Busy Few Weeks

The last few weeks have been busy with fishing and teaching, great to introduce someone new into this great sport.

Up on the River Nith for 3 days staying once again at Friars Carse Hotel. River was very clear and slowly dropping the Riding Stone was just starting to show so the river was at a decent height.

Three of us fished and all started with salmon outfits and we fished until just after lunch then as a small hatch came on we quickly switched to the single handed rods we carried with us to have some sport with the grayling & trout. Between us we managed to catch quite a few but nothing huge. Back to the salmon rods for the last hour of light just in case and fresh fish had pushed into the pools just before dark, but we saw or touched nothing.

Next day was similar but in tactics only I spent a couple of hours working on some single handed casts in preparation for a possible assessment in the future. I hadn't missed much as Mat & Ray both had seen or contacted nothing. The afternoon saw me start with the single handed rod following Mat down from the Riding Stone and after a few casts was met with a very solid resistance as a very nice grayling had grabbed the fly. it turned out to be my personal best coming in at just
over 48cm, lovely fish and in excellent condition.

Friday saw Mat & myself head of to fish the lower beat of Buccleuch Estates at Drumlanrig Castle where we fished at the closing few days of the season in 2014. Interesting to see the water at different heights as it can give you a better indication of the likely lies. We were back on double handed rods and started from the Carronfoot Pool and was both really expecting to get an offer with each cast, but nothing. Then down to Quarry Pool, again it just looked so fishy and it was at the very end of the tail that Mat had a couple of quick pulls followed by a much stronger one and a fish was on, not a big one but a fish no the less. All nicely under control until the last minute when it threw the hook, the air was a little bit blue at this point but it gave us hope. We fished all the way down to the Virgin Pool at the bottom of the beat with just a couple of offers in the Doctors Pool but nothing else was solid.
A lovely days fishing and a stretch of water that I'll be back to fish again

This week saw a couple of teaching days over at Curleys Fishery, one a complete beginner and the other gent was just getting back into fly fishing and wanted to refresh and learn a few new casts, both did really well despite the weather on the first day. Curleys had a stocking whilst I was there and they put in some really nice fish which at the time of writing this report have already been putting an appearance in. If your in the area why not give it a go.

Tight Lines to all.

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First Course of 2015 & The Opening of The Salmon Season on The Nith

The course was scheduled to be a joint effort between myself Ian Griffin and Wendy Gibson (flies by Wendy) but sadly before the event Wendys husband passed away and then she herself was taken ill (get well soon Wendy) so at the last minute fly tyer Paul Griffin (no we're not related) filled the gap and did a splendid job.


Sunday Paul spent the whole of the day with one of the course attendees going through different tying techniques, This was continued after dinner with each fly throwing up a different skill to be learnt.

Monday and it was out on the hotel lawn working through different casts with both single and double handed rods. Break for lunch then down to the river to put into practice some of the techniques we'd worked on whilst having a fish. The weather had turned really nasty with everything being thrown at us - hail, sleet, snow rain and strong winds. The sad thing is the river had risen quite a lot over night and was coloured but we tried to make the best of it. A quick recap on a couple of casts on the lawn before retiring to the bar for a quick drink before dinner, then it was back to the fly tying.

Tuesday weather wise was pretty much the same although luckily not much rain had fallen overnight so the river had stayed about the same level, we really could have done with about a foot off it and clearing to give us our best shot at a fish, still we had plenty of casts to work on.

Had a good session on snap casts & snake roll with the double & single handed rods, given the conditions  I felt that they will come in handy. Late welcoming and warming lunch of sandwiches and a bowl of freshly made chips then it was back out onto the river but sadly the conditions worsened and it was time to head back to the shelter of the hotel. Still we tried.

Wednesday saw the opening of the salmon season on the Nith and as I was there it would have been rude not to have cast a line, so Trevor & I toasted the season with a drop of the hard stuff and started fishing
down from the Riding Stones on a river that was slowly dropping and clearing. I only had a short time as I had just heard that my father in law had passed away so it was time to pack up and head back south.

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Friars Carse Grayling Competition 2015

Nick Brown the General Manager at the Hotel and myself and the late Ray Gibson organised a Grayling Competition for last Sunday, nothing too serious. We opened it up this year as any legal method to help encourage as many anglers as we could and were delighted to have had 12 anglers taking part.

River Nith Trust were very keen to see what condition the grayling where in, so arranged for scale sample kits to be available for those anglers wishing to take their own, with these then being taken back and analyzed to see the growth rates, age etc. of the fish. As soon as I have this data back from them I'll post it on here, I'm sure it will make interesting reading.

A few of the anglers also fished the water on the Saturday and managed around 20 nice fish, but Sunday was the day that was to count. It was nice to see that the split between bait and fly was straight down the middle, top rod in the bait fishers came in with 14 fish whilst the top fly rod had 9 both great efforts. A total of 41 fish were caught with the best around the mid 40 cm mark.



Everyone had a good time despite the very cold conditions. Prizes for those lucky few as well as for those not so fortunate to catch.


Dates already set for the 2016 competition - 21st February, put it in your diary.

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