Wednesday 25 January 2012

An expensive day out....

I was away early from Aviemore and pulled onto the A9 at 06:20.  Far earlier than I needed to, but snow was forecast at Drumochter and I hoped to get down the road before the worst of the traffic.  As it happens the snow wasn't too bad and I managed a steady 40mph over the worst of it, but that didn't last too long and I was soon back to a more comfortable speed.  An hour or so later I was pulling into Dunkeld and driving the track down to the river.  I could see the smoke coming out of the chimney - the ghillie was there even before me and soon thrust a hot cup of coffee into my hand.  Perfect!

A welcome site

Although another rod was expected he turned up late and by that time I had already been taken over the other side of the river and I was soon fishing as the sun broke over the distant horizon.

It was looking like an encouraging start to the day.

I noticed that the water was running at 4' which was 10" higher than last week.  Heading to the head of the 'Cottar' I started with a 28g toby, which fished well in the bigger water and I did all I could to slow it down through the water.  Soon I had a take which turned out to be a baggot of about 6lbs, which was quickly returned.  Not long after another take and this time a kelt of similar size.  So it was a good start with two fish in the first 30 minutes - it wasn't even 9 o'clock yet.  I fished the pool through and then decided to head upstream to the 'Christmas Tree' where I took a very thin out-of-season brownie which took a liking to my toby, which was only a little bit smaller than the fish itself!

The water up here is even stronger so I was hurling out my 28g toby along with 4 SSG to help get it down a bit.  This seemed to work and as my lure came in towards the bank I had a take which was very strong.  This was clearly a better size of fish and for a good few minutes the battle went backwards and forwards....

Almost ready.

Soon enough I saw a glimpse of the fish and any hopes that it was a fresh springer were soon dashed when I saw fungus on the head and tail of the fish.  What I had was a very large baggot - clearly in excess of 20lbs, which I had a job landing on the steep banks.  Sadly this is where the photographic journey ends because as I was photographing the fight I slipped and dropped the camera into the water.................

Really frustrated with myself because of this stupid mistake and even getting the big fish safely to the bank was overshadowed by what had just happened.  Returning the fish to whence it came, I fished on but with only another small kelt to show for my efforts.  So a fun day with two kelts, two baggots and a brownie but still no clean fish off the beat so far in 2012.  Maybe next week?


Other views of the beat.

1 comment:

  1. Sorry to hear about your camera, but I guess you have to break a few eggs to make an omlette, I switched to a waterproof camera a few years ago and never have regretted it. Looks like a stunning river-

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