16/03/2012 - South Esk

First Brownie of the season

Time - 1515 - 1615
Water - Lowish and clear
Method - Mepp 2
Where - Carrington Bridge to Arniston House corner pool, then up to old water pump building pool on the Roseberry outflow river
Weather - Had been raining, bright enough and a bit blustery
Total - 1
Size - 8.75 inch
Species - Brown Trout

With a limited time frame I tried to hit all my favourite spots with the minimum of exploring. I started above the Carrington Bridge and had a follow quite soon from a fish around 6 inches (max). Down from the bridge at the best pool between the bridge and the confluence, the winter has been very kind to it. Most overhanging trees weren't an issue and the river itself has formed nicely. Despite all this, no fish showing at all.

Tree obstruction removed

Next I reached the big corner pool which last season was effectively chopped in half by a large fallen tree. In one of the greatest examples of river management, this has been completely removed at some point since my last visit, freeing up the entire pool for examination. If anything, the 'clearers' have done too good a job combined with the clear water conditions, there is hardly any cover at all, and no fish could be persuaded to connect.

So I headed up to the pool next to the old waterworks building. This has changed its character a lot in the last few seasons and I was interested to see how it had developed over the winters weathery travails. It is now almost split in two and the main current flows down the right central sort of channel (last season, left bank). I've had some interesting encounters here in the past, but nothing at all was around or interested as I fished it.

With the prospect of a blank and time running out I headed back downstream trying a couple of the larger deeper holes, although they are hard to adequately access. In one, I induced a couple of attacks in the tight space and limited time between the mepp landing, becoming active, then running out of room. Convinced I'd missed my opportunity, I chucked it in again and hooked a nice if lean brownie that I couldn't quite stretch to 9 inches on the tape. Quite thin, nevertheless it was my first brownie of the season and a decent length for the location and time of year.