So I was planning on hitting the Clyde today however as my car had to return to the garage because of a bizarre squeaking sound (any of my readers mechanics?) I took my beloved wife’s motor and hit the Kelvin.
Things went from bad to worse – the temp seemed to plummet and the wind got up – plenty of fly life around – lots of Yellow Mays and other small olives (forgot the test tubes again) however the change in air pressure seemed to turn the trout off – there could of course be another phenomenon at work here and I will tell you about that later.
I wandered down to a nice pool, shaded by trees in the Kelvin valley to get out the wind and came across the seen of my (supposed) skunk cabbage massacre – WTF !!!
…that’s right – the beast is growing back – Willie Yeomans is not going to be happy at this I muttered as I pulled out the stems and dug down to the roots – I suspect I left some of the roots behind meaning the creature will take hold again – next time I go down that way I am going to take a bottle full of weed killer and pour it straight onto the beasts tendrils!
Anyway, I was going to tell you about the other phenomenan – basically one stretch of river one season can fish very well – you know where all the fish are and it can be pretty predictable – the next season the place seems devoid of trout – this can happen with individual pools as well. Anyone got a good reason for this? – is it spates that move around the insect population, sewage that kills off pools? Any ideas?
I fished on for a few hours casting at sporadic rising trout – I was using my orvis superfine 4 weight and initially a deer hair emerger and then swapped over to a comparadun due to the number of Yellow May’s I watched sailing past – usually the trout love em’ – today only crazy trout wanted them..
So – a mixture of cold wind, change in air pressure and possibly even a bizarre phenomenon caused me to have what I can only describe as a great days fishing – I would rather be fishing than be at work, or decorating or ironing or…
…well pretty much any task that involves drudgery and forced labour!
Hi Al,
Your thoughts about spates shifting the bottom (insects etc) could be true…over many years on the White Cart, some stretches, glides etc that were guaranteed to produce fish became fishless as massive spates had changed the topography of the river bottom and some places that were cubbyholes (stations) for fish had been obliterated or had been silted up; so the whole make up of the area had changed. Perhaps, on the other hand, it has to do with changes in the amount of fish in the system. Down in Cathcart (just besides Weirs or Scottish Power) is an area where we used to see a lot of small brown trout; this was perhaps to do with younger fish needing specific habitat for their needs at that time in their lives, however, in the odd year these fish would disappear, so, rather than jumping to other conclusions, I reakon it was that lack of young fish born in the system. I cannot talk about the Kelvin, however, it may well be the case that the Kelvin ‘suffers’ (in some regards) the same problem that the Cart has and this is lack of gravel for the fish to breed or/and that the speed (partly through increased drainage efficiency schemes) of the water is just washing away the ‘historical’ places were fish used as redds. During our discussions with the Glasgow City Council and the Flood Prevention Engineers we asked them to look into the prospect of putting some gravel into the Cart and perhaps increasing the propects for breeding fish. As you can imagine.., we’re still waiting for someone to guarantee that this will be done.
Cheers
Roddy
Thanks for commenting Roddy – would that work? Simply adding gravel to a river ? Would it not just get washed away!