05/10/2012 - Lyne Water, South Esk & North Esk

H on the Moorfoot Burn

Time
Weather
Water
Method
Total - 1
Species - Brown Trout - 7.5"

An all day assault on many of my favourite spots on the North & South Esk should have been a fish filled wonder sesh. Instead it was an incredibly frustrating outing resulting in just a single troot of 7.5 inches for two determined anglers using a variety of approaches in all manner of places. Even the final attempts at Polton Bank where I'd taken three in an hour the previous evening could only offer up a single fish to finally expunge the spectre of a double blank. The cost of the solitary fish was my first broken rod in years as I angrily tried to extricate a mepp from a tree after a particularly amateurish cast.

Bites, but still no success on the South Esk

Whilst I've been rapidly expanding my pitiful sea fishing abilities with the help of J & H, I've been trying to fit in a fly fishing session or two with H to get him a bit more up to speed with the finer end of fishing (allegedly). First stop was a couple of pools on the Lyne where I can usually tempt a few small trout. Being so late in the season I knew our chances would be slim. I was able to entice a couple of rises from a couple of small ones. But that was that. H was unable to find any success, caught in that frustrating Catch 22 where until you find a successful tactic in a given method, you fish with minimal confidence to begin with, which then increasingly diminishes with ongoing lack of success. Not to worry though, I'd lined up a delicious looking menu of locations and it would surely only be a matter of time until we began banking trout.

As my tour continued we alighted on the Moorfoot Burn where there are a couple of nice runs and one good pool. But despite conducive conditions neither of us could even tempt a tap so we moved again.

H in Roslin Glen retrieving his tackle from a tree

Next stop was the South Esk just downstream from Temple. There are two streams that merge here forming the South Esk emanating from Rosebery and Edgelaw reservoirs. Due to their size, there are only really a small handful of properly fishable pools although the slightly higher than normal river levels were conducive to some extra little runs being explored. I'd switched to my trusty mepp whilst H was now employing the Isome on a small jig set-up. Straight away he'd induced a couple of bites, but in what was quickly turning into the story of the day, we were failing to hook, let alone land any of the offers. We fished down the Edgelaw 'outflow' burn to the pool below the confluence, then fished up to the weir on the 'Rosebery' river. THere is a fair amount of trekking involved in this location and after returning to the car a little  bit out of breath I asked H if he wanted to do more cross country exploring or go somewhere we would definitely catch a fish. He opted for the latter and we headed for Polton Bank and the North Esk where I'd taken 3 brownies in a par for the course session the previous evening.

H, North Esk, and the benefits of chest waders

H was doing his usual experimenting with all sorts of rubber things while I persevered with my trusty mepp. The run above the weir had H's attention as I moved downstream and it wasn't long before a shout from the top of the waterfall alerted me to the energetic louping of his first fish of the day. before I could get there, it was off. I'd since lost my mepp and had converted to a jighead with a small jelly minnow and was tempted to try the far right bank at the top of the weir as H continued on the left bank. I was getting interest of at least one decent trout which finally took and as I turned to inform H, it too escaped. Things were getting a bit silly. Below the weir again I managed to lift a few more trout from their lies with my minnow, but for some reason, the hooks weren't doing their job and offer after offer was missed.

There are some decent pools further down, one of which I never fail in and I sent H straight to it. In the meantime I was fishing a likely looking spot, but from high above on the riverside path in a bid to take every opportunity going and finally brought a trout to the bank. Talk about hard won victories.

Reduced to photographing Brambles

H was still trying and failing as I passed him to a really nice looking pool where I still haven't had a fish. My first cast was rubbish and my second landed in a tree. As I yanked to try and free it I snapped the line and was (not) absolutely delighted to find I'd also snapped the last 3-4 inches off my rod.

It was time to get back to the car. With time running out before H's lift home we headed to Roslin Glen for a final push to bust his blank. Through necessity I was back on the fly. It was my first time down here since before the latest spates and I was surprised at the amount of erosion and reshaping of many of the runs and pools. The corner below the road bridge wasn't just unfishable previously, but you couldn't even get a cast in if it had been. It was now fully accessible and fishable due to all the logs and branches having been swept off. However the story remained much the same as it had for most of the day and we couldn't find any more success. As far as the lovely wee Brown Trout goes, that was it for 2012, but of course, there is always next season.

29/03/2012 - North Esk

Roslin Castle

Time - 1815-1915
Weather - 15+ degrees cooling from main part of day. Record breaking (temp) weather to continue into Friday although next week supposedly cooling back down to around 10 degrees with possibility of some hill snow...
Water - Clear, although low for time of year, there is still enough to keep the river going, no signs of stagnation
Where - Roslin Glen downstream from road bridge to footbridge
Method - Mepp Gold no 0
Total - 1, Brownie, 11 inch

Before I reached the water a Buzzard rose from a nearby tree. And later, for the second day in a row (forgot to mention at Gore Glen) a couple of deer got up & made off on the opposite bank.

Apart from the odd waft from the water works this was a super pleasant evening. the car park closes at 5pm so there was nobody about and I effectively had the stretch to myself. Quite surprising on such an nice evening. Shows you don't always have to go far to find some peace.

I started in the runs above the road bridge and induced a follow of a 7 or so incher. And this was the case as I fished down, the odd follow but no real move for a fish to take. Eventually I got flashed by a 5 incher. In the deeper pool alongside the car park area I had plenty of follows by 7-8 inchers but nothing really looking like biting. There was a small rise here too from nothing bigger than 6 inches.

The conditions were too clear and lacking any above norm turbulence so it appears the fish just have far too much time to eye up what's on offer and are displaying curiosity ahead of aggression.

In the run in to the pool below I got hit by a solid fish and it put up a very good wee fight too. Once banked it measured 11 inches which is the best brownie of the season so far, a beauty in excellent condition.

22/03/2012 - South Esk

Looking down to the foot of the overflow

Time - 1400 - 1500
Where - Gladhouse overflow
Weather - Lovely
Water - Summer level and clear
Method - Mepp no 2
Total - 0

Plan A: My initial plan was to head downstream from the part of Roslin Glen I'd fished the previous weekend. However there was a class of schoolkids out with their teacher walking alongside the road outside the car park and once I got into the car park there were more hanging around. So I decided there would probably be too much disturbance and formulated a Plan B.

Plan B: Investigate the outflows at Roseberry and/or Gladhouse. The outflow from Gladhouse Reservoir flows down through some largely inaccessible terrain and into Roseberry Reservoir. It then flows down to Temple and through the area I've fished a lot meeting up with the Edgelaw outflow just downstream of the Carrington Bridge. So I knew that those rivers weren't much more than burns at Temple, so weren't going to be much more further upstream, especially once the water extraction is carried out. But you never know, there might be a pool or two at the foot of the dam walls and there is always the possibility of an escapee or two. I've heard there are loads of Perch in Gladhouse as well as the trout and there are Pike in Roseberry on top of what they claim are weekly stockings of trout. So plenty potential for a surprise or two.

There is probably only one parking spot around the Roseberry dam and it was already taken, so I wasn't able to stop. However the river at the foot of the dam wall looked quite promising. As it turned out, I only had to wait another day to try it.

I drove on to Gladhouse and got parked near the dam. There is quite a steep and overgrown ramble to get down the back of the dam including a bridge across the steep overflow which is missing half its floor.

At the foot of the overflow is a nice looking pool. However once I got down to it, it is mostly flat and shallow bottomed. There are one or two shelf's and hidey holes though and in higher water it might be worth another short visit. I managed to induce a follow of a fish around 4-5 inches. A rambled downstream for a little bit, but its quite a small burn at this point and there was only one more deepish pool which was difficult to fish as it was quite overgrown.

18/03/2012 - North Esk

Roslin Glen weir at the Old Gunpowder Works

Time - 1600 - 1800
Water - A little bit more than previous visit and a little bit cloudier, but still low and clear for time of year
Method - Mepp No 2
Where - Roslin Glen Old Gunpowder Mills, Dalmore
Weather - Very fair, a bit breezy
Total - 1
Species - Brown Trout

Note the hatch

I decided to explore the weir area at the old Gunpowder Works in Roslin Glen. The foot of waterfalls might be my favourite spot, especially with the mepp. Something about the limited time a fish has to decide or otherwise on the offering.

Looking downstream from atop the weir

I fished from the foot of the weir and had a follow quite quickly from a fish of around 9 inch. As I didn't know the layout, I was fishing over shallowish undulations and rocks etc that I couldn't quite make out in the light and water conditions. Plenty of lovely little holes and sucklike.

Looking downstream from the foot of the weir

I moved downstream into the first big pool just under and below the footbridge and quite soon connected with a brownie in nice condition tipping the tape at 9 inch. When I banked it, it covered itself in a bit of gravel and as I rinsed it to get it looking good for a photo, it managed to free itself and make off.

View downstream from footbridge

I continued downstream covering two or three of the runs and half-pools there are until I reached a long pool under the old lade, meaning there is a long large brick wall down one end of the pool. Accessibility became an issue and not knowing the depths and still having to explore above the weir, in limited time, I headed back upstream.

Cliff

Cliff again

Above the weir is a lovely big pool with the obligatory bubble float/s in the trees on the far bank. A bit too low and slow and no interest. Well worth further examination though most probably from the opposite bank.

An absolutely lovely wee spot though and well worth perseverance and further investigation in future.

While returning along the old railway I took a shot of the Pentland's in the distance with a plane above them as you can see below left.

View of Pentland's from Old Railway on way home

Before finishing I had a quick dip at Dalmore fishing the weir pool, then upstream to the old railway bridge, but with no success.