July

Alas the water height has reverted to just above the summer level despite the ongoing rain. This didn't stop Alun Pryce catching a 12lbs salmon yesterday evening at the Glebe on the Flying C. I believe that another fish about 8lbs was caught in the Bonhill pool, just before dark, by an angler named Rab. No second name was provided.

Hi Robbie,
I fished the river for a couple of hours Monday lunchtime. Fished the pool above the Stucky Bridge on the fly. On the forth time down I had the subtlest take. I thought it was a wee trout as I was about to hand line it burst out of the water, then took some line. Then it ran straight at me ,I couldn't take line in fast enough and it was gone. It looked about 5 lbs. couldn't honestly say if it was a sea trout or a fish. It was a Cascade it took!

good sport,
Mike B.

Thanks to Mike Bainbridge and thanks to Jack for the image. The river fishing at the moment is patchy at best, unlike the Loch. The LLAIA are reporting an increase in poaching. The Bailiff force - all two of them - are doing night patrols on the Clyde and Leven estuary to stop this happening and will be doing so on the Loch soon. A difficult job with the resources available. One wonders when the departed Bailiff will be replaced, assuming that is the what they intended to do? Still a good grilse run will have us all smiling again?

The reports of night time sea trout catches have been almost non existent despite other "sources" being up beat. However I have now received a report from a regular contributor, Iain Morison.

First report of the season mainly because I have had nothing to report. I have fished one or twice a week since May with only small brownies to 3/4lb to show for it. In saying that, the population of these fish seems to have definitely increased over recent seasons, I wonder if any of the other anglers have noticed this. I Fished Monday 30th without a pull. Last Night I got lucky and contacted a nice 2lb fish at the Lade (pic attached) that put up a very good fight. I will return tonight to see if I can find his big brother.

News from the forum that Dunky Campbell has caught a 15lbs salmon on the worm at the top end. Well done Dunky!

This morning the gates were lowered and the water level rose swiftly. There is now at least eight inches of water above the closing height which means that without more rain there is a week's high water. Before the gates were lowered Tam Kirkbride hooked and landed a 12lbs salmon, covered in sea lice, just above the Stuckie bridge on the worm. He passed on an image of the fish he caught on the 23rd May. A fish to be admired! Yesterday evening Ross McLeod hooked a salmon on the single handed rod at McKinnons.

Robbie,

I fished the top end of the river from about 9pm until 11:30pm tonight 3rd July.  I
never seen anyone catch a fish at the top end, but an angler called Ross McLeod
turned up at the Bonhill Bridge with a cracking summer fish that he had just landed
at MacKinnons. I stole a photo from the sidelines while somebody else was taking a
photo, so it does not show the depth of the fish, but it was a deep, clean fish of
somewhere between 15 and 18 lbs.

I've attached the photo's for your site.

Regards

Gary

And from Ross himself

Hi Robbie,
Caught a 15lb salmon at Mackinnons 21.30 Thursday on one handed rod, on a stoats tail small treble.
Fight lasted an hour and a quarter after which I hot-footed it to Bonhill Bridge to tell the lads who calmed me down and sent me home!
Tight Lines,
Ross Macleod

Well done to the two anglers and thanks for the information There were another two fish caught at the top end of the river at the end of the week around the 8/10lbs size on the Flying C

05th July

This morning the river was quieter than expected. At the Chapel hole a fish was lost at the net. Things were better in the afternoon however when Gordon Pollock caught a 12lbs salmon at the Glebe on the Flying C. The Chairman has a report on the LLAIA site posted yesterday. I was told today that he had a look at the area in question.

The extensive bankside improvement work carried out during the spring months has worked out just fine with problem areas still clear to cast a line. The Double Pipes area was one of the problem areas and it is now a delight to spey cast down without snagging on the brambles that grew down the bank slope and caught on your line frequently. The association will continue to keep this area and other similar areas in good condition if at all possible.

This morning I took a look at the area and took some images. Normally the cutting machine would have leveled the area in June but I suspect the money won't be spent on it. The area is overgrown all the way from just below the Stuckie Bridge to the bend below where the whisky kegs are stowed. It would be very difficult to cast any type of line over the growth. Four examples of the bankside.

Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4

The anglers can obviously make up their own mind as to what is "good condition" but personally I think it is time for the cutting machine.

07th July

There were two fish reported lost this morning but no news of catches. The water level is dropping and it looks like it will be Friday that the gates are raised. On Saturday Alun Pryce had another fish at the Glebe. It was 13lbs and was taken on the Flying C. Andy McElwee caught what appears to be the first grilse of the season at the Piles. It was about 5lbs and he took it on the single worm. I received this e mail from Sandy Lawson.

Was fishing the Glebe, today and saw a guy on the other bank get a fish 
on what i think was worm, around 3pm. His mate got it out of the water 
for him by hand, a bit of a dodgy operation, personally , i prefer to 
carry a net. Fish looked real fresh, silver sides, dark back, white 
belly, i think it was just in off the tide. Looked like a hen fish, 
maybe 8lb. Why didnt it take my Ally shrimp, fished thro the same bit of 
water 10 mins earlier, i guess ill never know.

That is fishing for you. Thanks Sandy. The night time sea trout fishing will be on hold till the water level drops back down to summer low.

09th July

The gates were raised today. There was three inches of water above the red mark on the marker, which meant it should have been Friday at the earliest it should have happened. The level is now between mid week water and weekend water. Considering the golf starts tomorrow at Loch Lomond this is unusual. A report from Malky MacCormick.

Hi Robbie

An update on the sea trout. Fished the Leven all day yesterday ( Monday) hoping for a salmon, but ended up catching a sea trout and dropping 3 others. The fish I got was 1 Lb 13oz and sea liced taken at the cables on a stoats tail, my dropper fly, this was at about 5:30am.

Over the next few hours I saw several sea trout coming out the water in various parts of the river. As there was nothing doing on the salmon front I ended up tackling up with a 10g toby for the last hour and went after the sea trout. I had a few follows and hooked 3 which I promptly lost all between 1 Lb and 1 1/2Lbs, although I did get a follow of a larger fish which was about 3Lb's but it didn't take.

Although I saw quite a few sea trout they were not as numerous as you might have expected and you had to go looking for them, however, it was good to see them in the water.

Malky

Thanks Malky.

The water level is now back up to weekend height. I haven't received news of salmon catches this week but today a regular angler told me that sea trout are showing in greater numbers. Hopefully a good sign. On the 5th July I lamented about the state of the banks. In the middle of the week Eddie cut about 150 yards of bank above the Double Pipes with a strimmer. Well done to him but this is hard going for one person and isn't a substitute for the cutting machine or a plan to get volunteers to do some work. Still no sign of a grilse run but it could happen any day soon?

A problem with my hosting company 1&1 resulted in the main site and the forum being down for a few days. The legacy of this is that I have had to create a new hyperlink for the site which means that some people will not be able to access the site because of their link in favourites has now changed. The link to the forum and the main site should be linked separately. At the beginning of the week the gates were lowered and there were good water levels. The level is now back down to a good weekend height. This morning Robert Galbraith hooked and landed a 15.5lbs fish in the Bonhill pool which I assume was on the fly! Well done to him! He also lost a grilse at the Factory wall. Thanks to Jack for the news. At the beginning of the week Gordon Pollock caught a fish about 8lbs, on the fly, at the glebe. There have been other fish caught but overall not as many as one would expect at this time of the season. There has been news of grilse caught but not enough to say that there has been a run of them. At the end of last week on the Loch Dennis McGlaughlin had a 18lbs fish and Billy Marsland's boat had two fish. There were one or two others caught. Because of the problems with the site it has been difficult to keep track of catches. Overall the catch rate has been patchy but not all together depressing. News of sea trout catches has been non existent. Reading the forum will provide more news as it comes in.

Yesterday was a fairly busy day on the river. Gavin Brand caught a fish about 10lbs on the fly in the Glebe. In recent days fish have been seen lying in this area of the river. There were also reports of sea trout being caught on the fly on this stretch. At the Linbrain a 6lbs fish was caught on the flying C. It may have been a grilse. I haven't received reports from the Renton area recently, so it is difficult to gauge if it is fishing well. The grilse runs in other rivers appear to be late so the Leven is not alone but surely they should appear soon? How has the river fished so far this season? Impossible to say with any accuracy but popular opinion seems to be not as good as it should be. In other words disappointing especially considering the Loch has fished well? This time last year the floating minnow had caught fish but so far this year I haven't received any reports of the minnow catching anything. One regular angler tried fishing the muddler yesterday to no avail but why not more of this method? Dry fly methods don't seem to popular on the river. Possibly a change of tactics could help the catch rate? The problems with the site has now been resolved and hopefully everyone will be able to log on normally. It has become apparent that many anglers used the main site to login to the forum. Bookmarking them separately would be helpful to avoid a repeat of similar problems?

Last week Andy McElwee caught two grilse, possibly at the Piles and there was a 10lbs fish caught at Ritchies on the Rapala. Chic hasn't added to his tally since he caught his two springers. Other well known anglers have yet to catch their first fish of the season so this gives the anglers an idea of how "good" the river is fishing?

Today the gates were lowered but as of 16.30hrs it isn't clear what level the water has risen to? It is ironic because on Monday the level was the lowest ever seen on the river, two inches below summer low. Yesterday Dunky Campbell caught a 11lbs fish. An e mail from Derek Hughes.