river begginer

[magic]

I'm living in the south east of England at the moment and can only fish my local trout fishery, however I'm going up to Scotland for a few weeks and want to fish my local stream and some lochs, I have never fished rivers before, can anyone give me some advice, PLEASE!
And yes I'm Scottish!!

[magic]

Thanks a lot 

[haresear]

Which is your local stream Magic?

Alex

[tomcatin]

Well Mr Magic ...... if you fish your local trout fishery then you probably have all the prerequisite basic skills you need (equipment, casting etc) all you then need to know is what sort of fly you need and where to lob it .......... more difficult part of the equation!

My advice is simple and based on my own preferance for casting upstream:

# Forget about distance casts; on most small rivers and burns a 10m cast is more than sufficient
# Concentrate on a quite approach and a cast with a minimum of disturbance
# Concentrate on presenting flies to the immediate sides of the main food line (my experience is the majority of the best and most eager troot patrol the main currents - as simply there is more food)
# Simple set ups and single flies until you begin to recognise a take
# Use emerging dry patterns (klinkhammers, parachutes, CDC emergers etc ... ginked as appropriate) rather than pure dries
# Use spiders and simple nymphs for wet flies
# Make sure flies drift naturally (think about where the flyline lands and how that will effect the drift). Learn to make simple mends
# Watch your fly like a hawk

and most importantly as you approach a pool or riffle STOP and LOOK where are the rising fish, what are the food lines, where do I need to be to get a natural drift, is there a back cast, is it safe to wade etc etc ............ then get on with it!

Do not be disapointed if you do not get much joy at first, keep plugging away, keep thinking about it and then one day out of nowhere you will hit the groove and kiss Rainbow filled holes a sweet goodbye!

[magic]

My local river at home is the Calder which runs from Hillend Loch in Audrie west through Calderbank, Ill take all the info and am really looking forward to going, Ill be fishing the Hillend loch as well, you have no idea what its like down here for trout fishing "its pants"

[past caring]

magic - whereabouts are you in the south-east? (i take it you mean south-east of England?). You are right, there's not much about unless you fancy stockie-bashing or over-priced chalk-stream (and the fish are still stocked!). There are a couple of reasonably priced secrets, however. I'm in London - if you fancy a day on the river mid-Kent, let me know.

[magic]

First of all I cant wait to go to Hillend and Scotland in Particular, what fly are the norm for Hillend and which stretch of the Calder is better just now, is it Caldercruix, Plains or Clarkstone?
Secondly I'm in Folkstone and would love to try other places, Iv been to Bewl but at nearly ?50 a go and no catch and release its pretty hefty, have done some chalk streams but same again pricey for what you get. So Id love to go somewhere else and learn some river stuff.

Magic

[past caring]

magic - the river fishing I'm thinking of is close to Bewl and I can get you on as a guest. When are you off to Scotland? - we may be able to get a session in before you go, otherwise send me a PM when you get back.

[magic]

That would be outstanding Past Caring, I'm off to Scotland on the 20th of this month so either would be excellent, I went and bought myself a little 4 weight rod and line for the rivers.