Malleny Angling Association

Web Archive

Here we will keep the older and out of date articles etc. from the main
site, so if there is something you missed, you could find it here.

The Dry Loch by Stan Headley

Stan Headleys website :- Scottish Fly Fishing Website

Scottish Anglers National Association website:- SANA Web Site

www.fliesontheweb.com if you need flies

End of season 2003 Report.
We are now nearing the end of a very successful season with most visitors well satisfied with the results of their labours. Generally, catches have been good and the fish of high quality. Over the past few days, sport has not been as good as it has been with few fish to be seen on the surface probably due to the frosty nights of late. However, if it is not beyond the angler's scruples, success can be obtained by fishing deep and slow with lures such as Cat's Whiskers, Gold Heads and Fritz patterns, wet flies such as Viva, Dunkeld and Invicta, Buzzers and, of course, Boobies. Water levels have risen by nearly 4 feet over the past week due to the melting snow on the Pentland Hills and some heavy rain on several days. Our season ends on Friday, 31st October and, barring unforseen circumstances, will re-open on Thursday, 1st April, 2004. Hopefully, we will meet well kent and new faces then. For now,

Fishing Update Fishing was sluggish during July due, I think, to the very hot weather causing the water temperature to rise. It was almost warm enough to bathe in which did not appeal to the fish driving them deep and becoming almost comatose. However, by early August they revived and catches improved considerably with most anglers taking good baskets of fish. September has been even better with good catches recorded. It is encouraging to find that fish are being caught at various depths and by differing methods on the same day which would indicate that they are well dispersed both in and around the reservoir. A certain Mr Bullen caught and released over 50 fish in three days! Lucky or what! The work on the Harlaw dam scheduled for July has still not been carried out. I have to admit that the notification of the project only stated that it would commence in July but did not state which year. I must have assumed too much when I said 2005! Thriepmuir closes for the season on 30th September so there are only a few days left in which to catch some of the large browns which were stocked recently. It is to be hoped that the wind will ease to let this happen. The reservoir has provided excellent fishing throughout this season and anyone who has not ventured this far has missed a treat. Harlaw continues till the end of October with further stocking to ensure a plentiful supply. Lures, buzzers, nymphs, wet and dry flies have all been catching fish, so take your pick and go for it. Tight lines,

June Fishing Report 2003 and some other info...

June continued the excellent sport experienced in the earlier months of the season except for a few days in the middle of the month when both waters turned dour. With rising temperatures, dry fly fishing became possible and had some good results. However, Buzzers, wet flies and lures still dominated on Harlaw. Good sized Browns were in evidence on Thriepmuir with standard wet flies producing results. The standard Kate McLaren, Black Pennel, Soldier Palmer and other dark palmered flies all did well. On the downside, there were a number of evenings when the water was like a mirror and, although plenty of fish were rising, trying to attract their attention was well nigh impossible. It is reputed that July is a poor month for fishing our waters but personally, I have not found this to be the case. Come and prove the Jeremiahs wrong!

May Fishing Report 2003

May continued the excellent fishing experienced during the opening month with a good number of bag limit catches being registered, although the last week of the month was a bit more testing! Buzzers and highly coloured lures fished fairly deep gave the best returns for the effort expended and a good bit of effort was needed to overcome the windy days in the latter part of the month. The water levels have, at last, slowly returned to more acceptable depths on both reservoirs due to the recent rainfall. The water itself is remarkably clear and looks in perfect fishing condition. The strangest things happen at fisheries. One evening this month, a member's attention was drawn to the capture of a large fish by his friend a few yards away. He cast his lure into the water, laid down his rod and went to inspect the "monster". As he returned to pick up his rod, to his astonishment, he saw it slowly slide into the water. Despite increasing his return speed to world champion sprint levels, his rod disappeared into the water where an equally surprised fish splashed about out of reach. Fortunately, the fish must have thrown the hook and the rod was found the following morning washed up on the bank. The following week, the same thing happened to a young lad fishing with his father. Regrettably, this rod has not yet resurfaced. Be warned, there are cleptomaniacal fish in Harlaw! The latest on the Water of Leith Flood Prevention Scheme as it affects our fishing is that, following a meeting with the Planning Department and Arup, the consulting engineers, it has been agreed that the water level drawdown on Harlaw need not exceed 2 metres during the construction phase and that the work should be completed within a 3 to 4 month period. Access for stocking has also been safeguarded. It would now appear that our fishing is secure although some disturbance is inevitable along the dam and in the area of the spillway during the construction of the "notch".

Tight string.

April Fishing 2003

HOORAY - Today, Friday the 25th April, it has rained!! Probably not enough to make an impact on the water levels in the reservoirs, but even an egg cup full is welcome. Despite the low water, or maybe because of it, fishing in both reservoirs has been excellent since the start of the season. A good number of bag limits have been achieved and many fish have been returned to the water to fight another day. The "narrows" at the west end of Harlaw has been a real hot spot closely followed by the dam wall, especially the bay at the east end. Buzzers and Fritz nymphs in all colour combinations have been most successful. Threipmuir has also performed well with small black wet flies fished just below the surface returning good catches. The Kate Mclaren still exercises her charms! We now have a catch return box fixed to the Harlaw access gate. Day permit holders are being asked to record their catch on their permit and deposit it in the box on leaving.

July Fishing Report 2003

The end of another month which, in the past, has been regarded as a poor month for catches. However, it started off very brightly with fish regularly showing on the surface of both reservoirs and good bags being reported from all styles of fishing. Small and large dry flies, wets and deep sunk lures were all successful. By the middle two weeks the story was more traditional for the time of year with fish hard to find especially during the mornings and afternoons. Evening anglers had better results if not exactly prolific! Back to the "Dog Days of July" was a remark often heard. The latter part of the month really redeemed itself with large numbers of fish being cought despite the wind and rain. On Harlaw, wet flies such as Alexandra, Soldier Palmer, Kate McLaren, Dark Makerel, Invicta and the Butchers all performed well on floating lines as did Buzzers and dry flies whilst Cat's Whiskers, Montanas and Damsel nymphs on sinking and intermediate lines were also successful. Thriepmuir produced good bags of Brownies throughout with dark patterned palmered wet flies being the best choice in windy weather and small Olive type dry flies during the calm periods. The water level in Thriepmuir is being kept low as a deliberate measure to allow a full examination of the dam to be carried out. Bank fishing is relatively unaffected except for the large "beach" now exposed. Harlaw is now at a perfect level allowing the maximum utilisation of all banks so there should be no excuses for blanks.
Tight lines.

Water of Leith

The following article has been very kindly written for us by the late Graham Priestley. Graham for anyone who did not know him, worked in conjunction with the Water of Leith Conservation Trust who do sterling work on the river. He was the high Bailiff for the last 14 years and knew every inch of the river.
An author on the subject his books "Angling in the Lothians" have been very popular over the years going to 5 editions. He informs me that they are no longer in print which is a shame as it was a very informative source of information on a wide variety of fishing in the area,so if you have a copy all the better!
A keen fly tying enthusiast who likes to pass on his knowledge through evening classes details of which are at the end of the article. I know several people who have learned to "Roll their own" as Graham likes to put it and all said they enjoyed the evenings very much. My thanks to Graham for taking the time to provide us with some fantastic information on our little river.He will be sorely missed. I hope you all enjoy it.

Few British cities offer citizens and visitors stream fishing for brown trout, but Edinburgh's Water of Leith passes just half a mile north of the shoppers on Princes Street. Small boys armed with a few worms from the garden or a tin of sweetcorn from the corner shop can be as happy, and sometimes as successful, as grey bearded veterans delicately whisking a size 20 dry fly over a dimpling rise.
The river rises way out West in the Pentland Hills and rushes and gurgles it's way at first through open moorland, then fields of sheep and cattle, and reaches the outer suburbs in it's wooded and secluded valley.
It emerges at Slateford and becomes a city river, darting and twisting round sharp bends, over weirs and under many bridges to slide into the Forth estuary at Leith after a journey of 24 miles (38 km) and a fall of 1000 feet (305 m). It is accompanied from Balerno by the newly-completed Water of Leith Walkway, which provides access for much of the fishing.

The river is home to thousands of brown trout, the wild stock being supplemented each year with over a thousand stock fish. Grayling have appeared in the last 10 years and have spread throughout the lower river. A few rainbow trout can escape from Harlaw Reservoir to join them. There are also eels,minnows, stickleback, stone loach, bullhead and Lampreys. Odd flounders, sea trout, and salmon occasionally enter the river by dodging through the lock gates on the docks as they open for shipping but upstream passage is blocked by the high weirs at Dean Village.

There is no legal right to fish for the migratory fish and although 4 salmon parr were encountered on a survey in 2002 the salmon are probably strays from other rivers in the Forth system or further afield. Indeed an 8-pounder found dead at bonnington in 1999 bore a tag from the river Wear in England.

Public fishing begins at Balerno and continues down to Leith about 14 miles of river, with only short interruptions from private gardens. It is covered by a single permit issued by the City of Edinburgh's Culture & Leisure Department, but also available from Post Offices along the upper river, the Water of Leith Visitor Centre at Slateford, fishing tackle shops and Council offices at Waterloo Place. The permit covers the whole season and is free of charge.

A committee of Honorary Bailiffs advise the Council on regulations, assist with stocking and fish surveys and provide a presence on the water. The Bailiffs run a fly fishing competition, open to all comers, at Harperrig reservoir, near the headwaters of the river on a Saturday each May or June (the date is printed on the permit) which serves to publicise the fishing and raises funds for management. Many competitors return year after year despite the fact that the Harperrig browns are small and hard to catch, they see the contest as a pleasant day out with the possibility of a tackle prize, a trophy, or as a consolation, a raffle prize to take home as a souvenir.
The river from Balerno to Slateford Bridge (A70 Lanark Road) is reserved for fly fishing. It is a succession of runs and pools, the water peat-tinged from it's birthplace in the Pentland heather. Both wet and dry flies are successful. Small sizes (14-18) are essential as is fine nylon. Popular dry patterns include Adams, Grey Duster, Olive Quill, Rough Olive, and Klinkhammer, while wet flies are Black Spider, Greenwels Spider, Coch-y-Bondoh, Pheasant Tail Nymph and Gold- Ribbed Hare's Ear Nymph. Stealth and caution are necessary and in midsummer the fishing can be best at dusk or after, when the bats come out.
Despite the occasional efforts of the Bailiffs the upper river is well guarded by trees and bushes. Keep a watch behind, be resigned to losing a few flies and don't expect the fishing to be easy!

Below Slateford bait fishing is permitted, with maggots, worm, sweetcorn, as popular baits. Spinning is banned for safety's sake. Other regulations are simple. The season is April 1 to September 30. The size limit is 10 inches or 25 cm (raised from 8 inches in 2003) and the bag limit 4 trout (dropped from 6 in 2003). Children under 12 years should be accompanied by an adult, again for safety's sake, though the river is mostly shallow.

Almost the only thing asked of the river anglers, other than responsible behaviour, is to fill in and return the pre- paid season permit as a catch return in October. Most are strangely reluctant to comply, but the 30 or so returns each year(from about 600 permits) show that some regular fishers who are on the water every week catch more than 100 trout in their season and their best fish may weigh 2-3lb.Commendably, around 70% of the fish caught are returned, either because they are undersized or because the angler practices catch- and- release, a policy much encouraged by the Bailiffs (and the lively nine-incher in our photograph was returned after his photo session!). Over the last few years a few much larger and quite exceptional trout, the latest over 6lb have been caught at Leith. Surveys using electrofishing have also encountered brown trout of over 3lb.

Some of us are lucky enough to be able to walk to our little river and enjoy a few hours of concentrated pleasure trying to outwit its trout, surrounded by bird song and wild flowers,sharing the water with Dippers, Heron and just occasionally a Kingfisher! It can make you feel, just for a moment a King fisher yourself!
Graham Priestley
Contacts
Department of Culture & Leisure 17 Waterloo Place Edinburgh EH1 3BG Tel 0131 529 7844 Water of Leith Conservation Trust, 24 Lanark Road, Edinburgh Tel 0131 455 7367
www.waterofleith.org.uk
Visitor Centre open 7 days 10am - 4pm in trout season; closed Monday Tuesday Oct-March. Season permit(free!) opportunities to take part in river clean ups, information about the river.
Fly tying classes
Currie Community High School, Dolphin Road Currie EH14 5 RD; Tuesday evenings 7-9pm with 10 week basic courses starting October and January 0131 449 5922

This week's Fishing Report Monday, 22nd September - officially the first day of Autumn and the weather didn't half bear this out. At 2pm the temperature at Harlaw was 11 celcius! At the same time on Sunday, the temperature had been 20 celcius! However, the fish did not seem to object as they continued to rise freely and were partial to most flies, lures and buzzers offered. By midweek the temperature had improved to a more comfortable level and on Thursday till Sunday, the fish in Harlaw became what I can only describe as suicidal. All but a very few anglers left with full or nearly full bags. Green and black lures such as the Skunk and Montana did exceptionally well fished on intermediate lines as did wet flies such as the Butcher, Kate McLaren, Alexandra and Zulu. Sunburst orange patterns performed well as did Okey-Dockey and similar Buzzers. Harlaw is now 11 feet below full level and some of the banks are sticky, brown clay and are steeper than when the water is higher. Please take extra care when fishing. Thriepmuir closes for the season on Tuesday, 30th September but Harlaw remains open until 31st October. As the weather changes into Autumn and the water cools down we might find it becomes a bit more difficult to catch. I am hoping for some good action when fry bashing begins. There are large shoals of pin fry in the water and the fish like to stock up on them when they feel the onset of winter. A few anglers have said they have seen signs of this starting already,indeed I had one the other night when a trout came crashing right into the shore presumably after the small fry I cast across the shore about 1 metre out and hooked a cracking rainbow of around two pounds on a small black mini fritz lure. Fishing continues to be fantastic with fish being caught on a wide range of flies including lures, wet flies, and nymphs. The weather continues to surprise us I can't remember when we last had a good amount of rain. Threipmuir is as low as I have seen it and I know Arthur is concerned about the survival of the resident Brown trout over the winter. Still no sign of work starting on the dam wall which is the reason for the low water so we hope it begins soon and gives the reservior a chance to fill up a bit soon. Thanks to all who post something on the guestbook Ivan has left some good info on there! Please feel free to post something on the guestbook telling us how you are doing, and give us your tips as well.Look forward to reading them.

Last season I tried to get a couple of articles from different people one was from Graham Priestley (see archive) and gave us a great insight on the Water of Leith. I pestered one of our own "Top Rods" Dave Bullen to write me an article about Harlaw reservoir which I am delighted to say he has now written and very good it is too.
My thanks to dave for the following article,and rest assured I will be looking for more from you all in the coming season.
Also have a look at some new pictures I have added to the Images page which were very kindly taken by my friend Ken Reid who hopefully will add more as the weather improves "cheers Ken"

Harlaw

2003, our second season of being a non profit making angling club, if the fishing was good in 02, it could only be described as fantastic in the, 2003 season. For a visiting day ticket angler there must be seldom if any water that can offer such great value for money! £10 for six fish and no limit imposed on time such as one would expect at a fishery, or for that matter other club run waters.
There’s no doubt a fair head of trout in the water, which will hopefully over winter safely without too much cormorant predation. This is down to the increasing number of club members who regularly return fish to the water-not to mention the increased stocking policy. Now I’m sure that there are a few anglers saying “wait a minute here, on the last day of the season the fishing was very difficult to say the least!” That indeed was certainly the case but I have no doubt whatsoever that there were fish around in good numbers albeit very wise and wary fish, fish that may have been caught and released more than a few times. Add this to the fact that there was no recently stocked fish to stir them up and the relatively cold conditions (I’d rather say freezing, but I know there are those in the club who probably thought it was just a shade on the cool side for them to wear their T shirts!) would have slowed the trout up.
Now we’ve all heard the theory on goldfish having a 3 second memory, I figure trout being a bit bigger could perhaps have a longer memory. Sound logic, eh! Therefore in relation to size, species and memory retention I’m hoping that in the coming season the minute those marabou tailed goldheads hit the water, the over wintered fish are going to say to themselves Gee! Look at the size of those buzzers!

One good thing about the fishing at Harlaw is that it caters for a multitude of methods & throughout the complete season every method can at some time be used to good effect. Not one to stick to a particular method I like to try and give fish what they want and if this is a booby, or a nymph or buzzer suspended under an indicator, then so be it. Yes, there are times, (especially when fish have wised up) where even a snails pace retrieve isn’t going to convince a suspicious trout, and a static suspended fly will score highly. Likewise there are times when a static nymph will be refused and a painfully slow retrieve will work a treat.
I do hear a lot of grumbling from anglers who think that the bite indicator in its various guises should be banned from use at Harlaw. They are of the belief that it is a simple method incorporating no skill whatsoever on behalf of the angler. This on occasion is certainly the truth, however, as always with fly-fishing there are exceptions to the rule. We have to be careful in fly fishing as to what we see fit as decent methods and flies, one only has to look at national rules in the competition scene to realise that things are a bit silly! Boobies, blobs and sparklers are all permissible under the rules, however a Daddy long legs incorporating legs of a length akin to that of the natural fly is banned. A size 14 pheasant tail nymph incorporating a 2mm gold bead would also be banned because the 2mm bead is adding weight, yet you will find anglers using heavy wire hooks & thick copper wire ribs not to mention heavy weight double hooks. Hmmm, something not quite sporting there old chap what, what!

Yes, anyway, we have an assortment of anglers at Harlaw, a few who just pull long tailed marabou lures all season, some who fish nothing but wet flies, some who can’t see past a moustache type indicator and even the odd dry fly man dedicated to his campaign. What’s important is that each angler enjoys their chosen way of catching trout and as long as it is within the rules set down by the club as a whole then long may it continue.

I couldn’t help but think that, although numerous, the fish last season, and also of good quality, it would certainly be nice to have a few larger fish in amongst the general size of 1lb 8oz – 2lb. By larger, I’m not talking about fat stew pond double figure trout, but perhaps a spattering of 4, 5, and 6lb trout. I feel this would make things slightly more interesting and few club members have voiced similar opinions to me. The odd large Brown trout around the 3 – 4lb mark would also be appreciated. I’ve heard tale of a 5lber, which unfortunately was found dead near to the valve tower when the water was drained several years ago to permit dam repairs. I spoke to an angler who targeted a large brown which was swimming with its back out the water mopping up flies on a season preceding this drainage. He said that although he had a few casts at the fish his offerings were ignored. No doubt the fish he spoke of was the very same fish found dead at the valve tower. This brown trout must have grown on to get to this size, no doubt over many seasons. It would be nice to put a few largish browns back into the water to spice things up, snap a few leaders every so often! Another suggestion, which was put to me, was the introduction of the odd blue trout. These are lovely looking fish and seem to fight just that wee bit harder than the standard rainbow, again another proposal that may improve the already good fishing. All of the above are merely suggestions which broached at the AGM might be well worth discussing.
Dave

Tightlines Tightlines -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------