Saturday saw me slipping and sliding my way to Sluie for a days fishing. Why oh why did it have to snow!
RSS met me on the bank and gave a great run down of the pools, where he expected fish to be, what flies to use and so on. His knowledge of the beat is fantastic and meant I could concentrate on fishing rather than wondering if I was in the right spot fishing the right methods.
Extremely slippy snow made getting to the waters adge rather interesting and I ended up on my backside more than once.
There was a tremendous downstream wind with regular gusts that nearly had me toppling head first into the rising river.
Casting was difficult, even when casting odd my left shoulder so after several hours battling the wind in the most likely pool, I was forced to retreat round the bend and fish a lower pool where the wind was slightly more forgiving.
I managed a pull, but that was it for the day. With the river rising and the snow melting fast I headed the mile home. I had a great day out, really enjoyed my first ever "proper" salmon beat and I can't wait to get back once the river settles.