The Kelvin – new seating area for anglers?

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.

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…

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..

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..

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..

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.