Ok – so Sunday I had a plan – the plan was to do some family stuff in the morning and then head down to the town stretch of the River Kelvin in the afternoon – the key of course was to sell this to my wife as some play time for her and the boy – she could then see me through the trees fishing – q=lots of waving at young son.

It got to 12…we still had not left….it got to 1pm…we still had not left…suddenly the fear took me – I could sense that the ingredients to a good session had all come together – unfortunately I was still in the house.

I rushed us out the house and into the car…

I was forgiven quickly...

Eventually I was fishing by around 2.30pm and instantly seen some rising trout – in total I caught two to the dry fly (I fluffed a few more risers) and then the river slowed down to a halt. I was far too late for the action..

Nice Riffle...

I met up with Paul Reid – he managed to tempt a nice wee trout to the dry in some fast water …

Oh bless - look at his wee thingy - looks even smaller in his giant hands!

…and he uses a Hardy as well!

It was a day for meeting people – we met the head bailiff and a pal out patrolling the river and also Stephen from the Kelvin forum out for a walk with his other half. We also seen Derek  Graham through the bushes however he did not seem to be in the mood to talk..

You can wave at me through the bushes...

All in all it was a pretty nice wee session however by around 4pm it was all over – the trout had all switched off for the evening.

Of course it has all changed now – the temp is high and we have a high pressure weather system sitting over us – today seemed ideal – good temp until the evening with some cloud cover – I heard that trout were rising like crazy last night at around dinner time – looking forward to hearing how you guys got on?

Regarding the new fly only rule on a Sunday – today was bliss – sure at the stretch we were fishing you do not usually meet anyone anyway – however once the Salmon start coming into the river I think the  rule will start coming into its own – once more guys start fishing for Salmon we trout anglers need a bit of respite and peace for the gentler side of the sport.

#grin#

Anyway – at last the Kelvin has started fishing properly – there were flies on the water and more importantly rising trout – not just in the slow stretches but in the riffles as well.

Slow pool - splashy rises

I caught my first trout in the above pool – it is long and slow with spooky trout – my fishing buddy was being bothered by the smolt run (they take anything) however I was fairly certain my rising fish were in fact trout – I was correct.

I had to be as accurate as possible – casting as close to the brickwork as possible – the fly had to be within a few inches of the brickwork for the trout to even consider the fly – it was the same with all the trout in the slow water accuracy was definitely the key…

1st proper trout (on the dry) of the year from the Kelvin

It took an olive comparadun – it was nice being accurate with the fly and watching it drift down to the zone where I knew it would be in the trout’s vision.

I caught a couple from the slow stretch and then moved on frog jumping pools with my fishing buddy – he was using a dry and dropper and was doing very well..

Alex catching another trout

I have fished a few rivers where the members have somewhere nice to retire to when the fishing is poor – sometimes they are lovely chalets with running water and other times they are just garden huts – what do we get on the Kelvin..

Benches

That’s right – a couple of park benches (paid for by my council tax no doubt) dragged into the undergrowth and surrounded by empty booze bottles and plastic bags.

Fantastic – it makes my day seeing stuff like this in the middle of one of our most beautiful parks – I mean it really makes overseas anglers want to fish here when they know what kind of facilities we can provide for them. I am reminded of an email from a chap who used to read my blog – he was an airline pilot and finally got the chance to fish the Kelvin - “For the love of God think of the children” (I am paraphrasing a bit) “first cast I was up to my waist in fanny pads and shit”

Ok – he was maybe exaggerating a bit however how do we expect people to look after the water quality when people treat it as a dumping ground or a drinking den – I mean I am sure this little den was created as it is in a lovely place – why then do they then try and go out there way to ruin it?

Anyway – I caught several trout on dries – and loved fishing a riffle where I had to roll cast my leader to a rising trout..

Nice riffle

The riffle was lovely – it was what I had been waiting for all year – a rising trout in a riffle – they are always super eager as they have recovered from spawning to be fit enough to stay in some faster water.

I pricked more than I landed and for one trout I wished I had a net – it was certainly a little bigger than the rest however was lost at my hand – my fishing buddy was going to take my picture but it was gone as I brought it to hand.

A lovely session on the Kelvin – looking forward to my next already.