Vinyl and Flies.

It was my intention over the weekend to have a trip up to Rannoch Moor to fish some of the fine Lochans up there, however that never materialized and I never even manged any time to wet a line at Hillend either as I attended the Record Store Day in Glasgow and got carried away with my other passion of music especially anything Paul Weller related.
So over the weekend I purchased some new vinyl and dug out the stereo and  boxes and boxes of records from the loft.
Whilst listening to my old vinyl I did a bit of flytying. More Stragglers!

The Hillend Stragglers!

Today whilst on my lunch break from work I poured myself a coffee and sat at my tying desk and tied up these patters which are loosely based on a pattern which won me a prize in the Fly Fishing & Fltying magazine a few years ago.

The straggle fritz is a material I would normally use in the tying of lures, however it works well on a size ten hook and adds life and sparkle to a wet style pattern.

Straggle fritz is a wonderful material that I found to be used in a lot of my successful patterns especially at Hillend. I have a selection of colours of this material in my tying chest which I intend to make use of. Over the next few days I intend tying more.

I'm hatching a plan for a trip to the lochans on Rannoch Moor next week and I'm intrigued to see how these patterns in various colours will perform in the peaty waters of the Moor. 

My Old Rod!

After having a look at the weather app on my ipad around lunchtime today I decided I would take a run up to the Loch this afternoon.

Despite it being a rather wet and dreich morning the weather did improve after midday.

Today as I was rummaging around in my fishing cupboard,getting my gear organised for my afternoon at Hillend I noticed my old Diawa Lochmore Z sitting at the back of the cupboard and decided I would take his with me as it had been a number of years since I used this rod. I had replaced this rod with a Sonik rod after breaking my Lochmore at the River Clyde in an unfortunate clumsy accident.

I did however get auld Johnny to fix my rod but ever since I got it repaired I have never used it as I liked my Sonik fly rod so much.

So of I went with my old rod to the North Shore.

I had fished for over an hour down past the Shields burn before I eventually hooked and landed a nice trout of about 2lb plus which was fooled by my gold head olive dancer. After the obligatory photo I fished on and about an hour later I duped another about the 2lb mark once again with the same flee.

To be honest the old Daiwa Lochmore felt really heavy compared to the Sonik so I m not sure if I will hurry to use it again. I would never part with it though as it holds so many happy memories. The pick of the bunch being when I caught my first ever Salmon with that old rod on the River Naver.

All in all a I had a very satisfying and fruitful afternoon at the loch today made all the more pleasant as there wasn't too many anglers about today and got that part of the loch today to myself.

Hillend was on fire today!

I had a few hours at Hillend this afternoon and was fortunate enough to have some sport, first of all with a jack pike and then a little later a rainbow trout of about 1 1/2 lb. Both fish were fooled by my black uv lure.
However I had to wait a couple of hours before I got a pic of the trout as my phone battery was drained. Therefore I had to wait until I returned to the car to charge my phone and as you can see from the pic the trout doesnt look its best in fact it looks very deed indeed. Yuk. However my neighbour will most probably enjoy the trout for his tea tomorrow night.
Oh! and I thought I might mention that Hillend was on fire today! Apparently a group of school kids were setting fire to the very dry grass and it got pretty bad, so much so the fire brigade had to attend to the blaze!

The one that most certainly got away!

        

Tonight at Hillend I was fishing in and around the area known as the wee moss and I had the most thrilling experience With the largest fish I have ever had at Hillend, a pike somewhere in the region of between 15 & 20 lb,however there's a twist in the tale, so to speak. 

There I was casting away with my uv lure on the point and a small cormorant lure on the dropper and wading from the cliffs across to the wee moss when this time I cast across in front of the moss and let my black uv lure sink for a number of seconds then I felt a long slow draw on my line. I raised my rod and I was into the pike.

I kinda knew this was a pike as it bored down and then as expected the big predator showed itsself with a tail walk. After that it was a nervous battle for about twenty minutes with a brute of a fish. I had it in at the bank on a couple of occasions but I was totally helpless as I hadn't a net and such was the power of the fish.

Just as I thought I had some as-semblance of control the beast went off with one last surge and broke my line! However it was such a beautiful evening at Hillend tonight as I sulked off into the sunset! 

Good Friday!

It was indeed a good Friday for the Dabbler of Hillend today as I caught two very nice rainbow trout this afternoon. 

I was up at the Loch for a couple of hours today and met a couple of work colleagues who were fishing in and around the area known as the cliffs. They had been there from around 8 o'clock in the morning but had not been successful. After a chat with them I started fishing and quite soon after landed a trout of about 2lb and not long after that another which was about 1/2 lb lighter. 

My work mates packed up soon after and headed home but before they went I offered them my two fish which they were pleased to accept. I fished on for another half hour without success so headed back along the south shore back to the car where I boiled up some water and had a very warm and satisfying cup of coffee.