When I was a lad there was really only two ways of fishing for brown trout in rivers. The first was to cast dry flies upstream in the hope of taking a rising fish and the second was to cast wet flies downstream when nothing much stirred on the surface. One evening some years ago I was on the upper reaches of the River Gryffe and I watched in amazement at an angler who took fish after fish from a run no more than thirty yards long.

I spoke to him to find out his secret and he was very forthcoming with his answer. He was pitching a small weighted nymph upstream and simply kept in touch with his line as he fly trundled back to him. He helped me get to grips with the method and I managed to tempt a couple of decent trout from the run below. Now anglers have so many more choices of tactics to winkle fish out from the first day of the season to the last. These modern tactics involve fishing one, two or sometimes three weighted bugs on a tight line with an indicator of some sorts above. This fairly simple method has a range of names from Euro nymphing, French nymphing and Czech nymphing. Recently I have heard of a similar method that uses a plastic ball indicator and a piece of split shot at the bottom of the cast. This is known as drop shotting. There is another form of drop shotting that involves small plastic baits but the method I am talking about is for fly-fishing. The whole rig is cast or really lobbed upstream and the rod held high. You simply track the flies downstream and then the process is repeated. Any movement on the indicator should be met with a flick of the wrist to set the hook. This method can be devastatingly good at times and it is possible to catch fish in really thin water that you may have thought fishless. There are a whole array of bugs that can be used with a variety of coloured and weighted beads. It is quite hard work as you are always lobbing or tracking looking for the merest movement on your indicator. Not just trout fall for these tactics but the beautiful grayling can also be tempted. Light and long rods are normally used with the most popular being 10foot 2or 3 weights with a soft action. Give it a try, it really does work.

Please remember to email me your photographs of you and your fish catches to john.milne53@gmail.com

Fishery Tales.

Lawfield Trout Fishery near Kilmacolm. The fishing was once again excellent last week in the blustery conditions. Notable catches include Joe Currie from Paisley 24 up to 9lbs, Alan Jones from Port Glasgow 17, Paul Tourish from Barrhead 14, Jordan Queen from Elderslie 14, Malky Muir from Kilbarchan 13, Stuart Fulton from Paisley 12, Alan Ferris from Houston 9, Joe Stanton from Johnstone 9, Kevin O`Donnell from Greenock 8, Stevie Cowan from Linwood 8, R. Skiffington from Paisley 6, Mr McNeish 2 for 5lbs 4oz, Mr Brock 3 for 7lbs 4oz, Mr Dickson 2 for 4lbs 4oz and Mr McInally 1 for 2lbs 13oz. The best flies were CDC`s, olive buzzers, diawl bach, hoppers, sedges and the black rabbit. Contact Billy on 01505 874182.

Lake of Menteith. Water Temperature – 8C, Clarity (Secchi disc)1.9m.

Areas that are doing well include Sam’s Point drifting to the shallow markers, top end of The Cages, Malling Shore and Shear Point round to International bay. Owls., double deckers and cdcs are doing well if you are using dries also diawl bachs, cormarants and mini boobies are doing fine in a midge tip or intermediate.

On heat 10 of the Boat league Brian Mackenzie won it again with 12 fish Sandy Baog was second with 10 and Bill Ramage was third with 8. Full results can be seen on the boat league page of our website. On Thursday we had the Angling world Championships singles event, in first place was

Gordon Leavy with 13 fish. Second was Ian Simpson with 11 fish and third was Ken Kennedy also with 11 fish.

On Friday we held the Team event of the Angling world Championships with Lintrathen being top team the other qualifiers were Alba, Tweed Valley Tanglers and Frozen North.

On Saturday Tartan Tyres were top team in heat 10 of the Scottish clubs championships 2nd was Linthrathen and 3rd was Ayr Travellers FF "A", full results are on our facebook page.

Well done to Liz Fraser for becoming 2016 Scottish Ladies Champion She Caught 9 fish. 2nd was Lana Taylor with 8 fish and 3rd was Jean Ferguson with 5 fish. Contact The Lake on 01877 385664.

Arran View near Waterside. On my last visit the top pond seemed to be doing better than the bottom pond. The near bank fished well to CDC`s, double deckers, flying ants and diawl bachs. Some anglers did well using intermediate lines with two dancers. Flies with a touch of red on them also did well. Contact Tommy 07763170779

Carbeth near Milngavie. Wasp grubs and power bait combined as a cocktail have produced some of the bigger fish recently. Down in the fly pond some anglers have had double figure catches on mini damsels, double deckers, G&H sedge and buzzers. I was there a couple of times last week when the fish fed on the surface around the middle of the morning. Contact Wendy on 01360 771006