Knee Problems

I have been having problems with my knee, which I injured a year ago, damaging the tendons and they still haven’t healed properly. As a result I find it difficult to stand up when I have been sitting for long periods, the knee seeming to seize up. Walking on the flat is fine but going downhill is really painful, as is going down steps, probably a result of the jarring motion when descending. Wet or damp weather seems to make it worse, so this past year has been a painful one for me with the near constant rain we have had here in Scotland.

I imagine that every angler who ties flies is always on the lookout for cheap or free materials to use. I have had lots of opportunities to pick up dead pheasants and partridges as there is an estate near me that breeds them for shooting and as a result there are lots of road kill but I don’t fancy the idea of bringing untreated feathers into the house, so will stick to shop bought products.

I only started tying flies earlier this year and after a lot of frustrating attempts I have come to love tying my own flies but I have to remember to get up and walk around every so often or the knee really seizes up if I sit for too long.

My partner owns a small Gift Shop and I often drive her to wholesalers to look for and buy supplies. I have found a couple of outlets that sell Marabou, Ostrich and Peacock Plumes and coloured wire, raffia and several other products that I can use in my fly tying and all at wholesale prices. It’s amazing the price difference between buying Marabou from a Florist and from an Angling shop.

The flies on this page were all self-tied and are far from perfect, but I don’t particularly care as I can only improve and I do get a kick out of catching a trout on something I tied on my own. It sometimes annoys me when reading some of the posts on fly forums, where some anglers criticise other anglers efforts at tying flies. I have read comments such as “the tail is too short” or “the dubbing is too thick”. If it catches fish then it's a successful fly as far as I'm concerned.

I did the best I could when taking the fly shots but I will need to try to sort out some decent lighting and invest in a macro lens for my DSLR in order to get quality shots. I would probably be cheaper buying a compact digital camera as most come with macro facility and the picture quality is usually very good.

Hopefully the weather will improve as I am hoping to get over to Burnhouse Fishery for a few hours to practice my casting, which is extremely rusty. If I catch something then it’s a bonus, but I really enjoy getting away for a few hours, breathing in some fresh air and enjoying the scenery and the sights and sounds of nature.

I have heard some good reports about Harvieston Fishery out past Stirling, near Tillicoultry and want to drive through there for a couple of hours fishing. When I do I will write a report on my findings.

Fly Tying

I started tying my own flies only recently and after a few weeks of fumbling and cursing, I feel that I am beginning to get the hang of it. A big thanks must go to Davie McPhail, Lindsay Simpson and a few other excellent fly tiers on You Tube that I follow, they make it look easy, it's not. In fact I have been so busy tying flies that I ran out of fly boxes to keep them in.. A look around the internet got me interested in an Airflo Competition Fly Box, which holds over a thousand flies, is fairly compact, is waterproof and light. I bought one and I am really impressed with the quality, it's not large and it will slip into a fishing bag fairly easily, though I imagine I will mainly use it to store flies and then decant some into a smaller fly box when I go fishing. Strangely, I now have an urge to fill the thing with flies, which will keep me busy through the Winter nights.

Burnhouse Fishery

3lb Rainbow Trout

3lb Blue

Fished this lovely little fishery for the first time today with my brother. Burnhouse Fishery is a small loch of approximately 3.5 acres situated near Bonnybridge in Stirlingshire. We arrived at 8:00am and were given a warm welcome by Gary who made us coffee and gave us some advice on what flies to use and what had been caught recently. We bought a 4 hour, 2 fish limit then catch and return ticket for £16, tackled up and went fishing. Despite the weather being mild and a flat calm with the fish rising all over the loch, I caught two fish, a  3lb Rainbow and a 3lb Blue, both on Orange Straggle Lures, which I had tied myself. Both were caught near the surface using a very slow retrieve. I also had a few pulls and had two more fish on but lost them after a short fight. The two I caught gave me a great deal of satisfaction as they were the first fish I had ever caught on my own tied flies.
My impression on the fishery is that it well worth a visit, it is well run and the staff are very friendly and freely offer advice. The facilities include a cabin selling a small selection of equipment and hot and cold food.
The only minus was the road to the fishery, which is a single track with limited passing places.

Stockie Bashing

Well that's the Brown Trout season over and I have decided to make an effort to visit some Rainbow Fisheries over the winter. Never tried one before, so it will be a whole new experience for me. I'm not to sure if I will enjoy it or not but I will give it a go. I have made arrangement to fish Burnhouse Fishery this week, which is about a 30 minute drive away. It is a small man made loch of about 3-4 acres and I have been tying some lures and buzzers in anticipation of catching some fair sized Rainbows, more in hope than expectation. During the winter I am determined to have a few casting lessons and then buy a permit for the River Kelvin and also apply to my local angling club for membership on their loch. Hopefully next year will bring better weather, it couldn't possibly be worse than the wash out that was our summer. My local river has virtually been in spate all year, I live just a few yards from it's banks and I have never known it to be so high for so long.

Fly Tying Materials

I've been buying materials for tying my own flies now that the Brown Trout season is almost over. Bought a lot off ebay such as hooks, capes and dubbing but I found a really good site called Troutline, which sells an excellent range of materials and at very reasonable prices and with fairly cheap postage costs considering it is in Romania. Found the Troutline site on the Fly Forum, as the store is run by one of the members called Lucian. He sells a fly tying vice that I have had my eye on for months, and I will probably bite the bullet and order it. It's called a Jan Tvrdek Harmonic Rotary Vice. I first noticed the vice on YouTube where a fly tyer called Lyndsay Simpson  uses one and highly recommends it. I particularly like the way it holds the hook, leaving lots of room to tie in materials at the back of the fly.

First blog for ages as I have been a bit busy. Mind you the weather has been awful with torrential rain and high winds making fishing difficult, Still, there is always the fly vice and tying flies, which most fly fishermen will turn to in the close season, unless like myself they have the odd day here and there on the trout fisheries trying for stocked Rainbows. I don't really like some of these small fisheries where you stand shoulder to shoulder with other anglers. It reminds me of the Golf Driving Ranges where it's practice, not the real thing but it keeps you from getting rusty.

Carron Reservoir

I've had a few days on my local river with mixed success, some days catching regularly while others have been blank but enjoyable. All the trout I have caught have been well under a pound in weight and all returned, a change from my youth when the river regularly gave up the odd fish well over a pound in weight and there were more trout in those days too, or is that just my imagination? Next season I intend to have a lot of days on the Carron Reservoir, which is just a half hours drive away and is one of Scotland's best trout fisheries.

Rubber Fetish?

I've not posted for a while, mainly due to the weather, which has been typical of a Scottish Summer, wet, wild and windy, though mainly wet. The only comfort is that it has been far worse down south where they have encountered flooding, mainly in the north of England, it's strange that they still have hose pipe bans.

Shakespeare Waist Wader

After unsuccessfully fishing in wellies and getting soaked, I decided to get myself a cheap pair of waders. I wanted waist waders as they were just as cheap as thigh waders but more practical for fishing, such as sitting on wet grass or wading up to my arse. Sadly buying cheap waders doesn't include those light, breathable ones made of a few layers of materials. Cheap waders mean PVC or rubber or similar materials, sweat inducing materials, the kind of stuff that makes you sweat just trying to get the waders on and once they are on, you pray for a cold wind just to stop the sweat running down your legs.

I bought the cheapest I could find - a pair of waist waders by Shakespeare in a size 1 for £27.99 including delivery. I am normally a 10 but wanted a bit of room for thick socks. They arrived the following day and on opening the parcel, I understood why they were quickly despatched - the stink of rubber is overpowering, god knows what a shop full of them must be like. I then tried them on only for my partner to laughingly accuse me of being kinky and having a rubber fetish.

They are a good fit and I'm glad I ordered them in an 11 as the smaller size would have been a bit tight in the feet. They seem well made but I will report back on them when I get out fishing. You get a repair kit with the waders - reassuring.........not.

Wet Feet In Wellies

Where I caught my first wild brown trout for over
thirty-years, fishing from the opposite bank.

A lovely overcast, dull, warm day found me down at the river with my new rod, reel and line, a few flies and a pair of wellies. I geared up and tied a tapered leader (I can't remember these thirty odd years ago) on to my floating line and quickly realised that I need to buy a line straightener. After pulling the leader under tension through my T-shirt several times, it still had a bit of a coil to it, though not too bad. I tied on a tiny black spider I had made the night before and had my first cast.

For a first cast in over thirty years, I was really surprised, as I had missed all the tree branches, rocks and debris lying around but had also missed the water, the fly landing on the opposite bank and snagging on some weeds. I didn't want to yank my new rod and as the river looked very shallow I waded across the few yards of water and found myself up to my knees in it, which would have been OK but for the fact that the wellies only reached to just below my knees. There's nothing like the feeling of really cold wetness running down your legs

I retrieved the fly and poured the water out of the wellies and then hung my socks on a tree branch to dry. I was determined to carry on fishing and then slipped the cold wellies back on and tried again. After an hour or so I was really enjoying myself and wasn't giving a damn if I caught a fish or not, it just felt really great being out on the water, not a soul in sight and just the sights and sounds of nature for company, bliss. It was lovely to spot a Kingfisher streaking by me in a blur of blue and orange. I hadn't seen any sign of trout, no rises, nothing. It couldn't be for a lack on insect life as there was plenty of insects clinging to the underside of every large stone I looked under and several Dippers were disappearing under the water and emerging with insects in their beaks. I remembered as a boy watching what seemed to be shoals of trout lying below the bridge over the water at Lennox Castle Hospital. Changed days or perhaps just the imaginations of a small boy. 

Anyway, I kept plugging away, usually having to roll cast for short distances upstream trying to avoid banks, trees, vegetation and the odd household item that had been tossed into the river.

  I eventually stunned myself when I cast my little black fly into a ripple and watched as the end of my fly line stopped, I raised the rod tip and found myself with a hooked fish. After a very short fight I was holding it in my wet hand, all five or six ounces of wild brown trout. It was at this point that I wondered how anglers can carry a camera and take a photo while holding a slippery wet trout. I have a digital SLR but no way is that going near water, too expensive and too heavy, so I will probably have to invest in a cheap digital compact just for fishing, something that will fit into a waistcoat pocket.

Anyway, I slipped the hook from the trout's mouth and held him in the water until he flipped his tail and buggered off, hopefully to fight another day. After that I called it a day as my sockless feet were killing me having been stuck inside wet wellies for a couple of hours.

I was pleased with the rod and reel, especially as I had bought it mainly for loch fishing, being nine and a half feet long and 6/7 rated it casts beautifully and has a nice action. The only problems I encountered were that the river is narrow and mostly tree lined with over-hanging branches, and a shorter rod, probably seven or seven and a half feet and 3/4 rated would have been ideal.

Next purchase just has to be a pair of waders, probably bootfoot waist waders as they will keep my arse dry and I really don't see myself wading any deeper than the top of my legs - famous last words.

New Rod & Reel

I went out for a walk to buy a newspaper this afternoon and when I returned, there it was, my new rod and reel...............lying on the doorstep for any lucky sod to lift.

What is it with delivery drivers, this one was obviously a lazy bastard who couldn't be arsed walking a few yards to hand it into the neighbours.

It was well packaged mind you, all inside a large black plastic tube with the reel box attached......it looked like a bleeding bazooka. 

I eventually got it unpacked (thumbs up to Yorkshire Game Angling) and put the rod together then screwed on the reel. I was really impressed as it has been a long time since I held a fly rod, it was well balanced, really light and felt good.

The reel feels light and solid and is black with a die cast aluminium frame and a clear composite spool. The reel comes with four spool in total, three are pre-loaded with floating, intermediate and sinking lines with backing and braided loops attached.

It's just a pity it was chucking it down and blowing like mad or I was off for a few practice casts. I've not fly fished for 35 years, so a day or two won't matter. I will just content myself with tying a few flies in anticipation of catching a few trout with them.....or more like a few tree branches.

I went into the Glasgow Angling Centre for a look around, having no intentions of buying anything.....yeah right. Anyway, I spotted a Wychwood Rover bag and liked the look of it, no zips, buckles or fasteners, just a couple of magnets used to keep it closed, no fumbling with cold, wet hands trying to open a bag - at under £20.00 a bargain.

It has two pockets with Velcro fastening under the main flap and a large waterproof interior space with two mesh pockets sewn in. Very light and ideal for tramping along river banks.


Features

• Easy secure no zip design

• Unique tippet discard pocket

• Internal rubber mesh pockets

• Non-slip padded shoulder strap

• Weather and rot resistant

• High quality 1680D waterproof fabric

Dimensions: 38 x 28 x 10cm

New Gear

Well, that's the rod, reel and line ordered. After a couple of weeks of web browsing and visiting a few angling shops, I decided on the Sonik SK3 9ft 6in. 6/7 rod, Sonik SK3 cassette reel, pre-loaded with Sonik floating, intermediate and sinking lines, all for £149.99.  I chose this outfit mainly for fishing the numerous lochs and stillwaters around my area. The rod, reel and fly line have all had excellent reviews and at that price, was a bargain.
I will post a review of the rod, reel and line in the near future.

Now I need to arrange to have a couple of casting lessons - back on the internet.

TV Presenters

I've been watching and listening to fishing programmes and podcasts of various angling programmes and have come to the following conclusions.

Paul Young: A really good presenter and a good fly fisherman who comes across as a decent guy who I would gladly share a boat and have a pint with.

Matt Hayes/Mick Brown: Matt and his mate Mick present different types of angling, from coarse to fly fishing. Matt is a fair fly angler though Mick's fly casting could be better, and he admits it too. Both are really easy to watch and listen to and come over as decent guys. Again, I could share a boat and have a pint with them.

Rex Hunt: Another enthusiastic angler who is Australian, is easy going, loves his fishing and I would gladly share a boat with him. Don't know about a pint though, he looks like a pint would just be the start.

Hywel Morgan: The man can cast a bit and is an excellent presenter, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. Would like to pick his brains when sharing a boat and a pint.

John Wilson: Enthusiastic, knowledgeable and jack of all trade as a fisherman. Every time he has a fish on he erupts into inane giggling and can often be seen unhooking a guests fish, showing it to the camera then returning it to the water, all without the person who caught the fish even holding it. I would gladly share a boat with the man but as soon as the giggling started, the priest would be bouncing off the back of his head.

Fly Box

Chinese Fly Boxes - Excellent value.
The photograph appears to show the box with white ridges.
The boxes are black.

I bought a couple of Fly Boxes on ebay recently. I had noticed a Chinese seller with an offer of two fly boxes for just over £5 for the pair plus postage of £1.90. I thought that if they were crap then I had only lost around £7.00 so I bought them and nine days later they arrived, well packaged, nice looking, water sealed and to my eyes, an excellent product that I would recommend, especially at the price. In fact I am going to order the two larger sized boxes he has.
One box is lined with slit foam and holds 216 flies. The other box is also lined with slit foam and is designed for lures and will hold 126 flies. Both boxes have identical dimensions and will slip into a pocket easily.

Fly Tying

Something resembling a Cormorant Lure

Before I get a rod and reel I bought a fly tying vice and hooks and materials. I browsed the internet studying all the step by step instructions and watching videos on YouTube, especially by master tier Davie McPhail (Davie makes it look so easy, the fecker) helps a lot but it doesn't stop me breaking thread, cursing pheasant tail fibresas slip from my fingers and uncoil like a bleeding spring and then having Marabou fibres floating around the room and annoying the OH.

Cursing, swearing and sheer frustration aside, I do enjoy fly tying, especially when everything goes well and what I was trying to make, almost resembles what I intended. As long as the trout don't mind taking an ugly fly then I will be happy. Tying Buzzers is enjoyable as you only need thread and one or two other materials - fairly easy but they are finished with a few coats of varnish, most popular being Sally Hansen's "Hard As Nails". You do get some strange looks in Boots when buying it.

A Bead Head Buzzer

Hackles are another problem, there are so many different kinds, from cheap Indian and Chinese capes to very expensive capes from Whiting and other companies that can run to over £80 for one.

My first time tying on a hackle I broke several and eventually ended up with a fly looking like a shuttlecock as the hackles were way too long, but that's how I learn, from my mistakes, and I make lots of them.

My Local River

Upstream from Station Road bridge

I'm lucky in that my local river the Glazert Water, is only a short walk away. It's a spate river, in that it is fairly shallow along it's full length (5 miles approx.) but it can rise rapidly and become a torrent within an hour or two. During these spates there are huge amounts of debris carried along it's length - I have spotted tree trunks, logs and branches along with Buckfast bottles, plastic bags and bottles and other assorted rubbish that should never be allowed near a river.

I remember as a boy leaning over the bridges and watching trout lying in the deeper channels, there seemed to be a lot more trout about then than there is now but that could be a result of pollution, as I remember the river being poisoned some years ago from a chemical discharge, thought to be either from a Farm or from Lennox Castle Hospital. Nowadays Lennox Castle Hospital has shut and the local Nail Work Factory has also closed, bad news for the local employment figures but good news for the local trout population.

Glazert Water near Balglass Farm

Fishing the Glazert back then was a problem as the majority of the river that I fished was lined with trees with branches hanging over the water, though there were a few clear areas of banking. The problem, in my opinion has got worse since then, with large sections of the river almost inaccessible due to trees and bushes encroaching over the water making casting nearly impossible.

I went for a walk along the riverbank from the  bridge on the Torrance road all the way upstream to Campsie Glen, making my way along the local Walkway, which roughly follows the Glazert. I was fascinated by how much the river has changed since I was a boy. Areas of stony banking from where I fished are no longer there and in places, the route of the river has altered significantly. During my walk there were no anglers on the river, sad really as it is such a lovely little river with plenty of small brown trout, wonderful scenery and a very cheap season ticket, £17.00 for 2012.

A Roe Deer photographed on the banks of the Glazert 

The Glazert Water seems to be in good nick these days, though to me, there doesn't seem to be as many trout as I remember as a lad, but I suppose that could just be my imagination. There must be a good population of fish though, as there are a large number of Heron patrolling it's length and I have seen a few beautiful Kingfishers flying past in a blur of blue and red. I have also spotted numerous Roe Deer feeding on the grassy banks and Dippers can be seen along the full length of the river, so insect life must be fine. There have been reports of Otters in the Glazert but I don't know if this has been confirmed. One animal I do know is present is the Mink as I have seen them on a couple of occasions.

New Beginnings

When I was in my mid teens to mid twenties, I used to fish my local river three or four times a week in my local river, and though the trout were small, they were plentiful and the sport was great fun.

After an absence of over thirty years, due to work, golf and other distractions, I retired early on health grounds and decided to go back to fly fishing. 

Sonik SK3 Rod and Reel Outfit.

Before buying any fishing gear I thought that it would be a good idea to learn to tie my own flies and maybe save some money.

I went on ebay to look for a vice and was shocked at some of the prices for something that only holds a hook. I eventually settled on a cheap vice from a bloke in Estonia for £15.00. The vice looks ok, holds a hook well and rotates, what does a vice at over £200 do that it can't?

When it comes to fly fishing rods and reels I have whittled it down to either a Wychwood or Sonik Rod but am leaning more towards the Sonik as I can get a good deal from the Yorkshire Game Angling shop consisting of a Sonik SK3 9ft 6in rod and SK3 Cassette Fly Reel with three spare spools all pre-loaded with floating, intermediate and sinking lines.

This outfit will be more suited for fishing lochs and stillwaters and would not be suitable for fishing my local river as the rod is a bit too long to negotiate the tree lined banks. I will buy a cheap 7ft - 8ft light rod for small stream and river fishing.

Who said fishing was a cheap hobby?