St Mungo's Parish, Annan (18 July and 22 August 2015)

I had two separate days on St Mungo's Parish, on the Lower/Middle River Annan, in Summer 2015. One of these was in July and the other roughly a month later in August. On both days, the river was in spate and was carrying significant colour, something like that of a poorly-milked cup of tea (best way to describe it!). Below the Water of Milk - which joins the main river at the Milkfoot Pool, a couple of miles downstream at Hoddom Castle - the river tends to colour up heavily when in spate. Clarity at St Mungo's was fine for fishing, though, on these days, which were fished mainly with various one inch tubes on a floating shooting head, intermediate tip and short leader.

St Mungo's is fished primarily by a syndicate organised through the Castle Milk Estate, who also have the Brocklerigg beat, just downstream, and water at Royal Four Towns, just upstream. Day rods are available in the Spring and Summer, but in the Back End the beat is kept for the syndicate. Traditionally, the Back End has been the best of the fishing, but in recent years - as with many rivers -  the runs have been less predictable on the Annan. There have been good runs earlier in the season in July and August some years (2011, 2012) and a noticeable improvement in Spring fishing in recent years, although this is yet to be taken advantage of (at least on paper) anywhere other than at Newbie and, arguably, Hoddom.

Pictured: The tail of The Dungeon and Sand Hole, below.

On both days, I started in the Ivy Pool, at the top of the beat. This pool doesn't seem to have any great depth to it, but it does have a nice even flow which makes it easy to present the fly. There are also a number of nice, rocky lies and a crease down the St Mungo's bank which provide focal points. I saw running fish in here on my July day, whilst attempting to overcome the challenge set by the pool's wading!

Pictured: Upstream in the Ivy Pool.

Pictured: Downstream in the Ivy Pool.

The most well-known pool on the beat, and a famous pool of the River Annan, is The Dungeon. A big, sweeping pool, the neck of which rounds a bend in the river before it straightens out into a long deep holding pool, it needs to be fished in different sections. I started at the neck, which has nice fly water, before coming back out of the pool once I reached the point where it drops off into its deeper section. I had a tug on a one inch aluminium Ally's Shrimp right at the top of the stream on my July day.

Pictured: The neck of The Dungeon.

There is then a section which is difficult to fish, due to the depth of the near bank water and the expanse of slack water between the bank and the main flow at the outside of the bend. I skipped down to the main cut-in for the pool and waded out to a gravel bar, mid-stream to fish the dub of the pool.

Pictured: The main entrance for The Dungeon.

There were fish showing all down the pool, although the main lies appeared to be difficult to reach, being slightly too square a cast from the upstream end of the gravel bar. About halfway down, I hooked a small fish which I played for a minute or so before losing. Probably a small sea trout or finnock of 1.5lbs or so. I fished on down until I had fished the faster fly water of the tail of the pool. On my July day, I came back up here for a run down with a Sunray Shadow just before heading home and lost a poorly-hooked Salmon - maybe 6-8 lbs - which had followed it across the tail of the pool. If it had taken a few draws of the line earlier, it might have been easier to hang on to.

Pictured: The tail of The Dungeon.

Pictured: The Bield, which is positioned next to Sand Hole, below The Dungeon.

A little further downstream is Manse Stream, where the river drops slightly forming a fast, deep-ish channel with a lie behind a big rock on the awkward, far side of the stream. On my second day, the August one, I fished this with a one inch copper Monkey tube, to get the fly down as fast as possible. A couple of casts in, a fish which would have been sitting off the current on the far side of the stream took my fly and held in the current until it had worked out what was going on. When it eventually showed, it turned out to be a big coloured Summer fish. It ran upstream, sending two other fish leaping (good to know there were quite a few in the pools - I wouldn't have known this otherwise!) and made a number of strong runs downstream for Manse Pool, a bigger holding pool just downstream (known as the Boat Pool by Kirkwood, fishing opposite). A strong fish to fight in a heavy  flow and with nowhere suitable to land it, I fought it for a good 20 minutes or more and had it up on its side twice when it eventually popped off right at the net. Frustrating stuff, as it'd have been the first fish off the beat for the season and - on sighting - would have been well above 15lbs.

Pictured: Manse Stream.

I watched some Kirkwood rods fish the pool from the far bank before having a go in Manse Pool. From St Mungo's, on the outside of the bend, this pool even when in spate doesn't quite have the right flow to bring the fly round at a nice pace, but I suppose this helps give the benefit of being sure it's at a nice depth when it passes over the main channel.

Pictured: Manse Pool or Boat Pool, depending on whether you're fishing St Mungo's or Kirkwood.

I then skipped down a half-mile or so to explore the bottom of the beat. There is limited access to some of the pools in the middle of the beat, but these don't appear to be the best anyway, with little depth on this stretch.

I understand Castle Milk Estate are in the process of addressing slight access issues to the lower pools on the beat and are producing a new map of the fishings for this purpose. I improvised on this front - being keen to explore, as ever - and had a look at the pools, which are varied. Raw Green is a shallow, back-end type run amidst picturesque parkland. The main channel is on the Kirkwood side. Below this is Bowmill Holm (Buttress, to Kirkwood) which is a deep, 'weil' style pool, probably again best in the Autumn. This then breaks into the Rotchell Pool, which does look like a useful spot when the fish are running, being above a fair drop into the Stag Pool below. Finally, the Stag Pool is an interesting one, being fairly difficult to fish and probably being more water for spinning. It looks like it could be the most likely cold water, Spring pool on the beat, although I heard one was caught by Murraythwaite rods, who fish opposite the very bottom of St Mungo's, on the morning of my August day.

Pictured: Raw Green - fairly shallow, streamy water.

Pictured: Bowmill Holm - too slow for a good chance with the fly, even at 2-3 feet.

Pictured: The tail of the Rotchell Pool, which drops into The Stag. This spot could be good while fish are running.

Pictured: The fast neck of The Stag, as the river drops sharply.

Pictured: The Stag - you can see the obvious lies at the tail of the current and to the sides.

St Mungo's is a nice spot - especially up at the Dungeon and at the Manse Stream and Pool - and was being strimmed and tidied up in July when I first visited. It has a good variety of pools and, although some are fairly difficult to fish, you can have a decent chance here in good water of 2 feet or so, as was shown by my various lost fish. It would be interesting to try it in low water also and I'll give it another go at some point for this purpose. A local and persistent syndicate rod, able to pick a few hours here and there, might do quite well here in a wet season and a well-chosen day rod could provide good value for money in July or August, I'd suggest.

Cheers

Calum

Newbie, River Annan (21 April 2014)

The extra two days I acquired courtesy of the Easter Bunny were both spent fishing. Friday was spent on Dalmarnock, on the River Tay near Dunkeld. I really want to go and explore the Upper Tay and its tributaries more widely, but I will be returning to Dalmarnock, in particular, soon. Gordon, the ghillie - in his sixth year at Dalmarnock, the last year and half or so of which have been as Head Ghillie - was remarkably present, considering there were 8 rods on. Although light-hearted and disarming, there was a tangible focus in his voice when relaying to the rods the technical experience and knowledge required to make the most of the pools. I always think that good things should be supported where possible (I'm a Partick Thistle fan) and so I'll be back. Unfortunately, though, my Dalmarnock trip will 'slip the net', in terms of this blog, and I will start with a report on a trip to Newbie on the River Annan on monday instead.

By the time I got round to organising something for monday, the Tay was near enough booked up (at least in terms of fly fishing) and the Tweed was, well, still priced at Tweed prices. Reasonable (reasonably good and reasonably priced) Spring fishing is difficult to come across. The established Spring fishing is well-known and well in demand. However, Newbie on the Annan had, before monday (and after...), had 11 fish so far. Other beats on the river had reported a few, but Newbie had had a good Spring previously also and was showing a little consistency. There was one rod spare at only £20, so off I went to take a look.

Up at 5:50am on my last day off, I was in Annan to meet July the caretaker at the well-appointed (I will try not to use this phrase much more and to use something more descriptive - I promise!) hut at 8:30am sharp. I'm told that the beat's ownership is shared between circa 125 owners, most of whom are private individuals, although I understand that some weeks are held by a corporate body for commercial purposes. The result of this ownership structure is that the hut is more of a lodge/clubhouse for the fishings and could definitely host a celebration of some of the catches posted on the walls. It was 13/14 degrees though and so no need for shelter; I had drawn Beat 3 for the morning, which was comprised of the bottom three pools and the top one pool of the entire fishings.

I headed to the lower pools first and after some changing of lines (settling eventually for an intermediate instead of a T10 sink tip), I fished through Spittals and Howe's Corner with a size 8 Ally's Shrimp, aware that the pools were tidal and thinking that this might therefore be a good pattern. Keen to explore, I moved up to Island Stream (the top-most pool on the whole beat, pictured below) for half an hour before lunch. The beat is single right-bank fishing for this pool and you can imagine in the back-end at 1' 2" to 1' 6" the demand to get on this pool. Long and narrow, with a steep gradient down into the water from the banks, the water must really push through here when it's on.

A quick coffee and some lunch at the hut and I moved on to my afternoon pool on Beat 1. This beat is essentially comprised of the prize pool of Newbie fishings - the Cauld Stream (pictured below). Last Spring, I was told, the water did not reach a temperature sufficient for fish to pass over the cauld until early/mid-April. I had heard that at one stage during this spell of cold weather, there were a dozen fish waiting to go over. 18 fish were caught on Newbie during Spring 2013, including 10 in March alone - a notable return.

The pool itself is quite complex and must change character with height. At <1', it seems to have 3 distinct sections at least. The Cauld Stream itself is a fast, deep channel flowing directly from the fish pass down the left bank for quite some distance. There is also a more natural and traditional pool from the gravel banks in the middle of the river. Further downstream, Pat's Bridge (very successful, of late) is a deep, slow section at the tail of the cauld's flow.

To fish the pool, I changed back and forth between skagit with 8' of T14 sink tip and intermediate lines. The top section was fished with the T14 and either a tungsten Cascade or a heavy 2" copper Eternal Optimist. Further downstream, the intermediate was paired with a small size 8 Posh Tosh. Later on, a Sunray Shadow was stripped across the middle pool in the half-light of the evening (when things were getting desperate).

Not to be, on the day, unfortunately, but I did have one landmark - I saw my first fish of 2014 (at least one that wasn't on the end of a line - 2 fish were caught on Commonty, opposite, while I was fishing Woodend on Dee in February). If nothing else, it focusses the mind and reminds you of the original reason that you're there, even if catching fish seems of secondary importance once you've made another few fishing acquaintances/friends during the day.

Newbie definitely seems to be geared up for Spring fishing - far more so than the Upper Tweed is, or tries to be. It was mentioned to me by one of my new acquaintances that there's talk that the Annan runs are swinging back towards the Spring and, if the consistent catches of the last two seasons at Newbie are anything to go by, then it's probably worth having a cast elsewhere on the river too, just to check.

Tight lines

Calum