Tuesday, June 5, 2012

River Tummel trout news



New Pool at East Haugh
The River Tummel has produced some fantastic trout fishing so far in 2012. It really got going in April with the Large Olives and March Browns, then came the Medium Olives and a few Iron Blue Duns and Large Stoneflies and now we have the caddis starting to emerge in numbers and the Yellow May Dun, always something of a challenge! Shortly to we may see the Blue Winged Olives. Dry fly is the supreme method on the Tummel especially when the fish are rising and even when they are not carefully fishing the shallower riffles is a fairly sure method of enticing the hungry ones to rise. Emerger patterns tend to do better than high and dry flies and most of them are winged with deer hair or CDC. Klinkhamer style parachute flies are also very effective. Plenty of anglers are making double figure catches of lovely wild fish and virtually all the trout are safely returned to the river although the Club rules allow up to two trout over 12inches in length to be kept per day.

54cm Tummel trout caught by Neil Sinclair
Recently some of our regular experts have taken to using closed cell foam for bodies due its outstanding floatability, a very desirable quality for dry fly material. To whet your appetite here's a picture of a big Tummel trout from the top of Gull Island a little distance upstream of the bridge at Ballinluig.  It was 54cm and estimated at a few ounces over 4lb by its captor Neil Sinclair from Paisley. The fly was a size 16 Foam CDC variant on 0.10mm point fished on a super light homemade rod. 

As the year advances evening fishing will become the prime experience, especially during large caddis hatches and spinner falls. The question is whether one of the really big leviathans will be brought to net. Trout of 8lbs have been caught in the Tummel in the past so don't drive past this place!