I always get paranoid when I take someone new to the Kelvin. I could have had weeks of fantastic fishing, all my hot spots throwing fat trout at me and the Kelvin behaving like, well, the Kelvin. And then I take someone who has never fished it and not only do they blank, but I blank as well (whilst seeing no fish whatsoever). This, I think, is a common phenomenon, I am reminded of the time that we travelled up to The Don and ended up sitting around looking at a wholly fishless river for most of the day.
Anyway, so this must have been what Alan, a long time fisher of the Kelvin, must have been thinking when he took me to the River Avon his now local little stream.
Not only did we not catch anything, but we got caught in a torrential rain storm to boot. The temperature then plummeted, halting all fly life.
Avon Water:From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Avon Water in Chatelherault Country Park.
Avon Water, also known locally as the River Avon, is a 24 mile long river in Scotland and a tributary of the River Clyde. Rising in east Ayrshire, the river flows in a north easterly direction through South Lanarkshire, passing towns such as: Strathaven, Glassford, Stonehouse, Larkhall and, finally, Hamilton, where it joins the River Clyde as it flows between Hamilton and Motherwell.
Points of interest along the river include: Cadzow Castle (ruins), the Cadzow Oaks, (some of which are over 600 years old), and Chatelherault Country Park.
The stretch that we fished was full of rocky pools and some nice glides, very pretty- no shopping trolleys or burnt out cars at all. At dusk we spotted some rising trout in a large pool but either they were being very sporadic or we spooked them and put them down.
All said and done, we caught no trout, got rained on, I slipped a couple of times and had a thoroughly good time.
Actually, now I come to think about what I shall call the phenomenon (blanking spectacularly when showing a friend a sweet spot) happened the last two times I went to Harelaw Trout Fishery.
Alex enthused about the trout we would catch “bring a bag, a big bag….a sack even” and “the boat will be full of blood, it will be like a Satanist wedding” and “Kill em all, let God sort em out”
See:
However, Alex is now glad that I have broke our chain of bad luck and I shall write up that little story later on.
Note: Alex may not have said actual words but most certainly thought them.
Hi Alistair
Last Sunday I past you sitting at the bus stop, but if I had not had an appointment to keep I would have stopped and gave you a lift. Would assume you where fishing the Kelvin and not your other river. If it was the other then dam wish I had stopped. Only joking we all have a place we keep to ourselves.
As for fishing the kelvin have been getting some good fish just lately.Two weeks ago Thursday Friday and Saturday night caught about 30 trout over these nights between 7&10 o’clock pretty good size fish. This week has been quite good as well. Last night fished down stream of Halfpenny bridge when some tube with a dog through a bag into the river. Iam all for keeping the park clean of dog #### but to throw it into the river DOH!! Did give said person a mouth full guess he did not see me in the river. rant over away to tie some Klinkhammers.
Sounds like you have been doing better than me Jim, I have been struggling these last couple of weeks.
Yea, I was heading down to the Kelvin that night for an eveing session. I started a little too early though, was roasting hot sitting in my waders waiting on the 16 😉
Alistair, your photos paint quite a rosy pictures when comparing to the harsh reality of being caught in a summer downpour followed by drop in temp. I have not been out onthe Avon since but will probably go out tonight. Thanks for the company and cigars, next time we WILL have better fortunes. If you fancy an evening session on the kelvin this week , drop me a line via e-mail, cheers, A