Away up the Road

This weekend was our weekend to head back up the road and spend the weekend back home in Scotland with family & friends.

It was literally turning the clock back as some of the folk I bumped into I hadn't seen in 5 or 6 years, some even longer.

I stumbled across this car in my old hometown of Larkhall which made me laugh, where else would you find a car in such a state still sitting on a busy road, probably the Bronx!









The weather over the weekend was excellent Grayling weather with extremely cold nights and having to scrape the car in the morning, to lovely clear days with hardly a cloud in the sky and bright sunshine.

I met up with a couple of old mates as I walked the bank, the first character I came across I haven't seen in best part of 6 years or more. Vid, still with the Go Pro attached to his head and still trying to catch a salmon nothing much changed in the years since I seen him last.

With Matt catching all the salmon Vid cant catch, and Munro one of the Clyde bailiffs keeping a watchful eye over the proceedings, all good friends and good craic.

The big Scottish grayling of the Clyde were having none of it and all I could catch was out of season trout & fingerling Grayling.








Paul my fishing partner for the weekend convinced me I must be turning soft living south of the border, as I had my fleece on and he was fishing with merely a T shirt & bodywarmer! 

Who says they dont breed them hard in Lanarkshire.

We fished hard but the Grayling were having none of it with the only interest coming from fingerling fish, one thing that did come to my hook in abundance and I can probably claim a record to catching was the illusive Clyde leaf fish, I bagged up on those!

Paul reckons I caught the same fish over & over again or somehow had it in my pocket and just attached it onto my line from time to time. I can categorically say that my 10 Grayling were better than your fish! Oh I forgot what fish, as leaf fish dont quite make the count.






The craic was superb and although we didn't catch what we had hoped for it was great company, great surroundings and good to be back in Scotland fishing again, I was trying to remember when I last fished this particular stretch of water & it must be over 40 years ago when we would walk down the clyde valley with waders & everything on as we couldn't afford the bus fare, Happy days indeed. 

A slightly older lad since those days but still happy to be back on my home water catching or not it made no difference.

A great weekend back North of the Border, with a few bottles plundered and brought south of the border for the long dark nights.