ANGLING ANGLE WITH TOM MCGREGOR

As the old year came to an end, the weather played havoc with the plans of many grayling anglers.

Strong winds often made fishing almost impossible.

Heavy rain often sent the river into near spate conditions, meaning that even approaching the river could have been dangerous.

As if that was not enough, freezing rain proved to be even more of a problem than snow would have been.

Relatively few anglers were visiting the river for about half of last month.

When there was very little wind blowing, the upper reaches of the Clyde attracted a lot of attention.

It was not easy fishing, because the water was usually still high and fast flowing.

Black spiders showed that they were capable of exciting both trout and grayling, equally, but these were invariably small fish.

A switch to more traditional nymph patterns appeared to tempt grayling of a better quality.

Pheasant tail nymphs were not as successful as other patterns, probably because they carry what appear to be well developed wing buds, and these are inappropriate in the winter.

To report that harelug nymphs were proving to be the favourite choice of many anglers is not of much help, because the main material lends itself to a wide range of patterns.

Some have coloured metal beads in gold, silver, or tungsten grey. These serve us best when they are fished deep.

Without the weight of the metal beads, similar nymphs can be fished just beneath the surface, almost like a dry fly, or taken deeper with a fast sinking fly line or small pieces of shot.

I recommend using sparsely dressed versions before moving up to those that sport a lot more material in them.

Some of my friends decided not to waste time and go straight to more substantial patterns. This has usually worked for them.

They have caught some grayling weighing just over a pound.

When conditions improve, we can expect the better grayling to appear. They will be trying to build themselves up in preparation for spawning.

When the weather was better in the lower reaches, anglers chose to go there. Most of them had ignored this part of the river until the middle of December.

Just as happened last year, an angler soon found himself playing a salmon which had taken his size 14 nymph.

Salmon are not supposed to feed in fresh water. There is no logical reason why a salmon, weighing 6lbs, would be interested in eating a tiny insect, but one such fish chose to prove me wrong.

There is a suggestion that, once a salmon has spawned, a kelt might feed. The salmon in question didn’t appear to have been a kelt.

As the angler was not fishing alone, the fish was quickly unhooked, photographed, and safely released.

The presence of such a clean fish, this late in the year, suggests that the relatively poor level of catches reported this year is not a true indication of the numbers of salmon that came up the Clyde in 2018.

Late runs were normal when salmon first returned to the Clyde 30 years ago. This behaviour might always have been present, but anglers did not encounter these fish.

The story of salmon in the Clyde was written about in 2003 by a good friend of mine, Drew Jamieson. It appeared in his angling column, but recently he compiled some of his previous writings into three books.

In the same book in which he talks about the Clyde, Drew describes other salmon rivers which are still open towards the end of November.

Some of the chapters go back to 1970; our understanding might have moved on since then, but these are not text books to be quoted by learned bodies.

The three books are there to be enjoyed by anglers, and others who just like a good read.

I am jealous of his style and passion. In these days of ‘text speak’ and other modern communication techniques, it is a pleasure to be able to read English that is properly used. A link to them can be found on the website of the United Clyde Angling Protective Association.