A while back a chap called Theo Pike contacted me as he is writing a book on fishing urban rivers for trout and grayling. He wanted to write a short section about the Kelvin so we agreed to meet up at some point in the future. Suddenly the day was fast approaching and after a fair bit of negotiation with SWMBO I was allowed out for a few hours to try and assist Theo in catching a Kelvin trout.
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Do you remember that epiphany I had last week? You know the one about sticking to slow and deeper water as that appeared to be where all the trout were hanging out? Well, I totally forgot all about that which is why it was only at the tail end of the day we caught any sizeable trout. There were still trout rising in the riffles and seams however a lot of them were small fish – I will say this for Theo he has a power of concentration and determination – whereas my philosophy is usually change your fish not your fly when faced with a particularly belligerent Kelvin trout his hook sizes were getting smaller by the minute until eventually I thought we would be seeking some spider web to be used as a tippet on his one weight.
There continues to be good hatches of Grannom however the trout do not seem to like them – they are more interested in the nymphs.
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Anyway, I was scoping out some rising trout when I got the fright of my life – it was staring at me from the other side of the river, just sitting there bold as brass not giving a feck – a huge big Skunk Cabbage. Willie Yeomans is going to have nightmares about this one I thought – It was too deep to get across and stomp it so instead marked it for future reference.
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The infamous Kelvin Otter also put in a surprise guest appearance which was good PR for the river – it was chilling out under a bridge just waiting for some of those Kelvin Salmon to make an appearance – in the meantime it was feeding on trout and possibly discarded takeaway pizzas.
Alistair, very many thanks for a cracking day out on the Kelvin – we got ’em in the end! (And very glad your skill and judgement steered us away from the Friday brouhaha…)
Theo