Bugger it!
All this talk of freezing cold temps and slow start to the season has really gotten on my goat. Consequently I decided that enough was enough and it was actually time to cast a fly and have a look for myself. After work I bolted to the river to find it looking barren and incredibly unfishy. However the temps were around 8/9 degrees and it did actually feel warm when the sun came out. I walked up the pool until I spotted a rising trout, and then another and then another.
Game On!
I strung up my rod, stuck on a fly and cast. I covered the trout a couple of times before it took and I was too slow in striking. I covered another one and it was a belter, it went bananas all over the pool before becoming free. In the end I connected* with five and lost two. I covered some more and at one point while I was standing in the water waiting on the trout rising again a chap with his girlfriend in tow scrambled down to the river on the opposite bank. He then lifted a log and launched it into the river around 100m upstream of me. The waves washed down the pool for a few hundred meters. I asked him not to do it again and he told me to “fuck off”. Still, he put his 2nd log down and wandered off with his bird. There had been a mighty clash of testosterone and my chastisement of the boy was obviously enough – hopefully his girlfriend will see him for the lout he is and not breed.
The first trout that I landed was due to a rather heroic cast of about 30 feet upstream and across the river to a spooky trout – it took 2nd cast. Not bad for someone that has not picked up a rod in 6 months. The 2nd trout however just spun around as I brought it to hand, as I examined it I realised that it was still in pretty poor condition. It was long and slim.
I wandered up and down for a bit and then walked up to the car. Even though it was quite chilly it was also pretty sunny and bright, I was still glad I had my woolly hat on instead of the baseball cap that I usually wear.
As I walked up to the car I was glad that I had got out. As I drove up the road I could not help but think about Iain M Banks who has sadly announced that he has cancer and is unlikely to live out the year. I have read his books since my teens and was kinda shocked when I read the news today.
You just don’t know the minute!
*basically a trout looked at my fly or I lost it.
5.02pm Driving home and I got your text. Had just stopped off at Bishops mill for a quick check then headed up river to have a look when I got the message. Hopefully this will be a good sign of the season a head. Good one Alistair
Well it’s about time! 😉
Excellent news, and well done for bagging something!! It means i’ll set out with a bit more hope on Sunday
What time where you out at? There’s enough light to make fishing after work possible for me, but I reckon an evening hatch is months away……
Hi Alistair, I had my first outing on my urban river this week. the river looked great in the bright sunshine, but the wind chill was freezing. Like you, I was just glad to be back on the water and catching fish was a bonus. ken
http://www.urbanfieldsportsman.com/index.php/recreation-ground-trout/
Hallelujah! I too opened my account this afternoon at the tail of the skatepark! Good times! Word on the street is there’s a sou’westerly blowin the morn , I predict a riot
So…..WTF? as we say on this side of the pond. Was that log hurling wanker just being a complete a##hole or striking a blow for PETA against the killer of ‘sea kittens’ (their latest name for fish)or just a yob being a…yob. Glad you did not have to dignify his actions by physical response……
Charles, You can say that again! (but dont) 😉
Stephen, Tale end of the work day!
Ken, Bravo, your blog is fast becoming a favorite with me!
Alasdair, today is the wedding of Paul Reid so in a way your prediction is in fact 100% accurate 🙂
JP2 – I do not think it was anything as sophisticated as animal rights, I believe it was a show of strength for his female something akin to the beating of a gorilla chest. Obviously I was reeking of sheer dominance in my waders and waistcoat (like a hunter) and therefore my dominance over him in his pansy shorts was affirmed. His call of “fuck off” was a futile gesture made to save some face in front of his female however deep down in his soul he knew that she wanted to have the sex not with him, but with me.
Nice work Alistair. I took a wander up the river at the bridge on the Balmore Road last night (no rod) just for a look. Was impressed at the clearing thats been done on the south bank – a lot of hard work by the look of it, and fairly opened the river up. Nothing moving, but nice to be back along the riverbank after most of my free times in the last 6 months being in the hills!