A Scottish Trip

Now we are back from the holidays and the batteries are recharged it was time to get out & get some fishing done but we had to visit Scotland and attend to some business, namely making sure that my mother & father's grave were tidy and to lay flowers as it was the fourth anniversary of my mothers death on Thursday and we like to try and get up around this time. Gone but NEVER forgotten.

I would however manage a day at the fishing as the good lady had a day of retail therapy planned so after chatting with some lads online who I knew were up in Scotland fishing the Clyde and hoping for the March Brown hatch to materialise which it never did, and they had been struggling for a few days to get any fish, I made my decision to hit the Clyde's little brother the river Avon a tributary of the Clyde and the river I was brought up fishing on in my younger days.

On the steep climb down the Braes, which is always OK going down the way but a dread coming back up as most of the paths we used as kids are now long overgrown as virtually nobody goes down the braes to play anymore, kids are more interested in technology than heading down the braes to build camp-fires and camp out overnight and generally mess around in the woods.

I noticed how things have moved on since I was last out fishing with the buds on the horse chestnuts bursting out.

and the wild flowers are out in all there glory in the hot sunshine.

It was good to be back to a river I love to fish and have admiration for and many fond memories of learning to fish and many fishing days out through my younger years.

I was hoping the fishing would be better than the reports coming from the clyde as they really were struggling to see any fish but the thing with the Avon is that the majority of the river is surrounded by heavy woods on both banks making it an abundance for fly life and generally the wind blows right over the top of the braes leaving everything down by the river alone.

I sat for a while watching the river for signs of fish but never seen any so started off fishing a team of upstream spiders and within a few casts had my first small trout in my hand.

small but perfectly marked and virtually guaranteed to be a 100% wild fish as the river is stocked by the controlling club but far upstream and far downstream of the parts I was fishing and the fish that are stocked are all much bigger than this little fellow.

I moved from one set of runs to the next making my way upstream taking similar sized fish  as I went and as I got almost to the turning point where I fish the river back down again I had 8 fish in the net so to speak and probably the same amount dropped or jagged so my decision to fish the avon was paying off.

I would gladly take wild fish like this any day of the week.

As I got closer to my turning point I could hear other people out and about as the river was opening up to be more accessible, the first voices or signs of life I had heard or seen in 5 hours of fishing up through, like I say a river that was once fished by regulars is now only occasionally fished by a few individuals who make the effort to see and fish such a cracking wee river down the section I had chosen to fish.

I had seen a few larger fish move in some of the deeper water I was getting into and I hoping that some of them might be in the mood to give me some sport and sure enough one obliged.

Although being a stocked fish, probably one of this years fish due to the ragged tail it had, it never the less was pleasing to the eye and great sport to see it swim back off at a rate of knots to where it came.

I fished back down to my starting point and the dreaded climb back up the braes where I knew I would be suffering once I had reached the top and after covering almost 12 hours of fishing I had accounted for 13 trout, predominately smaller fish but very welcome and 1 Grayling which I was really chuffed to see as the Grayling had been on the decline in the river for several years so it was great to see them making a presence again, the Grayling I estimated to be just under a pound and had spawned so as with all fish was treated with the utmost of care and released straight away.

On the way home I decided to head to a chip shop I know for a special fish supper which is the best around & got speaking to two lads who had been out on the Clyde all day fishing, moving up and down the river from various locations on the hunt for some sport but to no avail, they had both caught nothing so me telling them I had 14 fish in total was quite pleasing, as the river Avon is often overlooked by many anglers as a lesser river, certainly that day it wasn't!