River Dee

This week i had a couple of days with Phil on the River Dee at Llangollen. It was a gorgeous place in the valley and even had a Steam train chuffing past every hour or so.

It started off great and before Phil had chance to tackle up i had this really nice Grayling on bank. I saw a fish rise in the fast water and cast my black link a few feet above and as it drifted down it came up and took it.

The wind was a bit cool and very gusty. Unfortunately it was downstream and into me so casting was not great and as much as we persevered with dries it may not have been the most productive method The weather was a bit better on the second day at least no cold wind! I cast at quite a number of fish with the dries but struggled to find what they wanted. We switched over to beads in the afternoon and Phil managed to catch a Sea Trout of at least a pound. A first for him and it made the trip.

Lintrathen

I was picked for the Barclays v Bank of Scotland match at Lintrathen and as we tackled up it felt like being a good day. It had fished well the day before, my partner was Stuart, a Barclays scot from Glasgow an sprits were high. As we headed out is started raining and did not stop all day, at times it was torrential. We persevered though and managed to pick up a few fish on ace of spades and cormorants. The Loch had emptied though as all the anglers had headed for shelter and it it felt a lonely we place. There were a few boats in the bay next to the lodge so we decided to try there so at least we could ask others what they had done. As we drifted out of the bay we saw a boat catch a few and followed in behind taking a few ourselves - we had found the hot spot and now needed to dry off!I didn't get my camera out as it was so wet but this is another photo on a better evening.

Competition day i was with Tom Ferguson and the weather was much better. As Tom was just getting in the boat it moved and he toppled backward with a nasty crunch of his back against the boat and boat dock. Fortunately didn't go in but even so had cut his hand and lip and bruised his back badly. It meant for a tough and painful day but he kept with stoically, a tough character! We popped in my hotspot and i had interest straight away but it didn't stick. We then moved into Tom's favourite area and i managed had a great small brownie, lovely to catch a wild fish and and return it safely. We went back into the bay and fished there most of the day and i managed to catch 4 fish which was a good result for the day. Vernon, Ralph and John were top rods for the day with 7. As the rain came on at at just before 4 it was a wet end to the day again and i was feeling miserable but as the result filtered through that we had won by 29 fish to 43 spirits rose and it was a great end to a pleasant few days in scotland

Return to the Brann

A disappointing return to the Brann this time as water levels seemed down and we did not see any fish at all. However it is a fantastic place to be among the hills. There were a few large ephemeropteridae dancing together but the fish did not seem interested while we were there maybe later when they lay their eggs and die off.