First Cast Of The Year

I managed to free myself for a couple of hours on Friday and was immediately reaching for the rod and waders. I was heading through to Livingston for the weekend so I decided to hit a small burn in search of Grayling. I've spent a fair bit of time fishing this burn over the years and it can be an odd experience, for whatever reason it's either on or off, never average and often frustrating.

I've never caught a Grayling from the stretch I was fishing but I really wanted to search through these pools on the off chance some had moved into this area since the last time I fished it over a year ago. The simple answer would be that no Grayling are in this part of the burn and that's why I couldn't catch any however there are trout in this part of the burn and at times you wouldn't believe it.

Tough Water

If there is a single water that deserves the label Jekyll & Hyde it's this one, even for trout, some days you can catch many trout on nymphs, dries or lures and on other days, sometimes even the next day you'll hit nothing. I know other local anglers who enjoy fishing it but I also know some who refuse to entertain it and head to other more predictable waters.

Anyhoo, suffice to say I didn't on this occasion find any Grayling and I think I've pretty much fished this stretch out in terms of searching for the ladies, I know they hang about further upstream so I may well head beyond that area and see what I can find. So far I have only found them in a short two mile stretch, maybe there are more, maybe not.

It's always nice to get out with a rod and cast some flies but I hope this blank isn't setting up my season ahead.