Was out on the Water of Leith in the centre of Edinburgh last week. Conditions were not ideal, with the water being high and coloured. Managed a few troots some on bright wee nymphs but most fish came to the Wooly-****** This was a real revelation for me, never moved so many fish but unfortunatley only managed to hook up about 10% and even then half them came off. Most enjoyable session though.

Norm

that looks a great place to fish

nice pic of down the trouts mouth

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CHEERS SID
FTM

"if my answers frighten you , don't ask scary questions".........Jules Winnfield

Nice fish Norm and pictures to match.

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Cheers
Chalky

Looks familiar somehow Norm..... Rarely fish it these days,gave up years ago trying to avoid confrontations with stick throwing dog owners .

Lots of extra water in it due to the draining of Harperigg I hear.

Jimmy

There was me thinking it was something to do with the deluge Edinburgh suffered last week I take it that they are working on the Dam at Harperigg and not draining it completely?

It was good to get out for a few casts on my boyhood stream, fish seem fatter this year, feeding must have been really good.

Norm

Aye the river has been holding that hieght for a coupla weeks now.Ive not seen Harperigg personally but I heard it was almost totally drained....christ knows what they are doing.Thats another place I used to go....I hear its full of stockies and bait fishers now...

Those burn fish do look in fine nick....fat as wee pigs.Its maybe just me but I dont think there is the head of fish in the river as there was back in the mid 80s though.Back then it was virtually impossible to fish up the side of the road at Longstone without causing a chain reaction of spooked fish all the way upstream of you...there were so many troot lying in those wee pools and runs.

The last I heard was the council stopped stocking it to save money, but fish do still get in from Harlaw, Harperigg etc. Used to fish the Harlaw burn as a lad a caught brownies and rainbows which had be flushed down. Some good brownie to be had...

I hope that the council have stopped stocking it Its a fantastic stream full of wee browns and with plenty of spawning areas, there has never been any need to stock it. All the stocked fish did was keep the fishmongers happy.

Think the biggest issue for the WoL will be the flood prevention scheme(s) that are due to be put in place this winter. Most are on the lower river so might not impact on the trout too much in the long term but the grayling seems to be more prolific in the bottom reaches so it may effect them adversely.

Norm

Excellent to read this and see the photos, cheers for putting it up

Me and my fishing buddy used to fish the river a lot, we had some cracking trout from it and also some nice grayling, the stretch up from the tickled trout was always good but you did get a lot of hassle from dogs running in the river and kids throwing stones, early morning or late on was always best!

Behind the colonies in stockbridge is good for the grayling, tried the fly a few times but they seem to prefer a trotted maggot, my mate had one just over the lb from that stretch.

Our favourite part was up balerno, we had it to ourselves 99% of the time and it was full of good sized fish, they knocked the old factory down that was at the waterside and built houses and that spoilt it, fish vanished and we have not fished the river since, your photos have gave me an excuse to get back though.

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[B][COLOR="Black"]"Bang Tidy"
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I liked around the colinton village area down to the tickled troot.. They say the river Almond is worth a try these days is that the case?