The water is warmer than the air – I kept telling myself that as I was catching juvenile trout and parr aplenty on the Kelvin. I knew there was big trout here – I had seen them in the past and a recent conversation with someone had made me decide to try this spot for an evening session. There did not seem to be any flies on the surface. When I looked up into the air there was a variety of spinners – some Yellow Mays and some other olives I could not identify.
Come dusk the small trout really started hammering flies and I started to target them for some fun – eventually it got boring. A proper evening rise was not going to materialise. I waded downstream slowly; the water was very slow and maybe 2 feet deep. It is that slow that the trout have far too long to inspect your fly however I thought the darkness (it was now around 11pm) might give that little extra cover. The water was around 2 feet deep and the occasional trout or parr was rising.
A parr “glooped” around a metre away from me, and slightly downstream – I decided to cover it. I drifted my fly (a Comparadun) and the parr slashed at it but missed, I drifted the fly again and the fish took – this was no parr. It was a trout, a big trout – it thrashed around shaking its head and then jumped clear out the water twice, when I finally got the trout to the net it must have measured around 17 inches, when it came to the net the third time (I was using my 4 weight Orvis Trout Bum rod) I quickly turned on my camera so that I was prepared. With the trout in the net I unhooked it; it was still pretty lively unhooking was problematic. Taking the camera out of my top left pocket with my right hand I lifted the trout out of the net with my left – it was so big my hand did not reach around the trout – and there lay the problem – as soon as it wiggled the trout was out my hands and in the water – it cruised slowly away. I smiled – I always feel strange when I don’t get a photo of a big trout – no idea why. It is usually the bigger trout that I don’t get a photo of – usually I am a bit panicky and want to get them back in the water as quickly as possible or I do something dumb like I did with this fish. I got the measuring tape out while the trout was still fresh in my memory and guestimated its size – I then took a couple of inches off to account for fishermen’s memory.
The bats were on the water and it was pretty dark by this point – I relived the fight as I walked back to the car – I thought it wasn’t going to happen tonight but somehow I think it did.
I recognise that bit of river 😉
Wonder if that is the big fella i lost last week?Well done,thats a cracking fish for the Kelvin.I was planning to fish that spot too last night,but was out for dinner and didnt get home til later than expected.Damn!
I kept looking downstream Paul as I thought you might turn up – in fact as it got darker I kept thinking could see someone watching !
Alistair
Ach thats a shame,we’ll bump into each other ones of these days im sure.
To be honest that section probably isnt long enough for two people to fish without disturbing the water.
Cheers
Paul
There is that other section downstream which is worth a bash – mught head down tonight – you around ?
Got a few things to do tonight,if i get finished in time il head out for an hour or two late on.