ANGLERS love to travel and try out new waters and fisheries, and I am no different, writes STUART FRASER.
Passing through Glasgow, I decided to give Howwood fishery a try and was pleasantly surprised. I was met by the fishery staff and they made me feel very welcome and were keen to point out how well it was fishing.
It's fairly high up and open to
the elements, but plenty of fish were head and tailing in the main dam wall area. I was assured that dries/emergers and Epoxy Buzzers did exceptionally well on the surface, but that it was best to pull the lures for the bigger fish.
I thought this was strange until, walking round, I saw what looked like several oil slicks in the margins. On closer examination, it was thousands of tadpoles massing in the shallows, and trout were barging into them and picking them off. On went a black tadpole lure and, within half an hour, I had several bumps and pulls on the lure. Sure enough, after a recast, I was into a really good trout of about 5lb which the local expert told me was quite common.
I took time to play it out and, after a lengthy scrap, it tired and came tamely to the net. This proved to be a problem as it was on the dam wall and a very steep drop into the water. Luckily I had an extending net or could have been in trouble. Normally I don't like killing fish unless it is for the table, so I only decided to take this one and return the other three I caught on the same method.
It was a great day and the facilities are good. I will return at some point to fish the top-of-the-water tactics but Howwood gets a definite thumbs up.
The full article contains 320 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
