Back Up North

Managed to grab another few days up on the Nith River was dropping nicely after some more heavy rain so things looked promising as long as the fish put in an appearance - but they didn't still it gave me time to work on some of my casts in pleasant surroundings.


Spent the last day fishing a small loch on the Buccleuch Estate at Drumlanrig Castle that may become available. Nice setting in the heart of the woodland area, looks to be fairly shallow with quite a bit of weed around the margins that should hold good fly life.
Three of us fished it and managed 11 fish between us all in reasonable condition, full tailed and quite firm so they must have been feeding well over the winter as the loch hasn't been stocked yet this year.

Fishing stopped now for a couple of weeks due to a minor operation that's stopped me from driving, end of next week should see me out and about and catching up on lessons that are in the diary, so for now  its time to get flies ready for the next trip to the River Tay and then back out to the Gulf Coast of the USA.

Tight Lines to those who are out there fishing

For more photos and fishing course information visit us on our Facebook page Cheshire Fly Fish or web sitewww.cheshireflyfishing.co.uk or follow us on Twitter.

Grayling Competition River Nith

Saturday the 1^st March saw Friars Carse Hotel host their 1^st Grayling Competition, given the recent weather conditions it was always going to be difficult but luckily the river had dropped back quite a bit and was starting to clear when the 8 anglers gathered ready for the off.

Group photo

Debbie Parke, Operations Manager for the Nith Catchment Fishery Trust was in attendance as they were using the event to get a feel for what the grayling population was like and how well it was doing in the river. Those anglers who felt comfortable doing it were asked to take scale samples and length measurements of any fish caught.

First fish on the fly

Due to river conditions anglers fished between the top of Farm Pool and the Policemans, all anglers were fishing the fly. Sadly only 6 fish were caught during the day 3 of which were grayling, a bit disappointing but given the conditions and the fact that some of the anglers had only just tried fly fishing that week on a course that was run at the hotel it wasn't too bad.

Hopefully this fun and friendly competition is just the first of many that the hotel runs.

Wendy Gibson  spent endless hours showing people the art of fly tying and never ceased to amaze us with her skills.

Back home this week and off for some single and double handed practice before heading back up to the hotel first thing Monday fishing for 4 days here's hoping that the river is in better sorts and maybe even some salmon are about. May even try Drumlanrig Castle beats whilst I'm there.

Tight Lines for the coming week.

For more photos and fishing course information visit us on our Facebook page Cheshire Fly Fish or web sitewww.cheshireflyfishing.co.uk or follow us on Twitter.