While all you suckers were out working last week I took the day off and ended up with a mid week belter of a session on the Clyde – overcast and warm conditions (the river was also a little high and coloured) meant I caught around 2 dozen trout on the dry fly between 1000 and 1500.
All my trout came to comparaduns with only a few disasters.
Disasters:
1. My tippet went bad in my pocket and was totally ruined.
2. I realised that the hook had snapped just below the tail of my fly (took a half hour to work that little gem out)
3. I forgot my net (not good when a nice trout is going bananas in the pool in front of you)
4. I jammed my foot in a rock and could not get it out (ok, yes eventually I did)
5. I have lost my lucky hat so have to wear my light coloured Orvis one (it is too bright and feels like a beacon on my head on hot days.
The hidden disaster of course is that we are now on the home stretch towards Autumn and the close season – Mid Summer is the year in the prime of its life – Autumn old age and the inevitable long cold sleep of Winter.
The trout above was the average – around the half pound mark – It was just one of those days that I could do no wrong – if I seen a trout rise (and there was not many) it would take my fly as long as my presentation was fine. Like I say sure I seen the odd trout rise however most of my trout were caught purely speculating – so I would look at a riffle and reckon a trout would be sitting in their somewhere (fancy people call this reading the water) and then cast – more often than not my judgement would be correct.
It did not mater if it was long pools or pocket water – all the trout were fair game.
I did see flies on the water – there was no matching the hatch or more accurately matching the size – during the course of the day I went through three flies – only because the first hook broke and the 2nd became so waterlogged that it was become difficult to float.
I suspect they were Small Dark Olives however I am happy to be corrected – I know you guys know more about this than I do!
Their was several trout nudging past the pound point – taking pictures of the bigger trout was difficult due to lack of net!
All the trout fought like demons on fire – jumping out the water and trying to dive under rocks and into weed – they were obviously so vigerous due to the extra oxygen in the water.
In 2008 my last trip out for trout was at the start of August – it was great – that trip has always stuck with me – after that trip I started to target Pike instead of trout and I had a whale of a time. I could not help but feel things are not dissimilar this year – I suppose the one major difference is that this year I have fished probably a tenth of the amount of previous years however that is to be expected with a child.
Anyway – from this point on I have two new goals to work on with my limited time:
1. I want to catch a Salmon from the Kelvin.
2. I want to catch an enormous Pike.
Wish me luck!
Cool session, much better than being stuck in work.
BTW the fly in the photo looks like a female BWO spinner, that’d be my guess going on what you can see in the pic.
The fly only had two tails Jim !
Enjoyable session by the looks of it.Great looking trout there.
Damn hairy arm…. Looked like 3 in the photo LOL
Forgot to say last time …. Good luck with the Kelvin Salmon and enormous Pike
good luck on the pike and salmon
Hi Alistair –
Those trout look fab. I’ve not been fishing of late, work always gets in the way.
Need to get som more action, only landed 4 this year … shocking!!to think i was into double figures last year
No matter, still time to achieve more :o)
Cheers …. the wee fishy 1 … from saltcoats :o)
YOU want to catch a Salmon ?????
Of course he does Stuart, he’s only human!!
I am glad to see that you have waited to return to the Clyde where you could float your size 2/0 comparaduns to panicky fish instead of persever with the size 20 paraduns…
Nice work.
This week should be good for salmon if the rain lets the river settle a bit.
Looks like you had a good day with some lovely brownies. Good luck with your targets.
Nice photos and article, Alistair. You’ll have lots of fun when that child reaches the age he/she wants to go fly fishing with you! (Boy or girl?).
George – Long time no hear from – glad you are still floating around 😉
Campbell – the envy is ooooooooooooozing! (If you want I can show you how to tie up a proper fly)
Ian – my boy is 7 months – I was reading your article on fishing with your boy – absolutely lovey – like learning how to fish all over again!
Cracking session you had Alistair, the trout look to be in great nick too. It’s a wonderful feeling when these impromptu sessions turn into a fish-catching extravaganza. Makes up for the times when it doesn’t quite work out like that!
Alex
Yupper, you can’t complain about a day like that out on the river. Season is coming to an end within the next month here, and teases like this make me NEED to get out there a couple more times before its over for the year!
dave
Those are some of the most beautiful trout I’ve ever seen! You should post some of your catches at FellowFishermen.com.