Fishing Reports 2010 Season - CR entries and caught figures in brackets are from the previous week
Week 19, w/e Sunday 25 July.
This week sees the usual suspects back in action with 9(2) entries in the CR for 37(0) trout and 36 returned to fight another day. Wets and nymphs fished more often than dries but River Chatter fished with a PT Dry, Dirty Poly, Hybrid Dry Fly for a respectable 9 trout. 28 (3 of which were in the 10 - 12 inch range) trout caught from the river and 9 from the Pilmuir with the best river beat being above Kirkland bridge accounting for 17 trout. Trout size as follows:
| Size | River | Pilmuir | 4-6ins | 8 | 0 | 6-8ins | 13 | 4 | 8-10ins | 4 | 4 | 10-12ins | 3 | 1 | Over 12ins | 0 | 0 |
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Top rod this week is River Chatter with 16 followed by A Gore with 13, Brian with 6 and Meths with 2. The river received a bit of rain and was running medium but not far off from being high, a welcome flushing out. The new pool below the dam is a bit bare but once the banks start to green up it'll look better, don't walk past it, give it a fish - I got two lovely little wildies about 10yds from the tail and in the middle. The beavers were out at the Pilmuir and got some of the weed cut and more of the railings painted.
Week 18, w/e Sunday 18 July.
Looks like everyone really is on holiday as the CR has only 2(4) entries for 0(5) trout although River Chatter says he missed 3..hmmmmn..when fishing before his stint at the beavers. A bit more rain this week and an increase in the water level but perhaps a little more would be better. The beavers were out on Tuesday with the majority of the dam wall receiving its second cut, well done Hammerhead, and a start made at painting the railings. I think its painting again this week and an attempt to cut the weed, thereafter, probably back to the river but I'll leave that to the Chief Beaver to decide.
Week 17, w/e Sunday 11 July.
Now that we've had a little rain the river has been refreshed but not really raised that much, however, better than nothing. The CR again shows a quiet week with only 4(4) returns for 5(16) trout, 1 from the river with the rest from the Pilmuir and once more all trout returned. Top rod is River Chatter with 4 (on wets) with J R Hartley catching(on a grey duster) a nice 6-8 inch trout on an upstream cast from the ford. give the usual suspects are missing from the CR I'm presuming they are on holiday. Running total of trout caught is 385 which exceeds all of the trout caught last season. The beavers were out again, this time trimming the grass at the dam wall and painting a fence. It was noticed, last week, by the beavers that many of our signs on the river were missing/needing replaced so we have ordered new ones.
Week 16, w/e Sunday 04 July.
Although we've had a little rain it hasn't been enough to raise the river level and possibly it just stirred up the the river rather than anything else. Very quiet week for the CR with 3 anglers submitting 4(12) entries for 16(40) trout, 7 from the Pilmuir and 9 from the river and again all trout safely returned. Trout size varied as follows;
| Size | River | Pilmuir | 4-6ins | 4 | 2 | 6-8ins | 3 | 8-10ins | 1 | 1 | 10-12ins | 1 | 2 | Over 12ins | 2(1 at 2.5lb) |
|---|
Top rod is Brian with 7 followed by River Chatter with 5 and A Gore with 4, Brian got his on traditional wets(go on Brian, name them, River Chatter on DHT and PT dries with A Gore using(what seems to be a favourite) a snipe and purple. Most of the river trout caught between the island pool and Kirkland Bridge. The beavers wer out againd and did some branch lopping below Kirkland Bridge and also renewed the groynes in the little Cart, I still wonder at how such a simple thing as a small groyne improves the flow of the water. The beavers will be out again this coming week.
Week 15, w/e Sunday 27 June.
Another fine week of weather with the river having shrunk and showing its bones, the Pilmuir whilst down has not been as badly affected. The CR this week has 12(8) entries for a tasty 40(28) trout and (once again all 40 safely returned) with 23 caught from the Pilmuir and 17 from the river. Dry flies accounted for 13 trout and wets/nymphs the other 27, Brian had success on the Pilmuir using traditional wets, Hammerhead using an emerger on Pilmuir and River Chatter taking his fair share from the river using his PT dry. Top rod this week is Brian with 11, followed by Hammerhead & River Chatter on 10 each and best beat this week has been from the island pool to Kirkland Bridge. The beavers were out on Tuesday with one beaver strimming grass down at the ford and the other 3 building some groyes at the junction pool, it's amazing how a couple of groynes can increase the speed of the flow into a pool. Unfortunately, for the beavers building groynes they were badly mauled by those midgie terrors and discretion being the better part of valour they retreated.Talking of beavers I wonder if readers would be able to identify the eejit who locked himself out of his car.
Week 14, w/e Sunday 20 June.
Hot, hot hot as the good weather continues but the downside is the river is pretty low although there are still a number of deep pools to be found. The CR has 8(5) entries but for 28(12) trout and again all were safely returned. All bar 4 fish were were caught on dries with Fishy Fingers getting 6 on an Elk Hair Caddis, River chatter used a selection of dries(PT,Dirty Polly, Cream Palmer & DHE)to catch his 10 trout and the Top rod Title for the week. Once again the river caught fish were small wild fish although 4 were in the 8-10 inch range with one of these caught in the Earn. No return entered for the Pilmuir this week, perhaps it's going through the difficult to catch mid summer phase and members are moving to the river. The beavers were down to a minimum this week, too few to achieve anything althogh we checked some of the burns and upper part of the Polnoon - a little bit of work in this part of the Polnoon could yield good results but where oh where will we get the beaver manpower.
Week 13, w/e Sunday 13 June.
This week, apart from rain on Tuesday, has been a continuation of the dry spell and as a consequence the river and the Pilmuir are a bit low. It has been a quiet week with only 5(8) CR entries for 12(26) trout and once again all the trout returned. Both A Morran and J R Hartley each had a nice trout in the 10-12 inch range in the river and Pilmuir respectively. The rest were the usual suspects - smallish but truly wild brown trout. All bar one caught on dries with River Chatter getting 6 on his usual PT dry, a little scruffy fly from memory but it does the biz for RC. . Top rod is River Chatter with A Gore missing out but only because he hasn't fished/entered a CR for the week. The beavers had a week off this week due to the rain on Tuesday, instream river work was to be the order of the day but it was felt that this might have been a bit tricky.Finally, thanks to the members who use the CR as it is providing us with valuable data, if you fish and don't use it please reconsider and make the effort.
Week 12, w/e Sunday 06 June.
This week sees a drop of 1 in CR entries, down to 8(9) but with, a bigger drop down to, 26(53) trout caught all of which were safely returned. Small fish continue to dominate the river figures although River Chatter caught a nice one in the 10 - 12 inch range. This week the river and the Pilmuir accounted for 23 and 3 trout respectively. Best beat in the river was the Waterfoot stretch with 8 trout followed by the little Cart with 7, it's nice to see the little Cart being fished. Top rod was once more a reversal of the previous week with A Gore on 11 and River Chatter on 8, top flies were a PT dry and a Tups. With the lack of rain the river has been on the low side although the pools are still holding a reasonable depth of water. That said a bit of rain wouldn't go amiss, it might even get Lord Lob out worming!!!!! The beavers finished the strimming at the Pilmuir and if I say so myself it has made a difference. Next up is the river, repairing the groynes
Week 11, w/e Sunday 30 May.
At this point in the season some 244 trout have been caught with 77 of these from the Pilmuir and 167 from the river. As we only took over the Pilmuir last June I have no comparison for it but for the river it is 167 compared to 73 this time last year. I haven't done a fishing effort analysis but I suspect it would bear out as being better this season than last. This week the CR has 9(9) entries for 53(41) trout with only 1 dispatched, the breakdown between river(5 entries) and loch(4 entries) is 45 and 8 trout respectively. The river is continuing to fish well with the vast majority(32) of the trout being in the 4 - 6 & 6 - 8 inch range - best beat this week is the Polnoon stretch with 20 trout caught. Top rod is a reversal of last week with River Chatter on 29 and A Gore on 19 - great fishing guys. Dy flies accounted for 39 trout with wets taking 14, top dry was a PT and the top wet a Teal&Black. The beavers were at the Pilmuir and managed to do a power of strimming, a short back and front, so to speak, to the dam wall and also to the heavier growth at the waters edge of the dam wall - thanks are due for a good job.
Week 10, w/e Sunday 23 May.
This week shows a slight increase in the CR reports to 9(6) but for a cracking 41(18) trout caught and once again all trout returned to fight another day. This split in the catch is 40 from the river and 1 from the Pilmuir, the river is fishing well and once again it's lots of small wild trout that have been caught. Best beat this week from the island pool to the KB closely followed by below the ford to the Waterfoot houses. Top rod is A Gore with 17 but with River Chatter just behind with 15. Just as I go singing the praises of using a snipe&purple, A Gore switches to a teal&black and still contues to catch - is it the fly, the angler or both. The beavers were back at the Pilmuir giving the barley straw a bit of a dooking, tidying up and mending the metal fence, it was also nice to have a visit from an old friend "swimswithfishes" and no he didn't cos he stayed on the bank.
Week 9, w/e Sunday 16 May.
The CR this week has 6(15) entries for 18(45) trout and once again all trout were returned safely. With little rain the river is running a bit low (but not too low) and the Pilmuir is also on the low side compared to earlier in the season. The running total (to 16 May)of trout caught is 121 with 57 of these from the Pilmuir and the remaining 64 from the river - after a slow start the river is starting to pick up. Best beat, to 16 May, on the river is from the end of the Waterfoot houses to the ford accounting for 38 of the trout caught. Most of the river trout are in the 4 - 6 inch range which is something I was not expecting, I felt that the harsh winter might have adversely affected the population of smaller trout in the river. The bigger trout have yet to make an appearance but I'm confident(I hope) we'll start to see them late May/early June. Top Rod this week is River Chatter with 11 trout followed by A Gore on 4 and Brian on 3. Most trout caught on Bibio and Wickham's variant with Grey Goose spider, Snipe&Purple and Black Pennel accounting for the rest. For those fishing the river the CR shows that the Snipe &Purple is doing the business on the river - why not give it a try on your next river outing. The beavers were out at the river pickiing up some abandoned wire, assorted rubbish and also checking out one of the feeder burns.
Week 8, w/e Sunday 9 May.
This week the CR has 15(4) entries and 45(10) trout, all safely returned. Many smaller fish to be found in the river with 23 4″–6″, the remaining 11 under 8″ and most of them (23) caught below the ford. Mainly larger trout from the Pilmuir with 11 caught, 8 over 8″ and 3 of which were over 12″. Top rod is Brian with 18 trout closely followed by A Gore with 16. A variety of flies used with 17 caught on snipe & purple, 4 on nymphs (Grey Goose, spiders, gold bead hare's ear) and 5 on dry (Pheasant Tail Dry and DHE, White dry, Grey Duster).
Week 7, w/e Sunday 2 May.
The CR this week has only 4(9) entries 10(18) trout all of which were safely returned. Out of this total, 4 were caught in the Pilmuir with the other 6 from the river (4 from Island pool to the kirkland bridge and 2 from below the ford) - it's nice to see trout being caught in the river. All trout caught on wets with a tups accounting for 6 and a variety of traditional wets the other 4. Top rod this week is R Mcmorran with 6 a and closely follwed by Brian with 4, the river trout were under 8 inches and the Pilmuir trout a bit bigger. The beavers were out once again and the the barley straw has now been anchored in the reservoir. With the grass now starting to grow the beavers will soon be strimming the river banks and dam wall.
Week 6, w/e Sunday 25 April.
This week the CR has 9(9) entries again but for 18(5) trout with one retained from the Pilmuir. From the river there were 12 wild trout caught, 9 were 4″–6″ and the remaining 3 were 6″–8″. From the Pilmuir, 1 was in the 8″–10″ range, 3 were 10″–12″ and 2 were over 12″. 9 trout caught on wets (8 on Tups and 1 on snipe & purple) from the river, with 3 on a dry (Snowshoe Emerger & PT Dry and CDC Olive). The trout from the Pilmuir were caught on nymphs (Diawl Bach). The beavers were also out at work again this week.
Week 5, w/e Sunday 18 April.
This week the CR has 9(6) entries for 5(4) trout and once again all were safely returned. of the 5 trout caught 4 were from the river and 1 from the Pilmuir, the river trout were all wild trout, 2 in the 4 - 6 inch range, 1 in the 6 -8 inch range and the other in the 8 - 10 inch range - the trout from the Pilmuir was in the 10 - 12 inch range. 4 trout caught on wets/nymphs ( 2 on Tups, 1 each on GHRE and PTN) with 1 on a dry - a CDC Olive. Brian caught the Pilmuir trout with A Gore and R McMorran getting 3 and 1 respectively from the river, looks like the river is now starting to kick in. The beavers were hard at it on Tuesday, bagging up a roundel of barley straw in preparation for for putting in the loch, the barley straw is stored in boathouse meantime so it's a bit of a tight squeeze getting a boat out. No rest for the wicked so the beavers will be back out this week.
Week 4, w/e Sunday 11 April.
Weather! how fickle and out to prove me wrong in what I said last week. The CR this week has 6(4) entries for 4(2) fish all of which were safely returned. 1 trout was over 12 inches and 3 fish were in the 10-12 inch range, one of which was the first river trout of the season - congratulations to R McMorran who caught the trout(above Kirkland Bridge) on a GRHE. The other three trout were caught on the Pilmuir by River Chatter, on a Black Pennell,by Brian on a Ginger Bumble and by Derek, fly unknown. Nothing much else to report other than the beavers could not get out as the weather last Tuesday was pretty poor although it improved very quickly thereafter. This week should be on and we have barley straw to put in the Pilmuir. Tight lines to all who venture out this week.
Week 3, w/e Sunday 04 April.
Here we are into April, the clocks have gone forward and winter is still reluctant to release its grip....brrr - especially brrr when I waded into the Pilmuir to discover that both legs of my waders had sprung a leak. Unfortunately, for me both leaks were high, so with both legs soaking from mid thigh down (and freezing) I went home. The CR for this week has 4(6) entries for 2(7) trout caught, one of which had to be dispatched. Still no trout caught on the river but to be fair not many of the returns are for the river. Top rod this week is Brian who caught both the fish this week and it's nice to see one of our new members(after30years) has been out on the river. Brian caught his fish on a PTN and a buzzer. Due to the inclement weather the beavers was cancelled but I'm sure we'll catch up this coming week.
Week 2, w/e Sunday 28 March.
We are nearly into April and the the old saying about March sprang to mind " in like a lion and out like a lamb", somehow it doesn't seem to fit the bill - so far. This weather might have kept our members indoors as the CR has only 6(12) entries although 7(14) trout were caught. Three of these were in the 8 - 10 inch range, 2 in the 10 - 12 inch range and 2 over 12 inches - all safely returned. All trout caught on the Pilmuir with wets, buzzers and a nymph accounting for all the fish. I would reckon it'll be another few weeks before we see any return from the river but someone may prove me wrong. Top rod was shared between Bryce and Brian with 3 apiece with River Chatter catching the other, indeed, these three were the only recorded anglers for the week. The beavers were on site at the Pilmuir boathouse where they finished sealing the keelband and did a bit of varnishing on boat 2. The beavers will be working in the Pilmuir for a few weeks finishing off the varnishing and hauling in weed. Hopefully, we'll get a delivery of barley straw soon so we can get that into the reservoir. By then the weather should have improved enough for us to get into the river for groyne repair and tree lopping.
Week 1, w/e Sunday 21 March.
This time, last Monday I thought I heard a collective sigh along the the lines of " thank God the fishing season has started" but perhaps it was only my own sigh I was hearing, however, it's a great feeling to know that there are many weeks fishing to come. This season will be the first full season that Walton AC will have the Pilmuir reservoir as part of its fishings and a very welcome addition it is. If you haven't taken up this option in your membership I recommend that you do - it's a cracking wee stillwater with two boats. The season was brought in at 00 hours on Monday at the ford with the president pouring a dram into the water and taking the first cast. Seven members turned out and a good chinwag was had, thanks to Lord Lob for providing the coffee and biscuits. The first trout recorded as caught was by the club president early on Monday afternoon at the Pilmuir - a lovely wild brownie safely returned.
This first week closed with 14 fish caught, all caught on the Pilmuir and all safely returned. Of the trout caught 9 were in the 8-10 inch range, 3 were in the 10-12 inch range and 2 were over 12 inches - not too bad for the first week of the season. The first top rod honour of the season goes to Brian who landed 10 out of the 14 caught, what's his secret I hear you ask, well a little non descript all grey fly on a his dropper seems to being doing the business. Wets, nymphs, buzzers and a yellow dancer accounted for the trout but who will be first to catch on a dry, shouldn't be too long given the amount of rises I saw on Sunday around 5.30pm. Nothing caught on the river but according to the catch return it's usually April before the river switches on so not too much to worry about so far. Talking of the river, the flood prevention dam is almost completed and due to be finished around June, the harsh winter has delayed the completion.
I can't start the season without mentioning the beavers who are already into the swing of things. One boat has been re-varnished, the other is partially re-varnished but has had the keel band replaced and sealed - we aim to finishing the re-varnishing on Tuesday night. Additionally, a lot of weed has been removed with more to be done plus the introduction of some barley straw. Next up will be a visit to the river to repair the groynes which looking at the ones I saw today shouldn't be too big a job. After this it is grass strimming on both the river and the pilmuir, the beavers work is never done.
Finally, I wish every member a successful and happy season.
