Last Friday after work I managed a couple of hours searching for some elusive rising trout action. All I appear to be reading just now on the blogs I visit is the rising trout people seem to be connecting with – meanwhile on the few hours I managed to steal away I did not witness any trout action whatsoever. Of course this week we are back to freezing conditions and no flies although I hear today there were some olives coming off on the Kelvin despite the -4 temp when I got in the car this morning, by 3pmish it was up to 11 degrees.
And the wind was cold – I think the cold wind was killing any surface action whatsoever. The air was still warmer than the water however those little olive boats just did not arrive.
I watched a guy fishing down the river in front of me – fishing down and across. I wandered about looking at likely pools and runs until eventually I stuck on a copper nymph and fished it like a mini streamer probing all the knocks and crannies on the opposite side of the river – I may have got a knock however it was more probably a boulder.
I wandered further down the river and spoke to the guy who had been fishing – he had not had a knock on his wet flies either. We spoke for a bit about the weather, about tackle, about dry fly set ups and also about association business – the usual stuff that decent members of the association want to gab about.
We parted ways and I decided to call it a day – the wind was stronger and was very chilly, you could see the wind breezing up the river making it difficult to cast the 4 weight.
I scrambled up the river bank to the path back to the car and looked again at the corner of the pool where I expected to see some trout rising – there were none. In the car it was warm and it felt good to be out the cold. I cannot help but feel the weather has kinda fooled us into thinking that we should be having a bonanza when really bright sunshine with a cold wind coupled with intermittent fly hatches can be quite difficult. Saying all that I am pretty sure that on other parts of the river some action could have been seen.
It just depends really.
Hello i fished the kelvin at maryhill the other week. Was trotting a float with maggot thru a run in to a pool and was rewarded with 4 lovely trout. This was my first time ever fishing the kelvin. I found that these trout were sitting rather deep,and only saw 1 rise the entire 3hrs.
Aye, there seems a real divide in fly life early season on the river, towards the west end it is all go !
Last Sunday I took a walk along the river to a bit of river not known for being fished for trout. After a while I thought this was a waste of time. Then I saw one rise, then another and another I just watched them taking olive after olive. How to get a dry fly to come over these trout with no drag as the river at this part is slow and as flat as glass. A few casts later and one for the score card then I moved up stream to where I had spied a few more rises. Again cast to this trout and on the second cast this trout too also falls for my dry fly. Having brought this fish to the bank I take my fly out of its mouth and while I’m taking a quick photo of this trout I flicked my line out to get it out the way only for another trout to take my dry fly. This fish was out of the water just as the fly was about to land on the water. Roll on the rest of season.
I suspect I know where you were Jim – Alan has been telling me about catching them on raps there! I will join you next time, give me a shout !