[Mark Zhang]

Hi, saw river level is high now from Webcam, but don't know if it's colored. is it good for salmon fishing? or I have to wait until the water drop off again. Cheers.

Mark

[Liam Stephen]

Hi Mark 

Its not actually too high - I think  ? Check Sepa river levels. As for colour I cant comment as I havent seen it today, I am guessing it could be quite murky. I personally love when the water goes like this, my best fishing has been when it starts to clear. I'd just give it a go, if Salmon fishing try a big bight Tube Fly. For the Brownies try a big streamer, Ben swears by an Orange Conehead Black Wooly Bugger, something big and yellow could be worth a chuck - Zoo Cougar?? 

Liam

[Mark Zhang]

Went to the river last night, the water level was a bit of higher, and colored.  tried spinning for less than 1 hour, but no bite. saw a fish at the side of riffle. should I put more efforts at this area, or the tail of riffle, or pool? probably will go out on Sat morning if I can get up on time.  :z4Cheers.

tight line.

Mark

[Iain Goolager]

Had an hour and an'alf last night - saw a few fish feeding, nothing large.

Cast at four, hit 3 and pricked the other which was quite pleasing at this time of year.......... all on this;



The best fish, the others just falling a bit shorter.



Iain

[Loxiafan]

Well done Iain, the trutta have been giving me a beating recently, though I am stupidly sticking to dries   Fish defo taking stuff just on/under surface, I reckon ascending Midge pupa or tiny caenis spinners ??

Had one on (then off) on one of Ben's Black Midges (size 22, black thread half down body). Second fish I have lost when Dan has been there onlooking ( Dan you may be my "Jonah" !  ).

Had some real probs with these tiny flies even with 6x tippet with the Access/SLX as there was no weight to turn the fly over (plus the wind wisnae helping). I am reaching for the 3.5ft Dibble Furled Leader next time (Sorry Ben  ), and my whippy Streamflex.

Weekend not looking promising.

Lindsay

PS like Baz mentioned elsewhere on the Smutting thread, has anyone stomach sampled at this time of year ? You can get stomach pumps that apparently don't harm the fish, though personally I am not sure about that.

[danbruce]

Yeah sorry about that lindsay, I will start looking the other way when your covering fish.

Was having the same problem as you, fish coming up to have a look at the dry fly but just nosing it and turning away.
There was a small hatch of something that evening but just as the trout were coming on a kayaker came shooting down the middle of the pool and they all disappeared. Fair doo's they have a right to use the river but I mean have a bit of consideration.

Cheers
Dan

[Loxiafan]

There was a small hatch of something that evening but just as the trout were coming on a kayaker came shooting down the middle of the pool and they all disappeared. Fair doo's they have a right to use the river but I mean have a bit of consideration.

Hi Dan,

Aye, fishing is hard there they now ! Had fish 'nosing' the flees all night and was striking in to thin air quite a bit. Exciting stuff though !

Kayakers were there on Sunday as well, two of them, blootered the pool of rising fish on the way down and then they came back an hour later and did it all over again ! The guy there on Monday parks in the Anglers Car Park - not sure if he is an angler or what the status of that car park is re other's accessing but he was there one time and I really struggled to get parked. He is a nice enough guy though. Will be raising this with ADAA Boffins soon to see what the situation is.

The way I see it, we pay for the privillege of using the river, whereas these guys are a 'free for all'. It is not something we want to be encouraging at that site IMHO but maybe the farmer gives them permission to access in which case we have have no grounds to complain. It would be considerate if they didn't come back upstream after going down eg. someone should drive their vehicle downstream and pick them up ?

Cheers,

Lindsay

[Iain Goolager]

Out last evening, getting that 'loneliness of the long distance dry fly fisherman' feeling as the season progresses.

Been thinking of ditching all this pseudo 2012 modern man fly-fishing techno junk and going back to mono tippet as I've been degreasing every three to five casts with my preferred co-polymer, and enough is enough - I'm positive that it is also costing me fish.

picked up a 1/4lber - which was exciting  as it was the only 'decent'  thing splashing as the night drew in.
The sky went red and it seemed to warm up?

A few better rises (relatively) appeared and I started to pick up some 8" fish......better.

Then a short spell of larger FEEDING  fish showed and I had 2 fish around 1 1/4 lb which made my bathnight.

CDC emerger still doing the buzyness.

Iain

[Rob Brownfield]

The way I see it, we pay for the privillege of using the river, whereas these guys are a 'free for all'. It is not something we want to be encouraging at that site IMHO but maybe the farmer gives them permission to access in which case we have have no grounds to complain. It would be considerate if they didn't come back upstream after going down eg. someone should drive their vehicle downstream and pick them up ?

Try standing on Potach Bridge on a Saturday afternoon. The poor sods that pay a lot of money to fish the Bridge Pool have recently been plagued by kayakers and the likes using the Bridge pool as a resting pool whilst their mates "shoot the rapids" upstream of the bridge. One angler had 4 kayaks sat bang smack in the middle of the pool for a good 30 minutes before splashing back upstream to shoot the rapids again before heading down stream.

Not sure what,if anything, can be done about it thanks to this "Right to Roam" nonsense.

[Allan Liddle]

Out last evening, getting that 'loneliness of the long distance dry fly fisherman' feeling as the season progresses.

Been thinking of ditching all this pseudo 2012 modern man fly-fishing techno junk and going back to mono tippet as I've been degreasing every three to five casts with my preferred co-polymer, and enough is enough - I'm positive that it is also costing me fish.

picked up a 1/4lber - which was exciting   as it was the only 'decent'   thing splashing as the night drew in.
The sky went red and it seemed to warm up?

A few better rises (relatively) appeared and I started to pick up some 8" fish......better.

3lb Maxima Green for river troots.  Also take a wee bit of your degreaser (i assume your using some form of 'mud' fullers earth type thing) and stick a wee 'blob' onto the rod at the handle joint for easy access as required.
Yup you're right it is costing you fish in so much as your concentration is constantly being broken and you're being distracted from what's happening on the water.

Allan L

[danbruce]

Managed back out on the river on saturday afternoon, just in time to be caught in the heavy rain. As i have not had many days to fish this month I decided to tough it out.

The beat was nice and quiet apart from 2 guys having a go for salmon (Noel and Iain I'm guessing )
As the heavy rain on the water would make fishing dries almost impossible I stuck on a greenwells spider and hoped for the best. Working my way through a nice streamy bit of water I have had some success from before I ended up with 4 brownies up to 8" and lost a larger fish about 1lb at the net. Worked my way through some water further down stream with not much to show, but all in all a good days fishing regardless of the rain.

Cheers
Dan

[Noel Kelly]

You guessed right Dan. You should have stopped to say hello. I was impressed to see someone madder than ourselves heading out in that weather.

Allan I'm gonna have to try this maxima green. You have been preaching it for as long as I have known you. Not sure how confident I would be fishing 3lb though

[danbruce]

You guessed right Dan. You should have stopped to say hello. I was impressed to see someone madder than ourselves heading out in that weather.

Hi Noel, yeah was going to stop but you guys looked pretty engrossed in you fishing so was going to wait till you had worked your way round to where i was. Looks like common sense prevailed by then as you guys had headed off before you got to where i was.

Dan

[Iain Goolager]

Hi Allan,

Yes it just so happens to be Maxima green but in 4lb which I think is about 0.17? and quite a bit thicker than I'm used to BUT worked well  roll on next the season, those pesky browns will be hit by so many dries they'll be begging for a streamer!

Dan, you should have at least thrown a stone at us. I thought it was 'Soakin' Shamus' passing by that's why I didn't speak. Glad you had some fish, we were just saying that it may have been a good day for Browns on subsurface stuff.
I was really looking forward to getting out for Salmon but the weather put a downer on things so we packed up early doors.

Iain

[danbruce]

I thought it was 'Soakin' Shamus' passing by that's why I didn't speak.

Think i got speaking to him on the way back after I had packed up, spinning using the biggest rappala I have ever seen, dunno if he was trying to hook them or knock them out.

[Allan Liddle]

You guessed right Dan. You should have stopped to say hello. I was impressed to see someone madder than ourselves heading out in that weather.

Allan I'm gonna have to try this maxima green. You have been preaching it for as long as I have known you. Not sure how confident I would be fishing 3lb though

Been great for me all season Noel, although confess i switch to 4lb when pulling on the lochs (aye ok 6lb floro when it's big lure time, which thankfully isn't very often nowadays).
Landed salmons on the 3lb stuff Noel (best this year 61/2, last it was about 10 and a bit) which is ok as long as you dinne dae a Dads Army, 'Don't Panic.'  Big troots no problem, in fact the only real time you tend to get snapped off is when the line comes over those sharp teeth under tension on the take.  Any line will do this, or at least any around the diameter yer looking to use for presentation stuff.

Switching from a very fast tip action Neilsen #5 to a much slower and much deeper actioned Greys Streamflex Plus (still #5) or the 10' #4 version has made a BIG difference on the breakages.  Think the 3lb Maxima is about 0.16.
Noticed how heavy the 4lb looked when taking close up photies of flees in troots mooths late on last season so decided to try the switch.  Haven't looked back to be fair.

Couple of wee points though:

It MUST be the GREEN stuff, clear isn't clear anymore (more opiaque) and the broon stuff's for gardening.
Watch where the shop stores it, if it's lying out on open display in full daylight, then avoid, or at least do a wee knot test before you buy.  If it's kept in a box in the dark then should be ok.
Watch were you keep it (ditto above)
Water knots on the droppers, remember to wet thoroughly (aye i know teaching granny tae suck eggs, sorry)

That's about it really.  Cheap, strong, stiff enough to help turn over, limp enough not to kill the action, non obtrusive (stress Green stuff only  !!) not the thinnest, but not the thickest either.  Good enough for me and what i'm looking for (for the most part, have other stuff for those tough times, but generally tend not to have to reach for it too often).

Cheers

Allan L

PS Did i mention it's the GREEN stuff? 

[Peter McCallum]

the broon stuff's for gardening.

It pains me to say it but he's right on that one  it's truly rubbish and kinks to hell.

[Allan Liddle]

Thanks Pete    Hope life treating you well and new venture a big success.

[Peter McCallum]

Thanks Pete    Hope life treating you well and new venture a big success.

Ta Al, time will tell. You looking for barbless flees for compys 

[Allan Liddle]

Aye but only for the C&R at distance compies. 

[josh]

2 salmon last night on the spinner first cast in to one and lost it in the weed close in too the bank took me real close in. Then one at 6.2 lb on the second cast and nothing after that good for a few hours though

[Jazzaman1234]

2 salmon last night on the spinner first cast in to one and lost it in the weed close in too the bank took me real close in. Then one at 6.2 lb on the second cast and nothing after that good for a few hours though

Where was this josh?

[Mike Barrio]

Where was this josh?

Please don't ask "where" on the open forum, send a PM private message if you must ask the question

Best wishes
Mike

[josh]

Where is a secret lol as mike has said pm me if you would like too ask.

[Mike Barrio]

Not one for "secrets" ....... this is just common sense

Read this please: http://www.fishingthefly.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=3208.0

Best wishes
Mike