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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