Salmon trip – dawn raid (outcome blank)

It is Saturday evening at around 10pm – it is pouring with rain, like really teaming it down – cats and dog’s rain – if you are reading this in Glasgow and you have not looked out the window it is pissing it doon by the way.

I am talking about the rain for two reasons:

1. It has not rained like this in around 4 months meaning the trout fishing will improve as the Kelvin has had a good flush (some people unkindly say like a toilet)
2. I went Salmon fishing today and rain plays a big part in Salmon fishing – for a start it actually brings the fish into the river.

Before I am heckled by people telling me I know nothing about Salmon fishing (and the Salmon in the Kelvin) let me state the caveat that I know nothing about Salmon fishing on the Kelvin – the only info I have gleaned is through chats with people who do fish the Kelvin for Salmon and people that Catch lots of Salmon on other rivers.

Ok – stuff I have gleaned about the Kelvin:

1. A lot of people fish the worm on the Kelvin and consequently it is known as a worming river.
2. Not many guys catch Salmon on the Kelvin with flies – pretty much nobody knows the holding pools in the middle of the river that they rest in – or whether they just bolt upstream missing out lots of water.

So this morning I decided to join Atkins in an early morning dawn raid for Salmon – my alarm was set for 0430 as I was being picked up at 0500. Atkins meanwhile decided not to set an alarm and instead use my phone call at 0515 to find out where the hell he was as a fishing prompt.

The river was at a good height and was clearing very nicely – we started with fly rods and later moved onto metalwork – metal work meaning spinning rods and “Flying Condoms”

It was good – I enjoyed it – we were doing something a little different – we had identified a few pools that were lovely fly water and covered as much as we could – we had never seen anyone else use the fly on these pools – we knew that one person has caught a salmon on a worm from one of the pools so we just have to keep plugging away until finally we hit it right. It was obviously not today as we caught bugger all at those few pools – it could need more water it might have to be clearer – who knows!

It could have been any country river – not a soul around and absolutely beautiful – only the smell of diesel from the petrol pool gave the game away.

After a while I got the thirst – I wanted to catch my first Salmon so we headed to where everyone heads to on the Kelvin when they want to catch a Salmon – we went to the Sea Pool – this is a pool just below the first proper weir on the river. Needles to say a lot of guys fish it.

When we got there two guys were fishing and another couple turned up. When we left another couple of guys were arriving  – it must get busy.

It was like fishing on another world – huge heavy stones littered the river bed – you had to traverse some pretty big slabs and the water was in chutes and then long deep channels. I had seen this part of the river when it has been in spate – huge amounts of water flood down here – I suppose that is why the stones are so big – all the wee ones have been swept away.

In the end we never touched a fish – or seen one for that matter – we have heard stories of lots of Salmon in the river from reliable sources however they were obviously somewhere else – or possibly right in front of us – I suppose that is the funny thing about Salmon fishing.

If I am going to make a prediction it might be that like a lot of people I might have my first Kelvin Salmon on a Flying C or even a Toby (I had better actually buy some extra terminal tackle as I reckon people are getting annoyed at me borrowing their non fly gear – and then promptly attaching it to the river bed)

Anyway – as I was writing this I suddenly realised that the burns I fish will now be full of water and fishing well – should I forget the Salmon next week and go after trout or actually just keep on at the Salmon.

Decisions, decisions!