07/08/12 - Swanswater, Stirling

It was another a warm evening and I headed up to Swanswater at 7pm for a 2 fish catch limit session.

The water was quite still at first but a lot of fish were rising later on.

I tried a lot of different flies but unfortunately I didn’t catch anything. However I did get a lot of casting practice! 

Smaller tippet really worked a treat and my casting was much better.

It was still a very enjoyable evening.

06/08/12 - Fly Tying

This was my first real attempt at making a few flies.

These are buzzers.

24/07/12 - Swanswater, Stirling

This was my second visit to Swanswater, this time for an evening session.

It was a lovely warm night with lots of fish rising.

I managed to hook a fish on an orange fritz, gold head lure, but didn’t set the hook right and it got away….quite exciting stuff with a flash of silver turning and making a bolt.

No other fish made any attempt to take my fly.

A problem occurred in my casting as well, the leader just would not lie flat and straight and kept ending up coiled up on the water.  After a few weeks, I was reading one of my fishing books and realised that this was due to putting too much tippet material on my tapered leader.  I was using a 9ft leader with probably around 8ft of tippet!!!   So no wonder it wouldn’t cast well.

12/07/12 - Summer Holidays – Skye, Scotland

The past few holidays I have taken some fishing equipment with me and this time I thought I would give some beach and rock fishing a try.

Over the week I got to try this a lot and really enjoyed it. The kids also had a good laugh and me catching lots of seaweed!

Towards the end of the holiday, I tried some rock fishing at the Staffin Bay pier and was lucky enough to catch a small Pollock.  It was a lovely orange colour and went for a large blue dexter wedge.

Put it on the BBQ back at the cottage and it was very nice!

It was really good to try this type of fishing and I really enjoyed learning the basics of sea fishing.

same fish

20/08/12 - Swanswater, Stirling

Since North Third is closed for the 2012 season I thought I would give a local fishery a try.

I have known about this fishery for a while now but didn’t really bother about it until I took up fishing.

It’s set on lovely surroundings away from busy traffic and you can hire out row boats.

I spent 6 hours fishing and heard from a variety of sources that it can be a very difficult place to fish.

I started out on the East side of the island across the bridge and caught a Tiger Trout very early on with a red fritz gold head lure/buzzer.  This fish gave some fight and weighed approximately 2.5lb (from what I can remember).

Managed to get another on my line but lost it along with the fly I c

Also caught quite a nice sized Perch as well from the West side of the island and returned this to the water.

The rest of the day I blanked L

I really like the location of Swanswater and surrounding area, but the road in is one of the worst.

01/10/11 - North Third, Stirling

Overcast and rain today, but this doesn’t bother me and I love sitting in a boat drifting in the wind and fishing.

I had a full days fishing ahead of me and was looking forward to it.

Headed over to the dam wall area and hooked a Rainbow on a hothead olive damsel with sinking line and leader.

It was a cracking fish!

Two others followed that 1^st one, each one bigger than the last and I also caught a small Perch, which I returned.

What a great days fishing!!!

28/07/11 - The River Almond, Edinburgh

Being part of the Cramond Angling Club I have access to the River Almond which has Sea Trout, Salmon and Brown Trout.

My first outing to The Falls resulted in two small sea trout being caught on a Teal Blue and Silver wet fly.

Other than that I didn’t catch anything for the rest of the season.  :(

2012 season was not renewed, but may think about this for 2013 or possibly try the River Devon in Stirling.

26/07/11 - North Third, Stirling

This was an evening fishing session, with sunny weather and my first time out on a boat.

Caught a Rainbow trout on a muddler dry fly and returned it to the water.  It was a good fighting fish.

I think this is probably my favourite ways to fish, as being on a boat is very relaxing and a lot of fun.

On a serious note, I bought a fly fishing vest with a built in inflatable life jacket.

07/07/11 - North Third, Stirling

Having been up to North Third over the past few weeks practising casting I managed to catch my first ever fish…….and not just one, two!!

Good size Rainbow Trout, both returned.

May 2011 - The start of my fishing adventures

In 2011 I took up fishing.

This blog covers places that I have visited and fish I have caught.