Freindly faces

The same old faces are their year in year out ,,and new friends i have made each year.
I feel sometimes i go to the river just for the familiar faces ,and the banter ,,which is often some of the funniest stuff I've ever heard ,but us fisherman are like this ,we spend allot of time on our own at the river ,and when we meet up with friend we have accumulated over the years fishing the river we have a common ground, and are good are ribbing each other with stories of the past ,and woo betide the person that has lost a fish in front of anyone as they can become the focus point of the banter.

i must say that the people i have met on the river are some of the nicest people i have ever come across ,generous ,caring , and always welcoming to a new face on the river, so if you are thinking of fishing the river Kelvin then remember this statement and don't be scared to approach anyone on the river bank as you will often find you make a new friend and also pick up some priceless tips to help you on your way to fishing the river successfully.

I arrived at the river to a familiar face ! "Ozzy"

if any of you know him you will say the same as me i think, a nice guy who is always approachable and a source of information on the happenings of the river were he has fished for many years now i think.
anyway after a quick chat discussing the lay of the land,, and the fact that their are new changes on the table for the river ,which in some instances are causing real problems.

I really do feel it for the people who fish the bridge at the sea pool ,as they have fished it for years ,,and the fact that it is a derelict bridge that they are fishing from ,,and not one that has a public footpath on it , i thought may have been in their favour ,but no it seems rules are rules and no one has to fish the bridge.
the reason i feel for these people are mainly because two of my best friends on the river fish that bridge , ,and they keep themselves to themselves,, and fish their every day morning to night ,no matter the weather , i just hope you guys find a new place ,of which their are many on the river in which to fish to your hearts content ,,and i wish you all the best for the new season ahead ,but one thing i will ask is don't go getting yourselves into bother be it a night in a cell or god forbid something worse over this matter ,as its just not worth it my friends, is it.!!!

I will now get on to the fishing ,i fished a floating line with a 2lb tippet on my Diawa whisker fly 4/5 weight 8 half ft ,,which is a great wee rod coupled with my bfr reel 4/5 which works great for dry fly work as well as light nymph work and spiders .
I started of with a black Klinkhammer which i was casting to a couple of sporadic rising fish ,,of which i had a couple of refusals,, and so changed over to a size 16 pheasant tail nymph, which managed to bring me 3 fish ,all of around the quarter pound mark , with one of them being a salmon Parr.

so another good little day with the good signs that you want to see from your river ! in the form of juvenile fish ,thus showing that spawning of wild fish is occurring and by the numbers occurring in a big way as i seen plenty of these small fish.

contemplating a change

After speaking to my friend and fellow angler Alistair ,who runs the official River Kelvin site (http://fishkelvin.com/) And his own outstanding personal blog ( http://urbanflyfisher.com/ ) which is so full of top quality material , and deserves the large following it has.

A Picture of the Vet school run yesterday..

I spoke to Alistair regarding my own blog ,,and also my new forum for 2009 ,which covers all types of fishing on the river ,and all types of methods in which to fish,but after some discussion and which sounded good advice from Alistair, about where my blog and forum were going,, and what would help to improve them , Alistair came up with the following idea's .

Macro Photography

First of all Alistair already has over a hundred ,it may in fact be allot more than that for his forum ,which is concerning the river and fishing it, but what he pointed out was really very plain that i should have thought about it myself before now ,as Alistair says he is a devoted trout fisherman, and has no lust or passion to go fishing for what he called belligerent salmon!! who don't even feed while in the river ,and that i have caught and know so much more about their habits and positions in the river while they ascend it to spawn , thus bringing to the discussion the idea that as Alistair is already established on the net as the number one river Kelvin site ..,which as he says in mainly dedicated to trout fishing .

A Lovely April Daffodil taken using Macro Photography

this is where we discussed the possibility of changing my new forum over to a forum dedicated to migratory fish in the river Kelvin which all made sense as he could send people looking for tips or advice on salmon and sea trout on the river over to my forum and anyone asking about trout fishing on the river i will pass on to him .,thus giving me a better chance of succeeding with my forum and also a dedicated place for members of the river to use as a source of information

I love this pic it screams April to me ,, with the robin who i never seem to see after the beginning of April and the opening tree buds to celebrate the coming of summer

I would be very grateful to here peoples views on this matter ,to weather they think this would be a good or bad decision for me my blog and the forum no matter how much it is struggling to attain members at the moment ,as i do believe it will pick up in the months ahead as people like diversity in their discussion and having 2 forums will give that even more than one.

A brighter day for the Kelvin

Today was the first real day that change seemed to be coming to the river.
i and others attended which was to be a P.R day for the river and also a show of strength in that permits were needed on all parts of the river .
i feel this has been long over due and to see the signs going up is a real inspiration to myself and others who are passionate about the river and its future.
i spoke to a new friend of mine ,,well i now consider him a friend ,you may feel otherwise Alistair ,,lol,, about a few matters on the kelvin which will be at the fore front of the task list over the next few months as well as would you guess ,,my blog ,which i feel he gave me some really good advice about which way i could take it in the near future ,and this i am considering very much,again thanks Alistair.

Alistair giving the police a wide berth.



their were a few bailiffs including the head bailiff Davie Scobbie ,,and a few others who's names i am still unsure of, but will make a point of finding out for the sake of the blog.
Davie seems a very motivated man ,and knows exactly what he wants to see done on the river ,,from tackling the poaching problem, to caring for the river environment and all the animals that inhabit it , which their are surprisingly a diverse amount from trout to kingfishers and even the word of an otter which is just fantastic i think to name a few.

Davie Scobbie Head Bailiff



i also spoke to the Secretary and he is another guy on a mission as far as development of the river goes ,so all in all things are certainly looking up ,,and I'm sure if things keep going the way they are our river will continue to improve each year ,,which will mean better fishing for us all ,from trout all the way to salmon ,,and all for £20.00 quid for the employed ,and £10.00 for unemployed ,so we have it good and its up to us all to keep it this way and to help it improve.









i would personally like to give my appreciation to all the board members for taking on a very difficult job and doing their best to make the river a better place for me and the other members to fish ,so keep up the good work lads you are doing us all proud ..

Thank you .

Derek.