I had a day with the boys today as my wife was working. I decided that a mission to a river that I have never been to before was on the cards seeing as how I am now living in the sticks. Like I said a while ago this move has opened up one heck of a lot of possibilities. We got to the river and the temperature was hovering around the 9 degrees point. I kind of wished I had put on my wellies as it was a bit boggy however managed to skip over a lot of it. It was overcast and a little bit more rain than a smir was in the air.
We get used to seeing rising trout on the kelvin a few weeks earlier than other rivers and I think it is because it is usually a good couple of degrees above normal in the city. We wandered down the river and I scanned for rising trout – it was wide, flat as glass and was moving at a slow walking speed, basically perfect for the dry fly and also for spooky trout.
We walked up the river until we got to a spot on the river which was just before a big bend. The opposite bank was steep and our bank was a sandy beach. It looked perfect for the duo and I reckoned trout would be picked up, however guess what a spotted?
A consistently rising trout on the other side of the river. It was close enough that if I had my Tenkara rod with me I reckon I could have picked it off easily. I watched the trout supping olives from the surface only for it to be joined by a pal. And then when I looked up this high banked stretch I watched many trout rising to the olives.
How did I know that these were not small fish? Simply because I watched one almost roll on the surface like a bloody big shark as it took an olive. These trout did not seem spooky either as my boys were busy throwing stones and sticks into the water. I half thought about bolting back to the car for my rod and gear as no waders would be needed as I could pick them off from the bank easily however knew that it would be madness despite the small distance. I simply chastised myself and again reminded myself that you should always be prepared and that was part of the reason why I got the Tenkara rod in the first place.
As we walked back to the car I noticed a wee plaque under a bridge…
Someone loved this place, enough that a member of his family would come here and leave this here.
I wonder if he was a fisher?