It's Getting Hard (fnar fnar)

23rd March, 09:10 - 18:30. Craigendinnie. Relatively mild; 11C. Cold water.

Today was hard for me. I fished hard and am aching all over as a result. I recognise I might present a caricature on here but it felt like I spent half of the day undoing tangles and removing grass from my hook. Casting from the bank is proving troublesome in terms of reliability and rhythm, whereas casting from within the water seems to take on an art of it's own. A few expert pointers from the ghilly has tuned things a little and I've let him know I welcome his 'nice cast' punditry but the 'that was shite' quips weren't helping much. They made us both laugh though.This post won't be verbose as rob and I have wiped the slate of a days fruitless efforts clean with beer, food and talk about things other than fishing.
My friend Jeff once said inland fishermen didn't know what bad weather was compared to sea anglers. Similarly, I say coarse fishermen don't know what a hard days fishing is compared to salmonists. For us coarse guys, the cast is a means of projecting our chosen terminal tackle to where you want it. Light carbon rods and fixed spool reels mean the cast plays only a small part in the total picture. In game fishing the terminal tackle is a fly which can't be projected directly and so requires an inordinate amount of swishing of line to get it out where you want it. It's harder than it sounds and when you lose your rhythm it can be hard to find it again. It's just another thing in fishing that can't be forced.

Rob made contact with a fish late on which we both originally thought was a 'rock salmon' (I was standing next to him chatting at the time). Unfortunately the contact was right on the dangle and so the resistance was mistaken for Scotland.

Have some photos:

Round the back of Jocky Fife pool.




Sunset looking up Lorne pool

This will get the other game anglers going....

Cheers.