Trout of order as fishing is slow on Clyde

For most of last month the weather had been cooler, but was unsettled. Frequent heavy showers did little to bring the level of the Clyde up by an appreciable amount.

It was obviously enough to tempt at least a few salmon to come up from the sea, but they were not met by very many anglers.

It appears that most of those who hold permits for the Clyde choose to wait until they hear about other anglers catching fish before they try to do so themselves.

One angler has already landed half a dozen salmon, weighing between six and 12lbs on flies; when the river rose slightly, he changed his approach to using worms and was rewarded with a fine fish of an estimated 18lbs.

He has been able to fish a lot this summer, and probably knows the water as well as anyone. He has put in many hours of practice and knows how to use his tackle to its best advantage.

For a while, it was feared that this might turn out to be one of those years when the best runs don’t materialise until October.

There have even been years when there were very few salmon in the river until after the season closed at the end of October. Anglers will hope this will not happen this year.

The only way we can gauge the number of salmon coming up the river is to have large numbers of anglers reporting their sightings, and catches, to the appropriate association or club.

Soon after Storm Ali had made itself felt, the accompanying rain succeeded in sending the river level to a point where it was deemed to be unfishable for nearly three days.

Soon after that, salmon anglers were out in force, and several of these were rewarded with encounters that they were hoping for.

It would appear that what was looking like a poor season will be salvaged in the next few weeks.

Trout anglers had been slow to realise that their favourite quarry had wakened up to the change in the water temperature, and the explosion of fly life that was appearing.

Iron Blue Duns, and those of Large Dark Olives, were on the surface and trout were coming up to take them. The activity was described as something of a feeding frenzy.

A really magnificent trout of 8lbs was soon joined by some others of 4lbs or 5lbs. Perhaps more important was the presence of large numbers of very small trout. These are the future of the river.

What was missing was the number of anglers that would normally be out to take advantage of the final chance of the season to try casting to trout that are both in-season and hungry.

These trout are potentially at their heaviest, at this time of the year, but they will continue to feed until they are ready to spawn.

The absence of anglers will add to the memory of this having been a bad year for trout fishing.

The‘beast from the East’ brought so much snow that the season got off to a slow start. Very soon, temperatures became impossibly high and the sport, poor as it had been, came to an abrupt halt.

Fortunately, there is plenty of evidence that the trout have come through the summer unscathed. We can look forward to good sport next year, and between now and then we will hope the fish have a fruitful breeding season. Trout hatching next spring will be big fish five years later.

It is normal for trout anglers to be reporting having caught grayling over the last month or two, but I have heard nothing about this.

As September drew toa close, the weather forecasts were mentioning the possibility of overnight frosts. This is about a month ahead of schedule.

Grayling anglers used to think that there was little point in chasing the Lady of the Stream until November, but this year might be different.

Grayling can often be more tolerant of being jagged by a hook than a trout is, but it will not put up with noisy casting or splashy wading, especially in the shallow water.