A river that never sleeps

Met up with Billy who had kindly agreed to pick me up and we headed for the river. It was a wee bit cold but dry and things looked promising.

We arrived in the Glen for about 10a.m. and picked up a couple of tickets for the beat before deciding to have a look further up the glen where we paid for another couple of tickets for another beat. No big deal at £12.50 for the day and a good few miles of river.

Had a bite to eat before getting organised





and we headed onto the river which was a wee bit cold in the downstream wind but the sun was coming out and the fishing wasn’t unpleasant. I headed to a pool below the bridge and Billy headed up stream.

I spent about an hour in the first pool using a bead head nymph and Endrick spider with no luck as the river was quite high and no doubt quite cold due to snow melt being released from the dam. As I moved down, I disturbed a mamma Mallard sitting on a lovely clutch of nine eggs.



Decided it was best to let her get back to her nest so headed quite a bit upstream to find Billy who’d had a few pulls but nothing to the bank. We fished back down the river to the car but conditions weren’t easy in the heavy flow and an awkward wind which made casting at likely spots difficult.

Around 3 o’clock we decided to make use of our permits for the lower beat and found a likely looking pool



with some rising trout showing in a more sheltered spot. I took the near bank and was quickly into a wee fish about 6 - 8 ounces on one of my new olive flees with a flashback ptn fished NZ style but he was off before I could get him to the bank ****.

Another few casts and there was a wee boil at the surface flee and fish on ! I never saw him but would have said he was a better troot maybe weighing in around ¾ lb as he put a decent wee bend in the rod. In my haste to bring him to the bank and avoid a blank I probably played him too hard and pulled the hook. Double **** ! The fish went down after this and I decided to move to another glassy glide where I could see fish moving and was rewarded with my first of the season. Blank off.

Took a quick photo of the wee fellow



and sent him on his way. I’m not 100% sure but would have said he was a wee salmon parr. No bad eh ! First fish of the season and it’s a salmon, well almost LOL.

So, time is marching on and it’s getting colder. Billy has moved downstream having had another couple of wee hits but nothing to the bank and we decide another ½ hour or so should do us.

I headed back to the top pool and took the far bank with one of my wee size 16 March brown emerger’s on the top dropper and a flashback ptn on the point but as I was having definite presentation problems doing things this way and rather than re-tie my cast I decided to have a few last throws on the near bank where hopefully casting with the wind would stop my flees ending up in the water like a pile of spaghetti.

Last cast of the day and I’m proud to be able to present this fine normal sized bandy troot in evidence of our labours which took the ptn on the point.



Great day, fantastic scenery and excellent company. You really couldn’t ask for anything more.

Rest assured, The Lyon sleeps tonight....