie points when you tell your fellow fly fisherman the Latin name for insects.

suavis.

Weekly water photo 7 of 52

I have no idea what the name is of this wee burn – I don’t even think it has ever been fished – in a serious way anyway!
It really is a nice wee urban burn!

Kelvin Salmon Season Opening Ceremony

So Saturday was the opening ceremony for the River Kelvin – the actual opening day of the Salmon season was Friday however it was a kind of last minute decision to hold any kind of shindig. Anyway, a quick post was made on the Fishkelvin site and some members agreed to pop along at the last minute. Some folk also popped by to pick up fleeces they had bought and to pick up permits – all was good. We even had a piper to walk us down to the river (it turned out he was a childhood pal of mine so we got to have a good chin wag)

Weird stones in the park...

Derek was drafted in to take photos due to my dodgy camera work so I got to mingle with folk instead of looking like the paparazzi. As usual with these things I was there early with the boy so I got to have a play in the park for a while before folk turned up.

We are not joining you down there.....

Paul and Stephen were sent down to the river – Paul gave a wee speech and then some whiskey was thrown into the river. We all watched from a safe distance.

Some crazy guys stayed around to fish and everyone else went home – all in all a great day.

Back a bit, a bit more, back a bit, keep going, keep going...

Make sure you check out the official photos when they are ready over on the association website – Derek also got in a wee video of the procession which should be fun.

Roll on the start of the Trout season eh?

31 days and counting down chaps!

edit: Here is the video

Opening Day on the Kelvin

In true Kelvin style we will be having our opening day on Saturday 12th feb.

Paul left this messege:

I apologise for the late notice, but with the weather in mind we were not sure if this was likely to go ahead. As it stands we have arranged for a small ceremony tomorrow (Saturday 12th) at 11am.
We will be meeting at Ha’penny House in the Botanics stretch. FORK have been kind enough to open the house and there will be food available for a small donation. Tea and Coffee will also be available, with a good chance of something stronger for those that might want to toast the beginning of the salmon season.
All are welcome. If you know of anyone that might like to come along, please let them know.
Permits, hats and fleeces will be on sale.
Kind regards,
Paul

And remember fleeces and hats are in all colors – and by that we mean both blue AND green.

See you there!

A jaunt up the Kelvin…Video Nasty!

Kelvinator Alasdair P posted a nice wee video in my Kelvin Forum of several of the runs and pools at the lower end of the river – pretty much from the Clyde and then up a few miles.

He has very handily named all the pools and areas – If you do not fish the Kelvin and only read this blog in the hope that one day I will fall in again I urge you to have a gander at it – it really show you just how urban the river actually is. It also shows to go you just how imaginative we anglers are at naming pools – like the “White House” due to the white house or “The Big Blue” because of the pub or even the famous “Tree Pool” because….well I don’t want to ruin the surprise do I….

Thanks Alasdair – that was awesome! The only thing missing was the colorful characters we run into from time to time!