Springer search 2013

My search for the elusive but highly prized spring salmon started early this year with a trip with my dad to Dalmarnock beat on the Tay. We were met with freezing conditions and snow but the river was in fine condition and it's always brilliant to get the season under way.

After fishing down a few of the super pools on this beat, I took this wee fish on a gold bodied willie gunn tube. Fished on a fast sink tip. This was not a fresh fish but a baggot. It was however a very welcome pull on an ice cold day and after a quick pic it was returned to the river.

Below is a wee snap to show the conditions we were fishing in. Another beautiful day on a great Tay beat.

Last week, March 22nd and I was lucky enough to be visiting Lower Kinnaird on the Tay. This was a first visit for me to this beat. Firstly. I had booked through fishpal for the Tuesday but I started the short trip from Killin with my car stuck in the snow. A phone call to the absolute gentleman of a ghillie, Martin Edgar, led to the very kind offer from Kinnaird estate of a re arranged day for the Friday.

Friday found me facing a biting cold wind, hailstones and again freezing conditions but it felt great to be on the water again. Here are a few snaps of this absolutely stunning beat. Loads of superb fly water as well as the junction pool of the Tummel.

 Tactics for the day were fast sink tips, tubes and then some spinning in the afternoon.

 This really is some of the best fly water I have had the privilege to fish.

 One of the other rods fishing on the Friday was into a fish with his last cast as I was making my way back to the hut.

 Martin Edgar the ghillie was on hand to assist with the net.

 A very welcome wee springer for John just before it was released to continue on it's journey.

So, for me the springer search continues but I feel I'm getting closer. My next trip is to the Tummel on 25th May which may well be my last realistic chance at one of these beautiful fish this year before thoughts turn to grilse and brownies.

I would also like to say that I have I have fished a few places with ghillies now, but the two who look after these two brilliant Tay beats are a cut above. They go above and beyond to ensure you enjoy your day and their knowledge of the beats is exceptional.

Gordon Pollock  who looks after Dalmarnock has a blog which can be found here... http://scottish-fishing-guide.blogspot.co.uk/

Martin Edgar has a blog which can be found here...http://www.river-tay-salmon-fishing.blogspot.co.uk/ 

A very special thanks again goes to Martin for his kindness in ensuring I never lost my days fishing. He has a new regular! 

Tight lines

Paul

Messing about with my nemesis!!!

For a while now I have been a wee bit obsessed with quill bodied patterns. I just love the segmented effect it creates on fly bodies. However, tying them has been very frustrating for me. I am talking here, about dyed peacock quills. They are widely available from most good materials suppliers but I have found them very difficult to get on with. The quill can be very brittle to work with and you need to strip the feather from them with either bleach or an eraser. I was constantly breaking them with my heavy handed approach. These became my nemesis and I even thought about giving up with the idea and just going back to buying them! That was all changed when I was recommended some pre-stripped, dyed quills available from Poland. These sounded perfect for me.

I purchased a few packets and I was on my way. I thought I would share some of the results with you. 

I love spider patterns and the trout I like to annoy frequently are partial to them so that seemed like a good starting point.

My photography skills are in need of improvement.

 Red quilled spiders.

 The three in the picture below are tied on some new hooks I bought from an excellent fly tyer and all round good guy. Lucian Varsis. I like the way they turned out.

I think there is still room for imrovement with the spiders but they are the best ones I've turned out yet so progress is being made.

Another pattern that I have regular success with called a yellow owl. It was my best pattern last year by a country mile! This cdc pattern was originally tied with light olive thread and ribbed with black thread. I prefer the way the quill bodied ones look when done right.

I am very happy with the effect on these.

 The CDC on these is from Lucian Varsis website. It is some of the best I have ever used.

 Tied on Kamasan B170s size 14

 This is the effect I was looking for.

These have been easily the best results I have achieved so far with quill bodied patterns and they have found a place in the fly box for next season.

Recipes for the above patterns are as follows

Spiders

Kamasan B170 size 14 or Demon  100BL size 14

Thread...Black uni 8/0

Body....Polish quills red

Hackle....Starling (taken form the body)

 A coat of varnish on the quill body helps protect it.

Yellow owl

Kamasan B170 size 14

Thread...light olive UTC 70

Body...Polish quills dyed yellow

Thorax...Mole dyed olive

CDC from Lucian Varsis

The Polish quills can be purchased from http://www.polishquills.com/

Lucian Varsis excellent site can be found here...http://www.troutline.ro/

I have no connection to either of the above. I'm just a happy customer.

Tight lines

Castle Semple in search of Pike.....

Yesterday found me with a few spare hours to kill and a notion to go in search of some local pike. I have been doing fairly well on one of my local waters, Castle semple, which is a somewhat substantial loch adjacent to the village of Lochwinnoch, which is a part of Muirsheil country park. The loch is a very popular course fishing venue and holds a good head of small pike with the odd surprise to be had as well as roach and perch.

I have been enjoying a fair bit of success with small jack pike on the fly rod here and some "perchy" type patterns around the area of the visitors centre. I normally park in the car park at the centre and walk north east along the shore. This can be quite a busy area with anglers.

For a while I have been meaning to approach the loch from the opposite direction which involves a bit more of a walk but the plan was to find a bit more solitude than usual. I parked in the lay by on the outskirts of Howood and headed along the path towards the loch.

After about a mile the loch comes into view.

In this picture you can see the swollen Black Cart river which runs out of the loch.

Now, I will fess up here. I am not a fan of spinning. I am not by any means knocking it and I understand there are anglers who are masters at the art of fishing lures but I am not one of them. It's just not my cup of tea. I find it boring. I have a trusty salmon spinning rod and reel which only gets an outing when needs must.

However, as this was an exploratory trip in a limited time, I came to the conclusion that the spinning rod would give me the best chance to cover more water and try and locate some fish.

On approach, my plan was to concentrate my efforts around the island which can be seen in this picture.

 Plenty of likely looking areas with semi submerged logs and reeds. Perfect pike habitat.

It was a very dreich, dour day yesterday and the fish were unfortunately not in a playful mood.

I worked my way along the shore in the direction in the river. I started off with the ever reliable rapala but I was encountering weed with every cast and at £14 a pop, the thought of loosing one was beginning to make me ill.

The more desperate I got, the bigger and uglier the lure became!

 An example of my frustration.

 I continued towards the river mouth which took me a few hours. I fished hard but didn't even see a fish. There was an angler set up with a bivvy near the river entrance who was fishing dead baits. Maybe this is the approach to take in this area. Or maybe I should have brought the fly rod after all! Who knows?

I think in conclusion, this end of the loch may be better tackled with my float tube and fly rod and surface type lures of a warmer day. I know the place holds pike.

I did however, really enjoy my walk and few hours chucking ugly stuff at un-interested pike.

Does your author love spinning?.... No.

Does he love walking into new places with rod in hand?.... Yes.

Will he be back out with the spinning rod in search of pike soon?....probably not.

The walk out

 This landmark will be well known to people from the Glasgow and Ayrshire area but I have never known what it is? Anyone know?

Tight lines

Paul

River Garnock, too low, too high, never happy!

It was a rare event for me today. My planets must have aligned. my Karma was being kind, or some other kind of voodo occured because I was off work today, Mrs PaulFishing was away to Edinburgh for the weekend and we finally had the rain we have been waiting for!  I couldn't go wrong! Could I?

My wee local river is called the Garnock. It is Ayrshire's smallest salmon water of note and the club I am a member of controls several miles of its fishing. The river is essentially a small spate stream and the majority of fish run late in the year. However, there are fish caught earlier so its always worth a cast. For several weeks now we have had very low water which has kept me confined to the two trout lochs belonging to the club. The past few days in Scotland have seen the heavy rain we badly required so it was out with the rod this morning filled with the hope and excitement that is brought when you genuinely think conditions will be spot on!

The level today was probably a tiny bit too high for the fly and most of the locals tend to spin or fish the worm and these are certainly productive but me being a stubborn git, I tend to fish the fly unless its really big water.

The river is not easy to fish with the fly. You have to be inventive with some casts and contend with the high, overgrown banks. I use a 9'6" rod teamed with a Rio iline. This allows single handed spey casting off both shoulders and makes life much easier.

The first pool I fished down today from the bridge.

From half way down

 Looking back up the run

This is actually quite a nice wade down the pool once you are in, with lovely streamy fly water all the way down. You should expect a fish anywhere along here but I always pay special attention to the tail which has two large boulders that usually holds a fish or two.

I fished down through here three times without even seeing a fish today. I did hook a wee trout half way down with ambitions beyond its size.

Further down the river and you can see here the bankside vegetation you have to wrestle with.

Another nice wee pool.

I bumped into a few of the local guys along the way this morning. There had been a few fish off the water yesterday and one this morning at 0530. A clean fish of about 12lb. No one was seeing any fish show now though and fishing was proving to be difficult. The general thinking seemed to be that the fish had there heads down and were running hard. This was proven correct later in the afternoon when we heard of several fish being caught on the upper stretches of the river.

My confidence was starting to slide. 

I worked my way down through several more pools and runs. I varied the sink tips from intermediate to fast sink. I also chucked several different patterns at them throughout the day.

This next pool is one of my favourites. You only really get a short cast at it. There is probably ten minutes of fishing here, its a clamber down a steep banking and you are left wondering what the hell you are going to to if you do hook a fish, but the fly swings round beautifully and it screams salmon!

Alas, it was not to be for me today. I fished on till about 5pm, fishing my way back down to my car. 

The river will probably be dropping and ready to be perfect for the fly tomorrow. If only we didn't have the ridiculous "no Sunday fishing" rule in Scotland but I could easily fill a whole blog post with that rant so I won't get started!

If its looking ok on Monday I will have a few casts after my work.

 Here's a before and after shot of the same pool. This was earlier in the year.

And here it was today.

An enjoyable Saturday and it certainly beats sitting in the pub! Are we salmon anglers ever happy??

Three days, obliging browns and quality time..

As a few of you know, my Dad has not been too well recently. He was diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the year and is going through chemo at the moment. Last year we had planned to do a fishing trip to the west coast of Ireland about now. That has been placed on hold until he beats this horrible disease.

A phone call from a good friend of ours last month offered the perfect tonic. Three days stay in a cottage near Loch Tay which has its own wee hill loch stuffed with hard fighting wild browns. It was an offer we couldn't refuse. There is one boat on the Loch which we rotated between the four rods.  Here are some pics from our trip.

The cottage and the Loch

Me and my Dad preparing for a drift

Jack Scougal. This guy has forgotten more about fishing than I will ever know and his enthusiasm is still infectious!

I took a walk into the hill one day. You can see the feeder burn in the foreground and the Loch we were on in the distance.

View from the loung window

Some more pics of the Loch in various moods.

The fishing was steady over the three days with trout showing on most drifts. We were also able to pick up a few from the bank. Top flies for me were bibios, black snatchers and the ever present black spider.

Here are some pics of a few browns to my rod.

The fish averaged about 3/4lb with the odd one over 1lb

 Me ol' Dad in his element.

A brilliant few days fishing with some quality, hard fighting browns and great company. We spotted a golden eagle twice and the male hen harrier was a regular visitor to the loch during our stay. It never ceases to amaze me what our beautiful wee country has to offer.