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 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
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