Saturday Fun – on a tributary of a tributaries tributary

by Alistair

For those of you that do not know the rivers that I fish let me explain something to you – The Kelvin has three tributaries that make it the river it is – the Luggie, the Glazart and the Allander. The Kelvin itself is merely a tributary of the mighty River Clyde although where it enters the main river you would not catch any brown trout – it is trully massive! It must be said the Kelvin tributaries also have there own little tributaries, countless unnamed burns that make up the main river.

Just in the same way that the Kelvin is a tributary there are several other rivers that are tributaries of the Clyde – these tributaries also have tributaries, often these tributaries have tributaries – which like the Kelvin have many unamed burns –  I hope that makes sense. I like to think of it like a tree – with all the tiny twigs growing together to make branches and then them coming together to make the trunk.

So today Alberto (Casting Maestro Extraordinaire) took me to one of the other tributaries tributary (actually it was another tributary off it) however as it has been raining hard for a day we settled for very far upstream on the tributary. If this was a tree we would be off a branch, followed a  split and finally up to a twig.

We were trying to get far away from the water that was busy running down all the twigs and  branches too dump itself in the main trunk – when you are trying to get this far away, the river gets smaller – and so do the trout…a nice trout is maybe 8 inches – a monster is 10 inches.

The day was warm; there was fly life however nothing definite hatching on the water. The river to begin with was peaty however this did not put the trout off, instead it made them a whole lot bolder when it came to rising to dry flies.

If you think my pictures have been bad in the past check this out..

Alberto caught this monster…..for this size of water it is a mighty fish.. Just look at those huge spots..

Here he is playing another…

All in all, maybe a dozen trout caught and as many missed. For flies I used Comparaduns, CDC & Elk and a Baloon Caddis.

18 thoughts on “Saturday Fun – on a tributary of a tributaries tributary”

  1. I miss fishing the Luggie, it was my old regular haunt till i moved to Fife. I usually fished it in and around Scumbernauld, it’s also where i caught my first ever trout on the fly.

    I prefer to fish the smaller burns and i probably rate catching a small trout in a place like that more than catching bigger trout in what some ppl might call better or bigger venues.

  2. lovely wee fish from fantastic little waters ,we tend to forget about the little tresures that feed out main haunts and truly are the life giving source of our rivers ,fantastic post mate ,i love seeing the little places getting some air,thanks

  3. @Fl3tch – got to admit I probably more enjoy fishing these small streams than big rivers where the trout can be especially dour – saying that I think we hit this one at just the right time.

    @Derek – The Clyde is fed by numerous little burns and streams – the vast majority of which dont get fished!

  4. it was on one of these little burns that i was introduced to trout fishing ,it was a little burn called brock burn ,the part that runs up towards barrhead dams and the trout were the most lovely little fish ive seen ,great memories. thanks

  5. Great stuff Alistair.Spent yesterday fishing one of those tributaries of a tributary of the Kelvin.Full of fat wee trout.Lovin the wee burns at the moment.
    Paul

  6. wee burns are the way forward, in fact ive never fished a “proper” river

  7. so a question – does the regular kelvin permit allow one to fish all the tributaries of the kelvin? And their tribs?

  8. Nope – The Kelvin ticket only covers the kelvin and the Allander – I believe the Luggie and Glazart are seperate!

  9. ah ok! do they even have tickets for the Luggie and Glazart? If so, does anyone know where to get a ticket?

  10. I know one of them is run by some miners club – The KAA has the salmon rights though so I would probably just chance my arm and fish it 🙂

  12. Hey Stuart – nice links – as soon as anyone posts a link in the comments section it gets held for moderation – its to combat spam 🙂

  13. andy, only a tiny stretch of the luggie requires a permit, the bit where it joins the kelvin in kirkintilloch. I think it is waterside angling club that has it, they stock it annually as far as i know.

    However, i fish the few miles of river from its source and there is excellent fishing there, with plenty good fish and easy access.

    Im not too sure about the glazert but im sure a trip into the tackle shop in kirky would put you on the right track.

  14. Standing at my LR window and for the first time in months I can see the River Cart ( White one) flowing along .usually it’s hidden below the wall and weeds …and it looks like treacle.
    Looking at the SEPA River Levels everywhere is way up and not surpising after the incessant rain yesterday so I guess we’ll all need to wait a day or two until it fines down .

  15. Alistair,

    Still loving this site. Offer of a bit of electrofishing still open this year if you can spare a couple of hours (we’ll be out and about until the end of September).

    Keep it up.

    Willie Y.

  16. Hey Willie,

    Yup I am def up for a bit of electrofishing – will send you a mail – oh aye – mind you asked about that wee river that we thought was devoid of trout and life – I have the name now – I will send you that as well.

    Alistair

  17. Alistair,

    It’s relatively rare to find a burn with no trout but, as we spend more time in Lanarkshire, we’re starting to turn up increasing numbers. Any info. you have will be much appreciated – it looks like you are covering a lot of ground and your observations will be of great interest to us (that bit sounds a bit Cold War-ish, sorry!)

  18. The Luggie has a ticket and can be bought at the tackle shop in kirkie, its a tenner, its run by the Waterside AC, although I am not sure what they actually do. I have chatted to one of their former presidents and he says they don’t really do much anymore. there is no info on the ticket about which stretch they license, but i think its all the river.

    Scott how far up have you fished the Luggie?

    Campbell

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