As per the Don post, the week with Andrew didn't pan out the way we had hoped.
The plan was for 2 days on the Deveron, we did achieve that, but not quite as planned
Tuesday we arrived at a rising river, although the main flow of the Deveron was fishable the Isla was rapidly turning Milk Chocolate brown and altering things. The weather continued from Monday and we did try and stick it out.
The fishing was very tough and we ended up with one fish between us, even the grass was growing legs and trying to shelter in the car.
With the stinging rocks from the heavens, i wasn't surprised..... another trip to the pub beckoned
Thursday was to be our second attempt, but the river rose a lot overnight and was fully blown come morning, so we scrapped that plan and headed for the Lower Don, the Deveron water levels often lead the Don by a day or so.
Friday came, Andrew feeling tired, was quite pragmatic about things, but we wanted to get some fishing before he left, so a scouting trip using the Webcams, SEPA website and one of us in car driving around, meant we found a fishable river, we headed upstream on the Deveron above the main tributaries. We found a river running like 90 shilling Ruby Ale but the weather had improved and at least Casting would be less of a chore.
Not an easy day, but some fish were caught, the highlight of the week being a single rising fish spotted on friday afternoon slurping down the odd Upright that floated over his nose. Getting into position with the nymph set up, a couple of speculative casts revealed it was reachable, then an altercation with a tree on the backcast relieved me of the nymph, so what the hell...... dryfly on, wool removed. 1 cast, 1 rise, 1 fish, the ensuing fight had me running from rock to rock as it headed downstream through streamy water , stumbling down the banks faster than i have moved for a good while, then having to negotiate a tree which i only just managed to reach over, fortunately the fish decided to to stop running in a pool just ahead of another tree i didn't have a hope of getting past. It put a grand old bend in the bamboo rod.
Not my biggest of the season, but definitely my best so far, a real sense of achievement at the end of a long week, and yes, it did end up being my last cast of the week, the Steeplechase finished me off, but what a way to go
Hopefully next time Andrew comes up, we get better conditions, but it was a challenge and the company made it worth while
Sandy
