From Boat Bridge to Roberton Burn

5 years have now passed since my return to fly fishing.

Looking back

My very first cast with a fly rod was a long long time ago on the Water of Leith at Bonnington Bridge Edinburgh

Then as a 14  year old I expanded my fishing out to West Linton where I would spend many a long summers day on the Lyn Water.

I would explore every inch of the river looking for wee trout and grayling, going all the way down to Romanno Bridge for a bus back home.
Then at an age of 17, other things started to occupy my thoughts.
My fishing days were halted for a while as my interests had changed.
However I knew that this wasn't going to be a permanent decision.

Someday I would once again cast my fly, where and when I couldn't say, but I knew that my passion for fly fishing would return.
Things were tough in Edinburgh in the mid  sixties, so I moved down to the "Bright Lights" London, to get work.

I stayed there for 44 years.

I did take up fishing again - for carp and tench-roach, bream, etc and had some very enjoyable days fishing in many great rivers down South England, but not with the fly, that was yet to come.
 http://flymanpete.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/eat-sleep-enzine.html

So I am back in my hometown of Edinburgh, my mother sadly passed away April 2011
I miss her.

If you have been keeping up with my blog you will know that I am still fishing my favourite spots on the Clyde and enjoying it immensely, I am up here in Scotland for good, I have no intention of going back down South.
The river Clyde has so much to offer, although there are no salmon or seatrout where I fish the brown trout and grayling make up for them a hundred fold.
I am mostly to be found fishing the Lamington section of the rive
 ( Boat Bridge to Roberton Burn)
http://www.lamingtonfishing.co.uk/

However I do sometimes venture further up river to Abington and Crawford which is  UCAPA water.

Ucapa Fishing Home Page

The Upper Clyde has so much great water to fish, I don't feel the need to try other rivers,
I will be happy and content to spend the rest of my days where I am.

The trout season has nearly ended and it will soon be grayling time.
So I can continue to fish the river I love.
I can fish into the winter and into next year.
That's if the Scottish weather ain't too harsh-- I love my fishing, I may be keen--but sometimes its just too cold wet and windy to venture out.
So a nice warm pub-a couple of pints-some nice malt whisky --comes to mind.
Sit back relax, and think about the year gone by and look forward  2014.

Some pictures from 2013

                                Boat Bridge Thankerton--The start of Lamington water.

The rules of the river Wolfclyde Bridge (maybe a reason why the fishing is so good ?)

Lamington Bridge-- Miles of fantastic fishing, go up or downstream, a great place to start and explore the river.

A nice hard fighting 2lb brownie a pleasure to catch as there was only 5days left until the end of the 2013 season. 

Again another 2lber- this time a "Lady of the Stream" caught the day before.
I hope to get many more through out the grayling season.

You don't have to go far from the Bridges to catch whoppers like this.

I hope that I am able to enjoy my fishing on the Upper River Clyde for many more years to come.
Its a lovely river, running through unspoilt Scottish countryside at its best.
Why don't you give it a go?
You may come to love it like me.

Its getting near grayling time

Its not been a good year for me-the trout have played hard to get.
The start of 2013 season saw the grayling feeding well into June, and for me anyway, I found it hard going trying to catch a decent trout.
The ones I did catch were about the 0.3kg mark and they were far and few between.
I did hook some biggies but never managed to get them in the net--the Clyde trout seem to have a knack of twisting and turning and unhooking themselves.
The river has been heavily silted and up to the other day its been nigh on impossible to fish nymphs on the bottom, but the rain last week cleaned the river up a bit.
So yesterday it was down to Wolfclyde Bridge to have a go for whatever bottom feeders were about.
The wind was blowing over my left shoulder, upstream, ideal conditions for fishing nymphs on an indicator, so I headed for a section of river just upstream from the bridge to give it a go.
This part of the river is slower and with deep runs, a good holding spot for both trout and grayling.

I spent all of the afternoon going up and down this section of river resulting in a catch of 3 trout and 6 grayling the best being the one below- topping the scales at exactly 1kg.

 

                                       A nice chunky grayling poses for the camera.

My set up: 10ft #3 Marryat rod. Orvis Battenkill BBS 11 reel with floating line.
                  1.4 m tapered leader to size     # 8  hi-vis klinkhammer on a short link.
                  1.5 m to top dropper (0.150m) #16 tungsten silver beaded nymph, red body.
                  0.4 m to mid dropper(0.150m) #16 tungsten gold   beaded nymph. red body.
                  0.6 m to bot. dropper               #14 tungsten  silver beaded nymph.black body.
                                    All barbless hooks tied to 6x tippets.
With an average depth of 1 to1.5m  it was essential to get the flies upstream and across far enough for the small nymphs to get close to  bottom as quickly as possible.
As the indicator came towards me I could see the movement of the fly as the nymphs tripped the bottom.
There was no missing the takes--with most of the fish grabbing the middle dropper.

Well we are getting near to the end of the trout season--just 2 and a bit weeks to go.
There is still quite a bit of surface activity-
There is time left for me to catch a big  "Clyde broonie"on a dry.
I will give it my best.