So after last week’s fall I have been in agony with a pulled muscle in my back, that’s karma for you. Obviously the sheep are innocent however at least I caught a trout. Anyway, now the muscle spasms have subsided to a slight twinge thanks to the power of pain killers I got up early and headed down to the salt to try my hand at the sea trout. I did feel quite guilty as I spotted a person plugging away with the fly and I was going to use a wee Toby however I was only out for another. I plugged away for an hour before I worked my way back to the car. Just as I was about to pack up one grasped m ..read more

Yesterday I went to the estuary for Sea Trout. I got there just as the tide had turned and it was a bit chilly to say the least. The wind was blowing onto my shore which was making casting difficult however I managed to get a few followers with only one staying on. It took savagely and ripped about 20 meters of line from my spool before jumping clear out the water and then splashing down – I think it was at this point I lost contact with it. It was a bar of silver and must have been over 5lbs. Maybe next time.  Today I decided to head to my other river and pick up my permit – the conditio ..read more

Aye, so there’s a burn within 10 minutes walk from the in laws house. It is actually the same burn that I fish downstream. I actually made some plans to fish it at the end of last season. Now, when I say “fish it” what I actually mean is wander down and have a few casts at hopefully some rising trout. I decided to do that on Easter Sunday – I stuck a 6 foot three weight in the car with a 5 weight line – I wanted to overline the rod as I did not have a lot of space and went for a wander up to the burn. It looked awful compared to last year – it was full of shite which had been dumped in it ..read more

I just don’t get it – while everyone is out buying new rods and reels I just buy some essentials. A new 4 weight fly line, a new fly box and some polaroids – the polaroids have got some magnification built in to help the eyesight – to be fair I am turning 50 this year. Just got to get some other essentials sorted – some flies, possibly some new wading boots as my Orvis ones feel tight and that will be that ..read more

Who remembers the summer ..read more

It seems that every year the season gets shorter and shorter and the list of stuff that I want to do gets longer. This year has been particularly hard as I just discovered my thyroid has gone kaput and has been that way for quite some time – I now have a reason as to why I hate the cold so much however thankfully one wee tablet a day should fix me right. It transpires that one of the symptoms is a lack of motivation and zest for life – I can confirm that my usual enthusiasm for life has been lacking as of late with not quite the same get up and go attitude to my fishing. However, over the last ..read more

We got to the river between 6pm and 7pm. We lined up all the reasons as to why it was going to be a good evening session. Warm Overcast The odd fly bobbing around. Rain overnight so the water was well oxygenated A slight tinge to the water. A west wind Turned out that apart from a few inconsistent risers at 10-1030pm the place was totally dead. We decided on the classic the conditions were “too perfect” as an excuse for catching nowt. Should have headed to the Kelvin ..read more

So I headed out for a few hours – it was a reasonable evening and despite the fact that a couple of buddies had been out on the Saturday with no results I was quietly optimistic. For one, there had been a little rain that seemed to have freshened things up and cooled the water down and secondly I forgot my net which is a sure sign of an incoming lunker. However , McGregor telephoned me and we ran through my possible excuses for the evening – he was on the way to a Sea Trout session. I stomped up and down the river for a bit not even seeing a rising fish until I plonked myself at a pool at arou ..read more

Heading out tonight for an evening session ..read more

I decided to celebrate the coronation bank holiday by heading to the river first thing – it was pouring with rain and the temp hit double digits. Trout were rising as soon as I got there, however it looked like my curse was continuing, for the life of me I just could not get any to accept my fly. I moved up to some deeper water and finally hooked into a good fish, for a minute or so my rod was bent and the trout bored deep – and then the line went slack. My knot had given way at the fly. I had spent far too long at these trout and walked up, however there were two anglers on the next two pools ..read more