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