It was on my doorstep all along!

So I have been tying up some flees in preparation for some hot evening action. Reluctantly I took the advice (you can substitute advice for pretty much constant ribbing) from pals regarding the size of my flies. You see in the past I fished a place where a big bushy fly was a essential as it was pretty much all pocket water. Now as I am hanging around where the big kids are I need to step down my size of fly – bloody picky trout.

Also I need to make sure I have flies for every occasion – which means my repertoire of Giant Deer Emerger or Scruffy Olive must be expanded. So I spent some time tying up some small CDC n’ Elks and some small CDC Olives (with tails). I also decided to tie up some Deer Hair Emergers on small hooks – they are always good flies to have in an emergency especially in small sizes. I know that Mike from Tamanawis always does very well with them.

Saying all that fat lot of good it did me.

On Saturday night I decided to hit the Loch for some Pike action – I reckoned the conditions seemed pretty good; it was overcast and kinda warmish with a light wind. I did not even spook a Pike the whole times I was there which is always a bit of a bad sign – at least when you spook Pike you can be slightly hopeful that eventually you will not spook one and it will take your fly. Casting aimlessly at likely places to find that all you drag back is your own hope is kinda demoralising after a while. Of course this was then topped off by on the way home being stopped by the police for two busted lights – I was given a ticket and told to get them fixed.

With the Pike not playing ball I decided I needed to catch a trout – I wanted to catch a trout on an honest to goodness dry fly – preferably a rising trout and big – if it was gigantic all the better. I decided on the Clyde and the big trout decided to play the Pike game and totally hang out somewhere else. Dusk was alledgedly the time to be there so I dutifully fled down the M74 after 7pm.

I caught some small trout which was fun as they were rising incredibly sporadically. Paul noticed the mist drifting down the river first which may have killed any action dead – certainly when it was proper dark the trout still did not feed.

Turns out I had forgotten my torch as well which would have been fun if the big trout had actually been rising all around me and I needed to change a fly in the dark would have been fun if the big trout had actually been rising all around me and I needed to change a fly in the dark.

I cannot help but notice we are now half way through the year – the nights are fair drawing in by a few mins every night – that is some scary stuff to contend with – the thought the season will be almost over in a flash – to me it feels it has hardly even started. It seems like only yesterday I was on the Kelvin at the start of the season wondering about the lack of hatches and the good height of water. Well, after work I had a spare hour – literally one hour that I could use to catch a fish. It was overcast and warm and I just knew the water should be in a good condition. I parked the car and peered down a steep embankment and could see it had some dirty color in it however could still see some rocks at the margins.

I got my shit together and promptly fell down the embankment (there has got to be an easier way) As soon as I got to the river I spotted a trout rising..

I worked my way up the edge of the river and almost immediately lost my fly in an overhanging tree branch. This area is about to be targeted by the River Kelvin Angling Association for some tree cutting – nothing major, just some of the biggest overhanging branches. Anyway, I spotted a trout downstream of me right in at the right hand bank..it seemed a nice trout and rose twice as I was getting into position..

I false casted a few times and decided on an experimental drift just to see how close I was to the target – it was a downstream cast so the trick is to try and have your line snaked towards the target so as the fly drifts down the line straightens giving you a drift. The trout took the fly that first cast – it went bananas!

By heck – it was pretty strong, initially I thought it was going to be a monster however it turned out the trout was foul hooked in its side causing the tussle to be  out of proportion to the size of trout. It is something to do with the pressure of water as the trout twists and turns.

Anyway – it was a lovely Kelvin trout caught within my timescale of an hour – actually it was around 45 mins..

I was looking forward to tying some flees up at the RKAA fly tying night however lay down at half six and woke up at 5am having totally missed it. As it is I have got to put in some serious effort to get some more tiny CDC n Elks tied up.

Looking forward to my next session already!