[Mike Barrio]

The Don can be a moody river ...... but I think I'm usually to blame for any lack of success

I can spend hours watching the water, looking for fish, trying to work out what they might be taking and concentrating on the delivery of each cast ....... all this effort and not the slightest interest from a fish.

Then in a moment of lack of concentration, a heavy splashy cast, or one that goes miles off target so I strip the dry back quickly to cast again, or I lose sight of the dry and it is swinging sub surface 'somewhere' down stream .......... and bang - fish on      

Does this only happen to me?

[Iain Cameron]

Confucius say "even the blind squirrel occasionally finds a nut".
Better to be lucky than good 😀

[Mike Barrio]

Thanks Iain ...... that makes me feel a lot better    

[Ross Errington]

On my last trip I landed 4 fish whilst nymphing....3 of them were hooked whilst looking upstream and me pulling the line from down river in preparation for the next cast.....
I'm sure there's something to be learnt from that

[Mike Barrio]

Now we're getting somewhere, thanks Ross ...... these fish haven't read the books and don't play by the rules

C'mon, confession time, I'm sure most of you have caught fish with 'bad angling'?

[Mike Barrio]

You can call them 'flukes' if you like ................ 

[Rob Brownfield]

I had a 4lb Brownie off the Don on a 2" Gold Willie Gunn brass tube.

I must confess the fish came after I had hooked the bank upstream of me whilst executing a very poor single spey.

On unhooking the  fly from the grass, I flipped it out into the river, picked up the rod, took in the slack and "bang" the fish hit the fly about 2 feet from my feet as I went to roll it out downstream.

That fish must have been under the bank and was not disturbed by me walking up and down the bank unravelling line and flies.

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Rob ...... I knew I wouldn't be the only one
But had you caught anything before that, when you were doing things 'right'?

[Dave Robb]

Had quite a few rainbows where I've been working hard on presentation etc, get nothing,  only to wind in quickly and fish smash into the speeding dry fly.

I used to be bad in my younger years for casting out a fly, putting the rod down to do something else only to see a fish frantically leaping about.  I've had a couple of close calls with the gear almost ending up in the water.

River wise, I never seem to be any good at fishing upstream.  I'm too stuck in my ways and end up reverting to down and across.  I guess that's bad fishing as the presentation has often gone out the window.

[Derek Roxborough]

caught a number, of trout while the fly is dropping through the water rather than actually retrieving this would be wet fly, I don't fish much Dry fly , on one loch the dropping fly was more successful than  the actual retrieve, other lochs have been different, funny thing this fishing, Derek Roxborough

[Bob Mitchell]

Fishing with size 14 buzzers then fleeing up the loch with the outboard flat out and the best trout of the night is soon in the boat.
Often think that we credit fish with to much intelligence. A object passing quickly has to be grabbed to see what it is and as fish have no hands ?
Just wished it worked more often.
Other things, As soon as I decide to change a fly it catches a fish. Fishing the river for the silver tourist as soon as I am convinced that there is nothing there a fish shows. A bright sunny day when there is no water and only an idiot would be fishing for trout flee is grabbed by a good sea licer .
Bob.

[Rob Brownfield]

But had you caught anything before that, when you were doing things 'right'?

Up to that point I had been covering the river ok, putting the tube where I wanted it and getting the depth I wanted, but no fish at all.

[Robert MacDonald-Lewis]

I have frequently caught fish when reeling line quickly to either pack up or move to another spot or water. should really try moving the flies a bit quicker sometime. This happens a lot with wets which is possibly understandable, but I have had it happen a couple of time with DHE and Klink's which has to fall under bad angling.