Leaving our wives and children to enjoy take out, we headed out to the river........
The conditions seemed perfect; it’s 5pm with plenty of heat still in the day and threatening storm clouds moving in from the north.
With fish already showing on the surface, black spinner, caddis moth and stone fly in the air it was looking good.
Covering a few fish as we made our way up the river it was not long before the first was on. After a solid take in the bubble line just behind a riffle at the head of a pool and breaking free of the water spectacularly before charging downstream, the little brown trout felt solid pulling against the flow. For a while I overestimated its size. Fooled by a brown nymph under one of Dan Hackett’s fast water duns, it put up a solid fight, running straight downstream, turning across the river to jump several times before I could get it anywhere near the bank to be beached.
Working our way further upstream it appeared that the rise had slowed, until we got past the first weir where we found fish rising freely to black spinners on the calmer water. Every now and then one would jump clear of the water to take a spinner which was hovering annoyingly overhead. Only one problem, the fish were out of casting range and the water was too deep to wade for a better shot at them. As there were some good fish amongst them, we decided to make an effort to reach the far bank in order to get a shot at them, meaning a long walk around the deep pool.
The river splits at this point to form a nice shallow stream on the right hand bank so we followed it around and up to the first weir. As we were about to cross Greg noticed a couple of rises at the tail out of a pool, they were in tough places, right where the water accelerates before exiting the pool so presentation was always going to be tough, but rewarding if it worked out. The first couple of casts were off target slightly however another rise assured us that the fish was still there, the next cast was perfect, the fly had about ten seconds of drift before drag set in we both held our breath as we watched for the rise. Right at the last moment, a swirl, and it was on, jumping and cartwheeling across the surface of the tiny pool before Greg grassed the fish for a quick picture and release. Although small, this fish would turn out to be one of the most rewarding fish of the evening with its golden flanks, bright red spots and a casting degree of difficulty of 9.0.
Arriving back to where we had observed fish leaping at black spinner, it was clear we had missed our chance with the spinner gone and the fish no longer rising. I managed to hook a small rainbow with a down and across presentation on a small caddis fly imitation however the insect activity had disappeared with the sunshine which was now replaced by dark storm cloud. We moved on to the water funnelling into the top weir. As the light faded along with our shadows, the water started to come alive with the splashes of energetic smaller fish and the steady clopping of the larger and wiser river residents. Greg hooked a nice fish but without being able to see our fly lines or flies it was becoming increasingly difficult to hook fish, both of us dropping fish or missing takes with frustrating regularity. It was time to head for home.
Armed with a little more knowledge and insight, about how things work in this stretch of the South Esk, we will return to learn more about a place that is fast becoming one of our favourites. With temperatures increasing as the days draw out the activity throughout the day seems to be dropping off. The evenings of summer seem to be the best bet for rising fish on lowland rivers from here on in. JN&GH
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