It was a hard day even with good conditions. By good conditions I mean the temp hovered around the 17c point with some cloud cover – sure it was bright however we did have spells where the sun was covered. We fished a big river which had just recovered from a spate and it was maybe a good foot above its usual level – this meant some of the water was not fishable due to the water moving pretty fast. Thing is though I have fished that bit of river when it has been like this and it can be pretty good – no idea why we had to work hard for all our trout.
The majority of my trout were caught on the dry fly apart from couple which came to a nymph suspended under a huge sacrificial dry – a crazy trout even took that in one pool. Some trout were switched on and feeding so if you managed to spot a rising trout and as long as you did not fluff up the cast then it was yours.
Paul managed to lose a good trout on the dry fly – he estimated its weight at around 2lb. This was after we moved upstream to some slower and deeper water to see if we could spot rising trout.
The main problem we had was the wind (and not even the funny kind) – essentially it would whisk your fly away at the last moment leaving you with a thoroughly piss poor presentation, which admittedly some people say is slightly better than my average . So sure there were rising trout – we just couldn’t catch the buggers! Of course I only found this out after berating Paul for moving from what I perceived to be an ideal casting spot – heck it would have been if it was not for that damn wind.
Anyway, we enjoyed some absolutely lovely wild life including butterflies and found that almost every step we took was stamping on hundreds of tiny frogs – we only found this out by sweeping aside some of the grass and undergrowth that made up the bankside – Paul assured me they were resilient creatures, although resilient to 15 stone and a pair of size tens?
At one point Paul stated he could see a half dozen butterflies without moving his eyes – we did not stamp them!
Eventually we moved back down to the faster water mostly because I thought the trout might have been moving as there were wee flies coming off – they were not any more into having their picture taken than before.
Even though I had a pass until 6.30pm (when the boys go to bed and an extra pair of hands are needed) we left fairly early – a dive down the new M74 extension and I was at home. I do not think it is any quicker – it is just a straight road.
I am very aware I have fallen behind my weekly water photo – the old android phone is playing up again when I try and upload photos when I am out and about – will get it fixed this week.
I am just about to post this – it is nearly 7pm on Sunday evening – I am planning a dusk raid on the Kelvin tonight. I had to look out an old pair of Orvis wading boots as my current ones fell apart in the river – the sole almost came away from the body of the boot after I had stepped off a ledge into some waist deep water – after almost shitting myself realising the boots acted like a sail under water forcing my foot out through the hole making clambering out on to the ledge again damn near impossible. Luckily I did actually make it in one piece!
Will let you know how I get on!
A similar thing happened to my wading boot and I was advised by Dave of Wader Repair fame, to stick the sole back with Bostik 2402, which I bought on ebay. That was in Feb and numerous trips later no sign of coming away again.
This was not the felt sole Duncan – this was the actual sole of the boot – the only way of saving it for one more session would be too wrap tape around it.
In the past I have used evostick to put on new felt soles – it is great stuff!