Beginners Lesson - River Nith, Friars Carse Hotel

Full day Beginners lesson up on the River Nith at Friars Carse Hotel.
The client Carl Wood has huge amounts of experience fishing for carp and decided that he wanted to add fly fishing to his skills so that he could travel light and go stalking for them in the future.



Started the day going over all the equipment, set up, flies etc. We then got into the casting on the hotel lawn, overhead first taking into account wind directions and dealing with these accordingly. Good session, considering that Carl had not used a fly rod before he soon started to get the hang of it and realise when things were going wrong.

Break for lunch and a time to recap over things we had covered then it was back out this time onto the river at Marsdens Pool to go over and practise the roll cast. Covered all wind directions so when we move on to putting things into practise we shoud be fine.

Carl coped well with these casts so it was time to put things too the test and we moved off up stream to the Riding Stones to fish through down towards the hotel. Started with a small brown czech nymph on the point and a pennell on the dropper, first cast and a fish took the pennell, a small wild brownie only to come off at the net, a good start. Fished slowly down the pool with a few fish rising but no further offers. The wind at this point was down stream and quite strong so it was testing Carls ability as a first time caster but all credit to him he stuck at it and coped well.


Change of flies and the luck changed which was just what we wanted, olive nymph onto the point and a small wet fly on the dropper and he started to get some offers, just as he covered the faster water around the boil. At least half a dozen offers resulted in 2 nice fish, a lovely marked wild brownie and the Lady of the Stream, the Grayling. Both quickly photographed and safely returned to the river.

For a complete beginner to fly fishing Carl did really well and was well chuffed in capturing his first fish 'on the fly'.















If you fancy doing the same don't hesitate to call, I can't guarantee the fish but I'm sure you'll enjoy the experience of trying.

Next stop for me is the mighty River Tay, hope the fish are biting.


If your out there fishing this week Tight Lines

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