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Just ten weeks to go until the new year – aye, from these on in it will be an uphill struggle until the new season is upon us!
Continuing my (ahem) weekly tenuous fishing photo should actually be a bit easier now that the trout season has finished.
I hear lots of people complaining they do not know how to fly fish – here is a recent addition to the dummies collection – finally one dedicated to fly fishing.
You can click the book to buy from Amazon. Long story short I caught feck all and had my picture taken holding a spinning rod – is this what I have been reduced to?  Paul Reid - not floundering - honest! I jest – I jest – it was a nice being on the river when ordinarily I would be waiting some 150 days (give or take) before I get another chance to fish – the trout season slipped by largely unnoticed a few days ago – that was a bit sneaky I thought today as I realised I could not actually go trout fishing instead of might not – that make sense? I will tell you what else is sneaky – Autumn! One minute we have full lovely trees looking all green and the sun is warm on your face and next day the leaves are all brown and their is a distinct feeling of cold creeping in.  Even the Giant Hogweed is dying fast... So where does that leave us…and by us I mean me as at this precise moment I am wondering what my options are – Pike I suppose and I have promised some pals I would drag on my thermal underwear and brave a few Grayling trips. On the non fishing front it is now time to properly get the old JVice out and start tying flees for the next season – it crept up on me this year and I do not want to let it happen again. I have some lovely Fly Rite dubbing that will cover every shade of upwing and I am gagging to properly fill up my fly box.  The Botanics.. I have a sneaky feeling that winter walks are about to fill up my weekends – plenty of walks through the Botanics will be in order – boy in tow. Close season fun also involves the annual madfest that is the River Kelvin Angling Association EGM and AGM. The EGM will have a set agenda to discuss changes to the constitution and a few other bits n’ bobs while the AGM is usually in the New Year to set out further plans for the future. What fun – tally-ho !
Powered by Twitter Tools How crap am I at keeping to my own schedule of a photo a week? Answers on a postcard… The irony is that people who follow me on Twitter do actually get a photo per week (usually) – so what I should do is just try and combine the two and post the photos from twitter over here. So lets do that shall we!  34/52 Sitting on the john in work looking at Salmon  35/52 The boy is a natural..  36/52 The spiders were out looking for some sex  37/52 A really cool snail  38/52 a tiny snail...  39/52 I had a take from a fair Jack here  40/52 Some guy I met by the river.. Phew – and that is me up to date. I swear to the wee man I am actually going to be on time for the last 12 weeks! If I am not someone poke me or something! It was bound to happen – was it confidence? perseverance? sheer dogged determination? Nope – the fact that I had left my camera in the house meant I was bound to catch a fish! I was still able to take a few snaps using my phone camera so dont expect to get off lightly. The fact that I have fished the Kelvin for over 10 seasons you would have thought I would have fluked a Salmon by now however they have swam past me while I have been concentrating on the trout. The last couple of years has been weird – I pretty much know all the guys that fish for trout and now I find there is another whole bunch of guys that fish for Salmon – and they take it seriously – very seriously. I think I have said it before but the higher up reaches of the Kelvin are not well suited to the fly – Atkins gave it a good go last night with his double hander however felt it was just not fishing right…  Just not fishing right... Anyway – against the advice of Atkins I was chucking around a metal lure (he wanted me to use a rapala) I covered two Salmon in the space of 10 yards and then decided to borrow a Rapala off Atkins – throwing a piece of plastic around that costs a tenner makes me feel nervous – especially since it was not mine. Anyway – it was a much more pleasant way of fishing – similar to wet fly fishing – within a few casts a Salmon was on and Atkins was calling instructions so he could net it.  In the net.. It was a nice cock fish at just under five pounds – it had some colour to it so even if it had been caught last week it would have been returned (all salmon in October are returned on the Kelvin) … A quick hero shot..  A classy Kelvin pose.... ..and then I had to get the fish back in the water – I ended up slipping waist deep into the river before finding a wee ledge to perch on – fishy then swam away – hopefully not too tired out for the sex. It was like a scene from Jaws – the first one – do you remember the bit where Jaws comes close in to the shore and take the boy from the surface as if he was a popper – it was like that today at the canal. Before I tell you about what happened I thought I would share with you guys – I feel as if I have lost my way over the last few months – juggling work, home life, fishing and writing about fishing has been difficult – and then there is the choice of what fishing to actually do. The Kelvin appears to have been taken over by Salmon anglers with nobody really interested in the trout and I have got to admit some of the Salmon shine has been rubbing off on me. I have had a few early morning and dusk sessions for Salmon – the fly rod has been with me however where people catch Salmon is not really well suited for the fly. Also considering I have still never caught a Salmon I have been deciding to make it easier on myself. Anyway – I have been catching no Salmon. I have been out a few times for Pike and hardly at all for trout. It is the trout I am missing. I have roughly two weeks left before the trout season finishes – I need to catch a few more trout before I need to stop for the six month close season. Today however I decided to grab the brief respite in the rain and walk the few hundred yards to the Forth n’ Clyde canal. I have been leaving the Pike at this section alone for a while – I came down here a few weeks ago with a pal and we both had follows from fairly large pike – the Pike that was following my slow moving lure lunged at it as I jerked the fly to induce it to take – it was not hooked and it glided away back into the depths. I have been down another couple of times and know I just need to hit it right and I will catch both those big boys – they were definite Jacks.  Splash Anyway – it was while I was standing on one of the boat moorings I seen it – you see, you read a lot about seeing Pike taking fish near the surface and them causing a commotion as they crash into a shoal of fish – and to be honest I have seen this behaviour as well – however never on the Forth n’ Clyde – until today – there was an almighty splash about 20 yards above me – I looked up thinking I would see a duck flying away or even a floating bottle of wine – however instead what I saw was a green back and tail slipping back under the water – I think it took a bloody Swan from the surface – a lesser man may have shit himself however I stomped over there and started to flail away with a fly that had been sent to me by a true expert.  You can tell it is not one of my flies - it has eyes and actually looks like a fish. Alas – even the super fly did not draw the green giant back from the depths – maybe if I had used a popper the size of a duck I may have moved it again from its slumber. I also found something rather disturbing – a couple of weeks ago I ran into a well known Pike angler who goes by the name of Vinnie – if you have ever fished the canal for any length of time you will know him – he runs up and down on his bike – he is also a bit of a master when it comes to catching Pike. He had told me he had been finding lengths of thick mono tied to the boat moorings set line style – obviously this for someone to not only catch a Pike but to kill it as well – last year he had noticed someone on Gumtree selling a couple of hundred pounds (in weight) of Pike – the only place they could have came from is the Forth n’ Clyde. Anyway – I found some evidence for myself – a length of mono attached to one of the boat moorings.
All I can really suggest is that if you ever see anything like this you cut it and discard the materials safely and make sure it wastes the time of the people setting these lines. I reckon maybe even a bell to British Waterways might be in order as well – I might actually give them a bell this week just to see what they say. Anyhoo – I had a very pleasant hour or so – I watched my fly being followed by Perch which were around the same size as the fly itself. Here is hoping I can find some time to catch a trout in the next week!
Powered by Twitter Tools Long time no speak – first frost this morning down my way – car was frozen and the central heating kicked in – the temp will drop to minus fifteen in no time … out for a walk with the family just now .. here are some pictures.. fishing tomorrow morning for salmon – the river looks lovely today – I saw one angler fishing the fly for trout and no others!
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