Kelvin Crazy!

The Kelvin trout were especially kind to me today even if the Kelvin itself was not, you see I managed a very quick session after work today and decided to fish an old haunt for quickness.

As soon as I arrived at the river I spotted a rising trout so dashed downstream to where I wanted to start – this particular pool has been crying out for some Alistair Lovin’ for some time now. I was not disappointed as I found several trout rising in various parts of the pool, I jumped the rusty fence and got myself into position.

It was all downstream casts and roll casts to get to the trout as behind me there was high banks and trees – I quickly spooked a couple of trout and then caught two lovely ones in quick succession.

As I was starting to get into position for the next cast I felt something in my wading boot, when I put my foot down it felt like a big stone . I thought that maybe the side of my wading boot had given way and a stone had managed to get in it however it would not budge for all the wiggling in the world – I had to kinda hop to the bank, occasionally putting some weight on my foot with the “stone” in it – when I got to the bank I was horrified to find the “stone” was in fact a sharp metal spike around 3 inches long that was attached to a piece of metal it was stuck a good centimeter into the sole of my wading boot. I shudder to think what might have happened if I had slipped and put my foot down too heavily – the thought of metal spikes through foots in the waters of the Kelvin just don’t turn me on. Thankfully the spike had not went through the sole of my neoprene booties so I got to fish on bloodlessly and dry.

I walked up the river to pools I have fished a lot more of in the past and caught a couple of belters in some slow water, I only managed to creep up on them as I came up from the pool below in some fast water – anyone else walking up on the bank and they would have been off like a shot.

Throughout all this time there was a steady stream of Large Dark Olives hatching – there were plenty in the air and plenty on the water. The rises were good confident boiling rises – it felt good to see rising trout consistently again.

I moved on and found a pod of a few trout rising at a small pool, these trout are usually guaranteed to me on the take, there were three or four risers and they looked like good trout too – I managed to spook every one of them with my first cast. I stayed around for 10 mins until one started to rise again and spooked it properly this time. I moved back down the river heading for home and watched three or four trout rising at the tail end of a very long slow pool just before it starts to get fast before tumbling down into another pool – I always walk by these trout as they are very spooky in the slow water however today decided to give it a go – I am mighty glad I did. I hooked three and in my hand was one.

All three trout were real rod benders and caught on a downstream roll cast that had to be right in the correct place so as not to spook the trout, close enough that drag was not going to effect the fly before the trout saw it and far enough away that it was not going to be spooked by the line.

All in all a bloody good session considering I was only out for a couple of hours, the final tally was maybe a half dozen trout with many more pricked and around a few hundred spooked. I believe we had some north wind action going on today however the Kelvin trout could not care less as they were totally going for it big style.

You guys been fishing?