I decided to stick to my plan for the first day of the season yesterday and head up to a tributary of the Kelvin. My other pals decided to hit the main river full force – I decided a more leisurely few casts with my bamboo rod was more in the spirit of things, a little taster to whet the appetite for some spring trout madness.
The day was nice, it was mild and there was plenty of water in the little burn. It was slightly coloured which I think may have affected any chance of picking up a trout on the dry fly. I was right it did.I went home with a smile on my face and to the first comment of “you can’t leave that stuff in the kitchen” of the new season.
Ah, good times beckon!
Alistair, sorry that i missed you yesterday, but the main river was in quite good fettle, so Alex and i decided to stick it out. The river was a little higher that i would have liked but with plenty of definition to the pools and riffles. We fished a few of our favourite pools and found a pod of good fish rising in one of them. The height of the water meant that everything was moving a tad too quickly, but Alex managed to rise 2 fish and hook and loose one of them, so i think we’ll give him the fish on a dry fly on the first day of the season crown !! I had a couple of solid pulls to a nymh at another favourite spot. All in all it was an enjoyable day and the river seemed to be in good form with some reasonable hatches of LDO’s and water quality pretty good. I will try to get out tomorrow for a cast, but with winter forcast for the weekend ,who know’s . Hope to see you soon for a cast once the season really gets under way.
Congratulations on making it to another season opener! And a trib no less — an act of daring.
Can’t wait to see some rising fish out this way…
Hey Alistair,
I’m sitting here ” dumfoodered ”
What planet did you guys visit to get the sport yesterday ? .. Weather down here in the shires has been really ” cold “, windy and wet for most of this week … to go fishing around these parts .. the weather wid kill yi !!
Congrats to you all on the first fish of 2007
George in Sunny Ayrshire
That little trib looks just like those down here in the Border Marches, full of energy and there just have to be trout there somewhere! No surface takers here either. Better days lies ahead methinks.
Hi Dave,
It is a lovely little burn – it is a place to lose yourself for a coupl eof hours. I thought the hungry little trout might actually take something off the surface but alas it was not to be 🙁
Alistair
So, Alistair, did you use that new SLT – the one you refer to in your other post?
Nah, not yet. I was fishing a wee burn so was using my 4 weight bamboo.
The weather has now taken a turn for the worse here in Scotland – sleety showers and minus temps. This means that pretty much all fly life has halted – it has been another “funny” Spring – a saying we have over here is if March comes in like a Lamb it goes out like a Lion which is very true.
I am hoping over the next few weeks it may pick up and I will be able to get out and attack some trout with it 😉
Alistair
My local reply would be, “live in Hope die in Hathersage!” I’ll be interested to know how you get on with the Sage when the weather improves. What is it 9ft 4pc #4?
🙂
Its a 9 foot 4pc for a 5 weight. Sometimes on the bigger rivers that I fish i was feeling a bit undergunned with a slow four weight. That coupled with a howling permanant wind howling down the valley made me get a faster 5 weight !
I can see your reasoning on the 5wt – I’ve tried one on a casting pool on a few occasions and it’s lovely. Maybe you’ll post a bit of a review when you’ve given it a shot – otherwise I look forward to your comments here (or do I mean there) later…
On your original subject ‘first day of the season’, it was grimness through and through down here in Derbyshire and Notts – still is 🙁 Hoping things will pick up so I can get at least a couple days fishing in before my partner and I welcome our first family member into the world – then I guess the fishing will take a back seat for a while… I wonder if I’ll be doing any fishing this year!?