Going Back To Ma Troots!

For the last day of my three and a half week holiday from work I had fancied a day at Glengavel but I had stuff to do this morning so I decided I would go back to ma troots in the afternoon at my local Hillend.

I opted for a few hours out on the boat on my own.

Conditions were favourable as it was quite cloudy and there was a lovely wee wave on the loch.

I made my first drift in line with the point of the woods all the way down to the mound however I never saw or touched a fish. I then decided to head right up into the corner where the big moss meets the cycle track and then had a wonderful drift all the way down to the narrows. On the way I hooked and landed a nice brown trout then about an hour later I managed to fool a rainbow. Both fish were fooled by a Kate McLaren on the top dropper. My favourite fly. During the course of the afternoon I got soaked twice as I encountered a couple of really heavy showers. This might sound mad but I rather enjoyed it sitting there laughing out loud as the rain battered into my back. No further fish were hooked spooked or caught and so I ended my afternoon afloat about four thirty. One disappointing aspect of my day on the boat was the cost. It had been a while since I was out on my own and I didn't realise how expensive it was. The cost was £18. Fair to say that was for the hire of the clubs engine and batteries too but I still think its a little bit steep to ask a member to fork out £18 for a solo boat outing. This is not a criticism of the club as I think the club is run impeccably well but I think its something we ought to have a look at because surely being a member should entitle the members to some privileges. An idea perhaps is to reduce the cost of the boats for the members as £18 is rather costly considering that if I had opted for a day bank fishing it wouldn't have cost a penny.

Anyway it was a wonderful way to end my holiday with a couple of fish. Not looking forward to work tomorrow.

Tinto Revisited

I do apologise for taking a few days to get this up on the blog but my mind was on other things on Saturday and it was imperative that I visited a dearly loved place that I hadn't been to for many a year.
After visiting Tinto last month I told my friends all about how wonderful it was That was why Scott accompanied me at Tinto fishery on Friday morning. The weather wasn't looking too great but we were determined to have a day at this ideal location.
We started off with a coffee in the bothy then strung our rods and tied up our casts.We started off on the bottom loch in the drizzly rain. We fished for a few hours here and we both caught a few small brown trout each. I hooked into a fine looking rainbow which after a brief fight leaped from the water and managed to evade me.
In the afternoon we took a walk up to the top loch. There was trout rising everywhere on this loch all be it the small brown trout. Once again we caught numerous wee yins and as usual the better fish failed to show up for me.
We met up with a couple of anglers as we made our way down from the top loch and had a very useful chat as they were regulars at Tinto and told us all about the lochs. Tinto Trout fishery really is a wonderful place. You would be forgiven for thinking you were fishing some wild and remote hill loch in the highlands yet it is only about a forty minute drive from my house.I will be back and hopefully I will get in touch with one or two of those huge brown trout that reside there.

Totey Trout

Last Friday as I flew in over the Scottish Countryside from my holiday abroad I was scouring the landscape below me trying to recognise any features that would give a clue to my whereabouts.
Then all of a sudden my attention was drawn to a well-known feature which normally looks like an upside down phallic symbol when seen from the M74. However on this occasion from my seat aboard an aeroplane heading for Glasgow it was the correct way up (so to speak) If you are wondering what I’m havering about? The next time you are fishing the Clyde between Abington and Crawford have a look towards the slopes of TewsgillHill and you will see a straight line of trees with a bulbous shape of trees at the top. Whoever designed the layout for these trees had their tongue firmly in their cheek.
Anyway I digress Once I realized where I was I began to survey the land below me. It was fantastic to see the River Clyde twist and turn through the hills and fields from the air and I made a mental note to be down there fishing in a few days’ time.
That was why I found myself by the River Clyde on Tuesday afternoon. I was in the area near Wandel. When I arrived it started raining and I had a bit of Thunder & Lightning which is always worrying as I don’t like waving my rod about with all that electricity in the air. I made my way to the river through a field which had so many sheep that they could have packed out Pittodrie and helped the Aberdeen fans on their ill-fated Sell Out Saturday. The weather soon improved and I searched the river for trout with a magpie and silver on the point and a wee bushy gingery flee on the dropper. It took a while to get my first fish which was fooled by the point fly then I had another three all taken on the same fly. The trout were rather small but I persevered looking for the big yins but they never appeared. I must say that after an abstinence of about three weeks from fishing it was fantastic just to be there.