Bing Bong, Avon Calling

I promised during the depths of winter that I would endeavour to try out some water’s further afield, especially rivers. One such river is the Upper Avon, a tributary of the Clyde. What attracted me here was that here was a club who were putting in some extraordinary effort to provide quality fishing for little outlay to anyone who wants it. The Upper Avon Angling Association are somewhat unique in running not only this 7 mile or so, stretch of upper river but also in controlling the fish stock making its way into the river via their own hatchery and stocking pond system. This is all run by club members, for the club members and provides fish of the correct genetic strain for this area of river. I don’t think I have come accross this before, I know there are hatchery set up’s but not to this level outwith commercial fish farms.

Upper Avon Bound

I decided to visit the Avon today and via facebook contacted Alan Scott, a very enthusiastic club member, to get the info on how the river was fishing, and he very kindly offered to meet me to get me sorted out with a ticket etc. However I was surprised to be offered the “full tour” and Alan very kindly took me to the hatchery, Glengavel Reservoir ( an amazing looking expanse of still water also run and stocked by the club) and showed me some interesting sections of the river to help me get my bearings.

Hatchery

The hatchery visit was quite amazing, and I seen some of the grown on fish ready for stocking and the holding pools with yearlings, and other fish. For an “amateur” set up it’s a brilliant scheme and must require a lot of dedication on part of the members of the club as its a round the clock responsibility. I feel quite privileged to have been shown the facility.

Glengavel

Glengavel looks a very interesting expanse of water having many nooks and crannies to explore and I look forward to a visit here sometime in the future too, hopefully.

Browns Bridge

Anyway onto the fishing, I started at the foot of the clubs section of the Avon where their double bank fishing begins at Browns Bridge. I had a wee explore, not that far I have to admit here, up to the first bend. The bottom is made of quite large boulders here and I found it quite tricky with the old knees so after trying and failing to tempt a number of rising fish here to take one of a selection of Klinkhammer patterns offered, I decided to return to the car and head up stream.

The cast off shuck of a Stonefly nymph I found on a rock. Not a small beastie- almost Alien like!

Calder Burn

I headed to where a burn, the Calder Burn runs down to meet the main river. The Calder reminds me of the wee burn I fish locally and I had a few casts over some likely looking spots, it was quite evident the fish were quite spooky here and you could see them take off even while you were quite far back from the water’s edge.

I had a wee cast over one likely holding spot though and raised a fish before another cast hooked one. It felt like a decent fish and was not for coming off the bottom, in fact without seeing it I would dare to hazard a guess it was a Grayling. It put a good bend in my fly-rod, but unfortunately it never stayed on so I will never know!

A few more casts over other spots then I reached the junction with the main river. I headed up stream where it slowed a little and there were some deeper runs, but  never saw any obvious signs of fish moving. I did though catch sight of one fish under the surface, a decent fish of maybe 3/4 a pound, as it moved out from the undercut bank, I had not spooked it but once I got into a decent casting position I was unable to locate it. There was a horrible downstream wind here and it was grey and quite cold for a while. I decided to stop fighting the wind and initially had a go at some downstream dry fly, but with fish not showing it seemed like a dead loss so swapped to a couple of wets.

Fishing wets

Not something I have a lot of time for on rivers but the Clyde is famous for it so who knows? On went a Stuarts spider and a Partridge and Purple. I fished a fair distance downstream but never touched anything and the water got quite deep so I exited and made my way back down towards the junction with the burn, then further down again. Finding a few faster runs I decided to give the wets another (unenthusiastic) cast. I thought I noticed a rise near where my dropper might have been on one cast and had a second cast and this time I hooked into a small Brown but it wasn’t for sticking and came off. Looked like one of these days!

Arthurs Linn

The first fish netted on the Upper Avon on a yellow F Fly

Further down I passed some other interesting looking runs but it was quite cold so headed down to the falls at Arthurs Linn. Reminiscent of the Clyde Shoals in miniature, this looked very interesting. There were fish rising right by the fast water at the top and I stopped for a cast in here with a heavy nymph on point and a wet on top but never managed to raise any interest, so decided to head to the bottom of the falls. There were loads of fish rising here so decided to go back on the dries, this time a Yellow F Fly. I only had a few casts when I rose and connected with a decent fish and after a short fight, it was netted, and released- a fish of about half to three quarters of a pound. It wasn’t its first encounter with a hook as it had a bit of a sore looking mouth on the opposite side of where I hooked it.

Second Fish

Number 3 is on in a pool by the falls

Unfortunately F Flies are not very hardwearing once slimed so on went a second, but this rose a few fish but never connected. I spotted some big brown flies on the water so a swap to a Pheasant Tail dry got me fish number two, albeit a small one. Moving up the falls I managed number three on the same fly, but the wind was cold and annoying by now. I started the walk back to the car but stopped at a few spots on the way and finally at the pool on the Calder I started at and managed to net number 4, another smallish fish on another F Fly.

Great fun and a good days river fishing, well worth the round trip to Strathaven. Big thanks once again to Alan and the UAAA for the time he took to show me around. Very much appreciated!