Almost Spring at Hillend.

 

 

 

I was up at the loch the other day and although there are signs of spring coming along winter has left its mark on the loch's surroundings. All the trees are bare and the grass is as short as it ever will be but in a few short weeks everything will spring into life again and the bank side will be alive with enthusiastic anglers. Im all set for the opening weekend, rods cleaned lines stretched and some new fly patterns to try. Lures will probably dominate the opening couple of weeks if its cold but my prefere patterns of choice are ttraditional wets which i like to tinker with like the pattern above.

In the mean time this weekend I will be going along to the Glasgow Angling Centre open day. I will focus my attention as ever at the flytying demos. I also hope to pick up some bargains and I might even get some pics which I will post on here. Check back here at the weekend to see if I managed.

Caithness on my mind

First of all I would just like to say its is with great delight that I noticed that Davie McPhail hasn't ditched his old faithful tying shirt after all, as you will see if you have a look at his latest tying vid lol!. I digress. I was in the mood to do a bit of tying this afternoon and tied a few loch style flies, Recently I have been tying a few patterns in the same style as my latest Charlie McLean fly which you may have seen a few posts ago. the essence of these patterns is that the back half is a tinsel and the front half tied in the same manner as a Loch Ordie tying a few feathers in one after the other. I tied these with Caithness Lochs in mind. Ive not got a name for these new patterns I'm open to suggestions.

Davie McPhail's New Shirt!

This is not so much a blog post but just an observation. I was reading recently that the great master himself was going to a big angling event in Canada. There have been some photos of Davie circulating on the internet of him in action at this event. I couldnt believe my eyes when I saw the latest pic, Davie appears to have a new shirt! Does this mean we have seen the last of his old shirt which has served him so well after all these years? His videos will never be the same lol!

Airdrie & District AC. AGM 2013.

Not long back from the Airdrie and District Angling club AGM. It appeared to be better attended than it has in the last few years. as you can imagine it was just the usual club business of election and re-election of all the various posts in the club. Along with all the usual debate about stocking policy etc there were two stand out observations foe me at this meeting which were that it was announced that the last year was the most successful year in the angling club's history. The other being that the club are to consult Dr Willie Yeomans of Glasgow University to arrange if possible to have a complete survey of Hillend Loch to assess fish population and the environmental health for the fish in the loch. I look forward to the findings of this.
Prices remain pretty much the same but an increase of £5 on the annual membership? which I find a bit frustrating as after all this was the most successful year in the club's history.
Anyway the club is in good hands as we move forward. Only 47 days to go until the season begins.

Charlie McLean Fly Pattern

Just the other day when I was surfing through my favourite fishing forum, The Wild Fishing Forum, I came across reference to what may well be referred to as a Hebridean wet fly pattern called the Charlie McLean. Although the name sounded vaguely familiar I wasn't aware of the fly pattern. After a doing a bit research [ Google really is a wonderful resource] I found out that this pattern is a firm favourite with one of my favourite angling authors, Bruce Sandison. Bruce got to know about this worthy trout pattern whilst researching his excellent book called, The Sporting Gentleman's Gentleman. Which is a collection of fascinating and entertaining stories about Highland Gillies.I'm lucky enough to have a copy of this book which I managed to source in a wee secondhand book shop in Thurso whilst in that area on a fishing trip.
Today I refreshed my memory by reading chapter 2 , Hebridean charm and the heather Isles. In this chapter Bruce gives some insight into Charlie McLean a man who appears to have been a very popular gillie and a bit of a character too. I digress, Bruce mentions that. The fly was devised by one of Charlie's guests as a mark of affection for Charlie’s ability and unfailing courtesy.You can read more about Charlie here at http://www.wildfisher.co.uk/wildfisher/index.php/articles/articles-index-newest-first/505-the-right-place-at-the-right-time or why not track down a copy of Bruce's book. It really is an enjoyable read. I think the fly looks great and is tied in a style which I like to tie and fish. The above example is my interpretation of how it should look.

Clyde Style Night Flies

Today as I was loafing about the house I decided to have a read through my two prised River Clyde fishing books. Although the thought of wading the river and casting a team of flies down the river still seems a age away, as I turned page after page it got me thinking of some memorable nights with the trout using the Big Flee as w esay in these pairts. One of the best patterns to use on the River Clyde on balmmy summer nights is the Magpie tail. There are various dressings incorporating the magpie tail feather but for me this pattern is the best of the night flies. Other famous gloaming flies are the Stank Hen and Crow and Black. I decided to tie a few Magpie tails today this one is the best of the lot.

Flies for the Highlands

Tonight I pulled up a chair switched on the radio and poured myself a coffee and started attaching tinsel, thread, wire and feather to some hooks in the hope that the resulting flies will be used for catching brown trout in a few lochans that I have in mind come the Spring. Nothing new or innovative here just another half dozen or so palmered flies to add to the hundreds of patterns that I already have. This year though I'm going to cut down on the amount of flies I carry with me. I say this every year but hopefully this year I will have the confidence to do so. Its so much more comfortable and enjoyable to go fishing as light as possible. These style of flies are always reliable on highland lochans so these are being added to the one box which I intend carrying this year.

Casting For Recovery

A few days ago I noticed on the River Clyde Fishing Forum that Munro one of the forum moderators suggested a great idea for raising funds for the" Casting for Recovery" charity.
His idea was to get the keen fly dressers on the forum to put together a box of grayling bugs and flies, with the novel idea that all the patterns should incorporate the colour pink. He would then auction the flies via the Lets tackle Cancer auction site and donate the money to Casting For Recovery.
I was only too happy to help out to this worthy cause and by the look of things there has been a plethora of flies sent to him which you can view at 
http://www.riverclydefishing.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=202&t=9043
There are some great pattern on show on there. If you would like to contribute to this worthy cause get in touch with Munro at the River Clyde Fishing Forum and he will give you details etc as to where to send your flies.
The above patterns are my contribution.

Hillend Photos.

As the sun sets on another year I thought I would make one final post before then New Year begins. Well its actually an appeal to anyone out there with old photos of Hillend who would like to share them with me. I have quite literally got hundreds and hundreds of photos of Hillend. Most are from the last ten years or so therefore I would be very interested to receive older photos. The older the better. It would be especially interesting to see photos from the area where the Club House now stands and also pics of the loch before the cycle track was constructed etc.
I recently got a new camera so I will be out and about at the loch taking photos of the surrounding area. I'm hoping to put together a slide show of photos throughout the years from Hillend so if anyone could assist by contributing any old photos I would be very grateful. If you would like to helpyou can contact me through facebook, twitter and of course email. Happy New Year When it comes.

Wonderwing Sedge

A number of years ago in a a well known flytying magazine I came across a style of wing which I thought looked stylish and realistic. This style was called the wonderwing. I then went on to tie a few patterns in this style which I thought would be good for sedge style flies. As you can imagine these patterns caught a few fish and I continued with this style for a couple of years until I turned my attention to cdc patterns. Today I decided to have a go at tying these flies again. I really like the look of these flies . They might look a wee bit tricky to tie but once you get the hang of them they are actually not too difficult to tie. Hope you like this example.

Hillend Loch Xmas Day

 

Well I woke up this morning to discover that the White bearded yin  didnt leave me any fishing or flytying related goodies. But I did get a new cameara . So off I went this morning up to the loch to try it out. Its not a top of the range model by any means but I do quite like the video camera mode. That feature is much better than my last camera which was starting to look a bit battered after ten years or so of outdoor use. Although it was rather cold today the weather has been quite a change from the last few years as the Loch has been frozen over at this time of year. Once we get New Years Day over and done with next week it will be then the time that we anglers can start thinking of hatching flies and rising fish. Only 79 days to go until the brown trout season starts. The countdown begins.