these cold mornings

well with the temperature being below freezing for over 2 weeks now ,surly the Grayling fishing has got under way for those lucky and brave enough to frequent waters that grace such wonderful creations on nature ,as the Grayling for me must be the most stunning fish when in full show ,with males having that sail like dorsal fin which gives it its great fighting strength as it uses it to great effect as many have told me.

these wonderful Lady's of the stream have eluded me for some time and i know i could travel further and ,,,well fish rivers that truly hold shoals of good sized Grayling as fishing my local river cart is just not bringing in the numbers or fish one would want from a good days Grayling fishing ,and if I'm honest its just not producing at all this year ,although while going to Morrison's a few days before Christmas ,i did see what I'm almost positive was a shoal of Grayling which i would say were in the 3 quarter to the pound mark which for me would have been a great day out if i had happened too take my fly rod along, which I'm sure u will have gathered i did not.

The cold winter months are a real struggle for me as I'm not a great one for the cold mornings and prefer the heat of the indoors leaving more fishing room to the braver men that are out on the rivers looking for that lady of a lifetime , and in Scotland their are a few rivers with big Grayling in them as well as good trout fishing ,the Tievot being one of these named river in which i seen and read of fish in the 3lb range ,and that's just a dream to me and i suppose to any other Grayling fisherman ,.

The end of December is now at close range and I'm contemplating some pike fishing on loch Lomond were I've been hearing of good sized fish coming to articulated fish lures and fly's fished slow and deep which is pretty straight forward tactics i though ,but no I've been hearing of big girlie pike chasing lured and tail walking in these very cold days , so am i a Jessy ,well I'm beginning to think so,,,do i take a few brave pills and brave the cold and give this most uncomfortable time of year for me the real chance it deserves ,as their is always that niggle in the back of my mind saying if you were out you would be catching,,,and then the one for sure real statement if your not out your never going to catch ,and what would i catch ,,,a fish of a life time ,well who knows ,,,I'm hoping that for the effort ill get rewarded with even the odd fish ,as I'm a fisherman ,i don't need to be catching fish ,,,,but by god don't it help when you are catching ,as the confidence goes up and the body warm too , so I've now decided I'm going to give this cold weather the little bit of courage I've found and try my hand at the pike in the canal and the loch which for me i think i will leave until mid February as I'm just not that brave.

good luck to all you guys out their in the cold looking for that fish of a lifetime ,, i wish you all the best of luck ,,you certainly deserve it..

trout season at an end

well guy's n girls , the trout season is now at an end and for many it will mean a very long wait for the new 2010 season to start, as for me i do miss the river fishing although I'm sure their are some nice grayling to be had in a few rivers around me and that's one of my plans for the winter season .
I also enjoy the time the close season gives me to better my tying ability and this winter i will be trying to build up my still water collection ,of which I'm very interested in the tying of traditional patterns ,as I've seen these work very well on the place i intend to fish next season , which I'm sure people would agree with as its got to be the best in the west (HARELAW) run by a great guy Alex Carney who i can say is the most helpful owner of a fishery I've ever met ,so if any u guys are thinking of trying out still water fishing , then don't go to one of these puddles dug into the ground , as you will be much more rewarded by going to a place such as harelaw ,and this choice will also give you a good guide into what you should be looking for at a quality fishery.

i will be doing my best to get any patterns i tie up on the blog for you all to see and with that i would be grateful of any comments , be they constructive or not .

so until my next post which im going to be doing allot more of , take care and good fishing to you all.

Perfect morning

well on to the train and for only 3.60 return i was happy ,more than happy to be heading for Neilston where i will need to get a taxi to Harelaw which without doubt is the best in the west ,with rainbow trout that fight like the locals on a Friday night in the high street and let me assure you the fight hard.

Harelaw if you don't know is owned by a fine man of the name Alec Carney who also holds Snypes dam and both hold some fine fishing for all stages of expertise as most fish are never far from the bank .

Harelaw holds its fine wild brown trout which have been their since the place was built and also has regular stocking of rainbows ,blues and i think their are even a few tiger trout in their to as is in Snypes although this is a place I've never fished.

i arrived at Harelaw to the snigger's of Alec watching me climb out a local private hire taxi with all my gear and let me tell you the local taxis ain't cheap folk , so if you intend to follow my route and go to Harelaw remember the taxi fare which will be around 10 pound for both ways.

Harelaw has everything ,scenery and fantastic fishing from boat and bank and for me its the bank as my boating skills are non existent at the moment ,but this is something i want to tackle as i would like to find a boat partner at some point and try the competitions scene to see what its like and to see if i can make any sort of mark in the fishing scene which would be a big delight for me,so as said arrival was greeted by a sneering giggle and the words why did you not phone me .

Alec has always said he would pick me up from the station if i were going to Harelaw ,and this is just the type of guy he is ,a real gent and always willing to give advice and help with fishing technique around his waters.

i fished for around an hour with a black Bobbie on the top dropper and a Kate in the middle and another on the point as i was hoping the Bobbie would attract the fish in to grab the Kate which was lime green tailed ,after a while i realised nothing was forthcoming of this crap choice of flies ( I've still loads to learn about still waters) ,so i changes set up and put a Bibio on the top and a Kate in the middle with a hares ear on the point and no sooner had i done this than i had a good fighting rainbow on which i netted and came to around the 3lb mark with a tail all still water fisheries should judge their fish condition on ,as it was perfect.

this fish was a real pleasure and a relief to catch as it meant i had not blanked that day , i took myself off round the corner heading right from the bothy and i had one hit and one follow as i continued my way round ,were i came to a boggy area which i forgot had been drenched in the heavy rain a day or so before and when around half way into it i felt the ground become decidedly spongy and thought i would be OK to continue , but as i did i soon realised when i put my foot forward and ended up to my waist in bog thick stinky mud which frightened me very much as i was sinking fast and had it not been long reedy grass I'm not sure i would have got out ,but i did eventually and way out of breath i sat and wondered about how close i had been to a tragic accident which i hear of quite allot on the fishing scene, and so it was a wake up call to get myself better informed and also not to take silly decisions like i had just done after all i could have lost my life for the sake of an extra 15 minutes walk around the bog ,,just how silly can i be.

anyway the day went on and i had a few more touches and follows but nothing netted ,and with the sun high in the sky i though it best to rest a while and see what happened ,but by time the evening rise was about an hour away i felt really tiered and decided to call it a day and head home which Alec helped by giving me a run to the station at Neilston which saved me around five quid so thanks again Alec.

I'm looking forward to my next time at Harelaw as I've been doing some reading and feel I'm better equipped for the next journey and my methods will be ready for any changes that come in the weather ,so bring it on Harelaw ill be back.

Alec with the first fish of the day that i seen a what a fish it was ,stunning

stillwater fishing

well I'm off to Harelaw tomorrow i think ,well that's if i can get a run from Neilston train station to the Harelaw as its just to long for walking and I'm just not in the mood for a long walk at the moment ,although i will probably walk around the whole loch through out the day searching for those hard fighting rainbows ,and the camera is a must do need to remember to set up the re0charger for batteries for tomorrow so as i can start getting some pics back up on the blog as they are as important as the written stuff at times to show people were you have been and the sights you have seen through out your trip.
i am by far a river fisherman and would much rather be on the river bank as to a still water every time as their is just nothing quite like the sound of running water and the scent of wild flowers and the sound of the birds as you wade along the river,i miss it very much at the moment ,as the rivers in and around the Glasgow area are well down on their bones and fish must be getting towards that danger period i watch creeping ever closer each year.
trout need plenty of well oxygenated water and also they don't cope well in waters of a high temp which I'm sure I've read can also kill them, not to mention any sea run fish like salmon or sea trout which for sure are in a dangerous situation and no matter how many rain dances I've tried they are just not working,we need rain ever so badly to flush the river and give it its much needed oxygen that the trout and salmon need.

my fly tying is coming along quite well although i feel i still rush some patterns and could do better with just a few tips on certain materials like marabou and synthetics on how to tie them down best and what threads work best.
i love my tying it is the one thing i can do when I've no fishing to go to like at this time when my local is near dry and other rivers in the area are much he same.
i have been tying buzzers and Diawa Bach, as well as crunchers and mini lure as well as boobies in different eye sizes to give different buoyancy's ,and by god i love to fish these, after only using them once with Alec on Harelaw, and as i reported it was one of the best nights of my fishing life.

so Harelaw tomorrow lets hope we can get in among the fish before Alec has to come to the rescue.

were to fish

were to fish ,well i find myself searching through my old and new haunts to try to come up with somewhere that i can fish in this intense heat that's is surly to be the Scottish summer ,ain't that true lads.
well I'm not going to go on the river as i feel it is just to hot and to much glare ,as I'm sure you all know trout have no eye lids and this effects them immensely in bright sunshine and this is why we often see a drop in activity, so what do i do.
pike fishing ,well their is always a chance of a pike in the warm weather and more so in the early mornings and also as the sun goes down at night as the rise in water temp gets them active and i feel the best way to pursue these prehistoric predatory machines is with a well fished lure as their is nothing quite like a pike braking the surface thrashing at your lure ,and they seem to fight like mad in the summer time too,so their is that option.

i have also considered going to barrhead and giving it a go for the roach which should be feeding up in the water and a size 14-16 pheasant tail nymph fished in a slow figure of 8 retrieve should bring in a few fish and this will keep the thirst quenched ,hmmmmm.

my god this is really hot weather ,i cant stand it much more ,why cant we get good cloud cover ,that would bring it on good style ,but I'm sure their are still great places to be had on an evening rise ,were the water seems to boil with fish activity ,i wish i was at such a water .
oh look i need to get out of here and see whats happening on the river ,will report my findings when i get back.