28/03/2012 - South Esk

Pool of promise

Time - 1600 - 1800
Weather - Sensational, pushing 20 degress
Water - Clear, low
Where - Gore Glen
Method - Mepp no 2
Total - 0

Looking down the biggest pool

A new stretch was explored in the Gore Glen just to the west of Gorebridge. Accessibility was a bit of work and the river is generally quite ovegrown or littered with fallen trees and suchlike. However there are a few nice pools of indeterminate depth and a few nice runs. I didn't see any rises and there were no signs of fish about, however I reckon that later in the season and/or after a bit of rain this could be a sensational little stretch.

Looking up the biggest pool

I began not too far downstream from the road bridge where I parked and had a follow off a nice fish in the 2nd pool I tried, then took a big hit off an even nicer fish, at least in the 12-14 inch range. However, that was that.

The last pool I fished was also the biggest. There are the remnants of some sort of industrial past with a bottleneck weir entering the top of the pool. As you can see from the two photos there has been a lot of major erosion and bank collapse on both banks with some of it including large trees. The main flow of the river is not affected.

Sandstone cross-section

Lastly I discovered this nicely split section of sandstone. The sandy coloured bit is common enough. Although the grey section looks like it might be some sort of mill working residue, it was as hard and of the exact same texture as the rest of the sandstone, so it appeared to be of uniform age. Strangely there was a 'coating' which you can see most clearly on the left edge of the right section of stone in the photo around the entire edge of what had all the appearances of being metal, probably iron. Whether this was a natural formation or if it had at some point been through some form of industrial alteration was far too difficult for this amateur to confirm.