[Rob Brownfield]

This trout was in very shallow water and only a couple of steps from the bank ..... and precisely where we would have entered the water

+1  I have started fishing bits I normally walk straight past and have has quite a few fish from areas you would think would be to fast/too shallow. Biggest fish I have seen would have been pushing 6lbs and was laying tucked under the bank I was standing on.

[Scott Cumming]

Had my first evening session on Monday. Not much happening with a cool breeze and very little fly life. Last night was a bit better, still a cool breeze but maybe not quite so cold as the previous. I headed to the more sheltered spots hoping to find some surface feeders.

After a wee bit of searching early evening I tempted this plump trout on a slimly tied olive DHE size 14. Its been a fantastic year for trout in the 2-3lb range... and some heftier ones too!




Just before 10pm I changed my fly to a slightly heavier dressed DHE, again size 14. Went to a spot where I pricked a decent fish earlier in the season and was pleasantly surprised to see him nosing the surface again in the exact same spot, no more than 2 feet from my bank. I waded out to get a slight angle on the cast, its a tricky piece of water, at best I’d have a 2-3 second drag free drift, get the angle wrong and the dry would skate immediately... I got there eventually and the fish took the DHE with confidence, after a quick bolt upstream he turned (this was the bit I wasn’t looking forward to) and headed downstream straight into the fast weedy water, after a nervy few minutes I managed to get control and net this beauty.....





Still that nip in the air, shouldn’t be long now before we get some decent evening rises but more than happy with my efforts so far 

Cheers
Scott C

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Scott ..... that first photo is awesome!

Cheers
Mike

[Sandy Nelson]

Great stuff Scott ..... that first photo is awesome!

Ditto

Another near bank escapade too, over half my big uns this year have come from casting less than a rod length of flyline.

Sandy

[Sandy Nelson]

So i've had the chance to get out the last couple of afternoons, Friday i did 1 till 6 , this afternoon i managed 12-3.

Similar story on both days, lovely conditions if a little cold, overcast with  a gentle breeze on the beat i was fishing. Thousands of flies hatching from before 12 onwards, today especially... However the fish seemed reluctant to feed.
Lots of Salmon parr and Smolts holding in some of the good spots and i wonder if the rowdy kids have pushed the bigger guys to wait till later on.

A veritable smorgesboard of food though

The very pretty yellow mays hatching in numbers but the trout only eat these in very specific parts of the river and not the last couple of days!



The bulk of the hatch was Medium olives, i only managed to catch some cripples, but you get the idea.





And loads of Small dark olives hatching too, the wind kept blowing his wings



The river surface looked like this



Yet the bulk of the rising fish were only wee ones, still they need to bulk up somehow. There was one or two better ones here and there if you sat long enough and they were happy to hit a size 14 DHE, so i'm guessing the Medium olives were the chosen food.
best of the two days was a nice 15" fish about 1.75lb



With a handful around the pound mark, including this bonny heavily spotted fish from this afternoon.



Definately thinking of trying an evening next Hopefully there will be some better fish moving, it just feels a bit cold.
Today the river was running a touch more colour than yesterday, but it is still looking pretty good

Cheers

Sandy

[Marc Fauvet]

nice review of the day, Sandy 

you mention a gentle breeze. was is by chance from a different than 'normal' direction ?
i'm collecting outputs from people from all over the globe trying to understand the 'plentiful food/no predators/bigger fish not feeding as they might or even hiding'  phenomenon a little better and if wind direction is one of the causes.

wind direction most definitely changes feeding habits around here (North side of the Pyrenees mountains in southern France)
we have two directions: crossing the country from the Atlantic going to the Mediterranean or vice-versa.
the Atl. wind is generally a bit drier, the Med a bit more humid.
for the same amount of bug activity (and the fish are calm, not in any alert pattern) if the Atl. wind is there you'll have a good day.
if it's the Med. you might as well bring a book...

any thoughts from you guys ?
cheers?
marc

[Sandy Nelson]

HI Marc

The wind factor is important here too, especially if its changeable.
An old Don saying is "when the winds in the east the fish bite least, wind in the west fish bite best" it tends to run pretty true most of the time.
The last few day we have had a westish wind but it was pretty strong, i found shelter from it to go fishing, so not sure it was a big influence on the stretch i was fishing.

If you get an easterly it tends to blow upstream on the Don and it has a negative impact on the fishing although it usually heralds drier/cooler weather, the westerlies tend to be warmer and bring rain with them too, not sure if that is also an issue.

Stability for a couple of days seems to be more important, with changing directions seemingly making the fish moody and tempremental. What i hope for is some stable temps and reasonably constant direction.

Might go out tonight to see what things are doing later on

Sandy

[Marc Fauvet]

thanks Sandy 
i had forgotten about upstream/downstream wind and if it might effect feeding habits as well as all the rest.
so much to know, so few lives to learn it all !.. 

[Rob Brownfield]

An old Don saying is "when the winds in the east the fish bite least, wind in the west fish bite best" it tends to run pretty true most of the time.

Same saying in coarse fishing circles.

I do have a theory, although it is maybe a bit hair-brained, but there is some science in it..honest.

When the wind is blowing upstream on the Don, as the flies hatch (normally a reduced hatch due to wind temperature) the flies turn into the wind as their wings act as a sail. If you watch them going past a majority are facing downstream.

Apparently aquatic flies can sense the pressure wave of an approaching fish through their front feet on the waters surface, much the same way as Pond Skaters do.

So, my  theory is that an upstream wind means the flies are harder for the trout to eat as they are facing any oncoming trout and can get out of the way, and with a downstream wind the trout are mostly approaching from the rear of the fly so the flies are easier to eat.

[Sandy Nelson]

Makes sense to me 

To add to that, i have found that if my flies, particularly the DHE, is facing downstream then the trout often ignore it.
If it is facing upstream then they hit it confidently. This often leads me to fish it across and sometimes downstream on a slack line cast rather than traditional upstream dryfly style.

Cheers

Sandy

[Marc Fauvet]

are you guys saying that Scottish trout haven't figured out they can circle the bug and eat it from behind ? 

really interesting comments, thanks ! 

Sandy, have you considered tying some DHEs backwards ? 

[Rob Brownfield]

Makes sense to me 

To add to that, i have found that if my flies, particularly the DHE, is facing downstream then the trout often ignore it.
If it is facing upstream then they hit it confidently. This often leads me to fish it across and sometimes downstream on a slack line cast rather than traditional upstream dryfly style.

Cheers

Sandy

There was an article a few months back on the very subject of having two dry fly boxes, one with upstream facers, one with down stream facers.

[Scott Cumming]

An old Don saying is “when the winds in the east the fish bite least, wind in the west fish bite best” it tends to run pretty true most of the time.

  (but not all of the time)

I witnessed an incredible hatch of Olive Uprights on the Don in April. Strong easterly wind, rain, followed by sleet then heavy snow, yet the water was blanketed with OU’s and fish rising everywhere...

Similar story on my next outing minus the sleet and snow.

Scott C

[Sandy Nelson]

  (but not all of the time)

Hehe

upstream breeze this evening, for a wee while, saw quite a few nice trout rising to what i think were BWO's
I couldn't get close enough to catch any, but a size 14 DHE was good for the fish.

A nice handful of trout to christen the new Epic Carbon 5wt i have under R and D.
Best of the evening i dropped, but he started rising again after about an hour but i couldn't get him to take again, funnily enough.

However A change to a CDC Spider resolved to take the other fish in his stretch, including this nice one.



All in ,a great evening from 6 till 9 with some good fish moving to flies and plenty in the 1-2lb class, well impressed with the new blank on its first outing, hopefully we'll see how it handles a good un soon enough
Water was still pretty coloured but it didn't seem to be putting the fish off, saw a couple of tourists splashing about as well

Sandy

[Scott Cumming]

Had a late session last night between 9-11:45pm. On arrival there were various olives hatching with Yellow Mays in good numbers. I spotted a decent trout feeding on emerging YM’s, nicking a few adults off the surface too (which I don’t see often). The trout took my offering - a DHE with a light hares ear body but I dropped him soon after 

There were a few sedge skittering about later so I gave a tried and tested CDC pattern it’s first swim of the season. Soon after I got into a few nice fish, including one that I’d caught earlier in the season. You can see by the comparison montage below it has gained in weight since April....




After a few more similar sized fish I managed to tempt the biggest of the night, a strong strapping trout that gave me the runaround for a bit...






The trout recovered in the weedy shallows before disappearing into the darkness...



Cheers
Scott C

[Sandy Nelson]

I've made the most of the last few good evenings and had some interesting nights on various beats of the river.

Lots of flies on all the nights but no two nights were the same.

Sunday night the fish were after big sedges and were happy to hit big flies skated across the water, monday night they wanted really small flies fished on the drift, Tuesday it was smallish caddis (14) fished on the drift or skated, last night they were after yellow mays to start with (unusual) and went onto micro caddis later on. I'm pretty sure the fish were feeding on very small caddis on all the nights, but they are very hard to see in the dark.

So its been hard work with the bigger fish starting to feed as the Bats come out,



I managed to catch fish most nights on a size 12 or 14 CDC and Elk, but the bigger boys were quite shy and easily spooked
this was the best of the 4 nights



And i had a few like this too



So all in, a few good nights, didn't manage any Scott sized fish but i did see a few and know where they live all i have to do is improve my stealthyness and accuracy in the failing light and maybe i might get one
Being in the right spot when the bats come out makes  a huge difference so spend some time looking 

Back to work for a few days now, so no more midnight finishes for a few days, if you are out, stay late its worth it

Cheers

Sandy

[Scott Cumming]

I’ve been chomping at the bit all week, finally managed to get down to the river last night  Nothing much happened until after 10:30 when a couple of better ones started to move, not as many as expected but a few to aim at anyway. Picked off a few nice trout in the 1-2lb range then all went quiet 

Thought that was my lot for the night, that was until this beauty rose to my dry just before midnight....

if you are out, stay late its worth it

Looks like you were right Sandy 
Right time right place I guess

Cheers
Scott C

[Sandy Nelson]

Awesome

out of interest what size fly?

Sandy

[Scott Cumming]

B100 size 14, thankfully this one didn't open on me, been having a few problems with these hooks lately 

I was just about to call it a night when that fish rose, I was lucky!

Scott C

[Colin Sunley]

Cracking fish, must have been a he'll of a fight.

[Marc Fauvet]

woW !!! congrats !!! 

[Rob Brownfield]

Stunning!!! I was out on Thursday until 11pm. I certainly did not see anything like this rising I really must be on the wrong bit of the river

[Hamish Young]

Well done Scott, that's a hell of a trout 

H

[Scott Cumming]

I was out on Thursday until 11pm. I certainly did not see anything like this rising I really must be on the wrong bit of the river

or maybe you packed up at the wrong time, 11pm finish is early for this time of year. All my fish lately have been taken between 10:30 - Midnight. I also like to keep on the move, a change of pool can make all the difference. I rotate beats regularly,  sometimes fishing more than one in a session. With a little perseverance it eventually comes good!

With unsettled weather this week there hasn’t been as much surface activity as I would expect at this time of year. However, there’s usually been a small window of opportunity most nights on various beats and did manage some nice fish.

This trout wasn’t the biggest of my week but was certainly the strongest -­ with a big tail and impressive girth, caught around 11:30pm





 
Scott C

[Rob Brownfield]

or maybe you packed up at the wrong time, 11pm finish is early for this time of year. All my fish lately have been taken between 10:30 - Midnight. I also like to keep on the move, a change of pool can make all the difference. I rotate beats regularly,  sometimes fishing more than one in a session. With a little perseverance it eventually comes good!

With unsettled weather this week there hasn’t been as much surface activity as I would expect at this time of year. However, there’s usually been a small window of opportunity most nights on various beats and did manage some nice fish.

This trout wasn’t the biggest of my week but was certainly the strongest -­ with a big tail and impressive girth, caught around 11:30pm





 
Scott C

I think it was yourself I passed, stood in the middle of the river, waiting and watching as I bumbled upstream.