Reclassified Clyde means keeping fish

Various clubs and associations along the Clyde have reported a backlash among their anglers, who did not believe that the enforcement of catch and release was because the Scottish Government had been given bad advice.

Not only has this been admitted but it has also been announced that the way in which the available data was analysed has been revised.

The Clyde and most of its tributaries have been reclassified to category 2. This gives clubs and associations the right to make their own decisions, designed to produce effective conservation strategies. Put simply, anglers will probably be allowed to take a few fish for the pot next year.

This might depend on what information can be gleaned from the catch returns, which every salmon permit holder is duty-bound to send in at the end of the season. Poor catch returns were blamed for the imposition of catch and release this year.

Up until the end of brown trout season anglers were still catching them. Larger specimens should have lost their appetites as they prepared to spawn but this didn’t prove to be the case, as some really impressive specimens were included in catches.

Lower temperatures meant there were very few insects above the surface and it was natural that anglers would be trying to catch fish using artificial flies, which represented the nymphs of various aquatic insects.

It was hardly surprising that, as well as the odd small trout, grayling were being tempted by the same offerings. Several of these weighed in excess of 2lb, which are fine by any standards.

The biggest grayling that I have heard of so far was just over 3lb in weight.

The fish were all in excellent condition, which isn’t surprising because their close season is a set of dates arbitrarily set by people and not by the fish themselves.

Anglers didn’t intend to kill any of the fish they caught, regardless of whether they were in season or not. A few quick photographs were taken and the grayling were safely returned to the water.

Most anglers were using very small Harelug patterns. This group of flies starts with the basic idea of dubbing fur from the ear of a hare on to waxed silk and then winding this round the shank of the hook. Clyde anglers usually try to keep this fur as sparse as possible.

I was once told that if I think the dressing is right it is still too thick. I used to let a shoal of minnows pull out a lot of the protruding hairs and then use the fly in an attempt to tempt the bigger fish.

The silk itself can be olive, brown, yellow or orange. To liven up the dressing it is usual to rib the body with fine gold wire. This might simply make the nymph more visible to the fish but the sparkle could make the artificial fly look less fake and more natural and alive. I always found that patterns with gold wire in their makeup worked best on sunny days.

There are several other traditional flies which can take grayling from the Clyde in the winter. Inevitably many of these are black, including Magpie Tail, Blae and Black and Black Spiders.

The Red Tag has long had a reputation for attracting the attention of grayling.

Salmon were making their presence felt right up until the end of October. Whether you are after salmon, trout or grayling, the Clyde is not an easy river to fish.

Some experienced salmon anglers might disagree with that this year but, because of the enforced policy of total catch and release, many were using barbless hooks. This often resulted in an angler landing three fish in a day but losing three or four more.

In the last few weeks of the season at least one angler landed more than a dozen fish. Even an eight-year-old boy caught his first two salmon. Some people go for years before doing that. The majority of the salmon caught weighed between 4-6lb. The heaviest might have been 15lb but there are rumours of heavier fish than that.