Throwing metal in a ditch..

If there is an opposite from my last post this is it – the contrasts between catching lovely wee trout on a burn and attempting to catch an Atlantic Salmon on the Kelvin are two extremes.

Our intention (last night) was to fish the City stretches for Salmon as it has been pelting down all day – I promise the intention was to use the fly rod however with Salmon fishing it seems there are some times when the fly will just not fish – usually when the river is a muddy mess – it just so happens that when the river is a muddy mess (to me as a trout angler I would not even look in its direction out of respect when it is like that) that is when the Salmon are in it and running.

Anyway – the city stretch was out of action do we headed up river – way up river to the infamous …… in fact, you know – I would not tell everyone where trout spots are so I think it would be a bit unfair to tell people where Salmon spots are.

Needless to say we went up river – needless to say this is hardly a pretty place – sure you are kinda in the country (barely) however the river is crossed with pylons and you are fishing on very high banks which plunge down to the depths fairly quickly. And Oh God the grass and mud – you wear felt soles up here at your peril – this is welly boot country and even then you are taking your life in your hands. Going down the infamous “slide of death” was bad – going back up it was worse. The Slide of Death is a muddy slide ending in a metal board crossing a ditch – terrifying. We heard some laughter as the night wore on as some guys traversed it – “obviously a fallen comrade” Atkins mused.

To get down to the river there are some nice muddy slippy slides – of course I was paranoid that I would just keep on slipping and dive headfirst into the river. It is for souls hardier than I am – up at this place the worm is king – lots of Salmon get caught on the worm up here and I do not mean by your static ledgering guys – these are guys that keep on the move trotting their worms down the river, bumping them along the bottom – it is actually a skilful way of fishing. I notice that there is a new fashion on the Kelvin with the worm fishers – they now all have wee man bags for their worms – a plastic container is kept at their waist by way of a string around their neck.

There were over a dozen guys fishing – we seen a few fish – Atkins witnessed one over 10lb and I cast my pink “Flying C” fruitlessly at a patch of water where I had seen a big swirl (twice).

Anyway – we could only last for a few hours of this and headed home – it was still raining as we left.

I am sure I will give it another bash at some point – when trout fishing is out the window.