hi all
been on holiday for a week now and fished most days in south/west scotland trout fisheries and so far aint caught a thing!
ive watched others take fish all round me etc
ive even been given "the magic fly" by nice fellow fishermen but to no avail so far.
ive tried everything from lures, wets, buzzers through to dries.

what am i doing wrong or what should i do correctly?

i know this is a very big question!

i just dont want to get to the end of my holiday with no fish to show for it.

any cracken fish catching tips very welcome.

cheers
rusty

If they were easy to catch it would get boring

Always try to vary the speed of retrieve, find out what speed the fish are taking the flies at. This can be one thing that is crucial to catching the fish.

Also dont get stuck to one spot, move around the lake if nothing is happening, also cast all around you, work around the 180 deg in front of you.

I had 3 blank trips in a row last year...it happens....dont let it put you off it makes catching the next fish even better.

hey mike
thanks for the reply
il try everything u mentioned next time im out.
i do tend to stay in the one spot and keep casting out straight.
i have all these ideas, then when i get there i just do as i described.
hopefully it will be something straight forward like that.

as you say, makes the catching all the better!

when i do finally catch you might even hear me cheer down in england, it will show up on the Richter scale!
cheers
rusty

Sounds like tough fishing there.
I went up to the far NE for the first time recently and fished some of the wild lochs for three days. The weather was wet & windy, we even got 'blown off' one loch on the last day but still didn't blank any day so it could just be you've hit a bad patch in that neck of the woods. You don't say if it's wild lochs reservoirs or what you're fishing, boat or just bank?

There'll be oodles of locals who will know what's what better than I do, but if it's lochs and wild fish then the standard team of three with top dropper bushy (1/2 hog or hopper types) a bit of orange or red hackle in there seems popular if it's dull, then middle fly of a more traditional winged wet type with a flash of silver or blue in there and a point fly like the DaiwalBach, buzzers etc or maybe including a Clan Chief as a middle or point fly. Fish hard the seams and foam-lines between calm and stirred up water.

Also if you're in a boat & it's not your turn to row make sure you pitch the flies out for a swim as you go. Not rivetting stuff, but you may at least pick one up to boost the confidence. Otherwise try sink tips of varying speed.

If you're drifting in strong winds, even with a drogue, you'll have to retreive at quite a decent pace just to give your flies some sort of movement and avoid running onto the line before it's overrun by your drift. So bring them in at boat speed plus a bit extra for getting the attention of the fish without having the flies zoom along. Vary it until something hooks up.

If yer fishing the stillwaters i would stick to a couple of small nymphs olive or diawl bachs etc on a long leader and fish em really slow or jsut inch em back coz the water is kinda warm at mo =less oxygen =less active fish try that and keep moving and either fish early or late on see if that helps

i would say "tippet" " cast " whateve you want to call it.....thats probably the problem

go lighter and lighter till you have the takes

obviously there greased etc...

cheers

best bits of advice i could give you would be

1, Only spend about 20-30 mins in 1 spot then move

2, Alter your retrieves, slow,slow, twitch,jerk,slow slow etc.

3, fish at different depths

4, Change your flies regularly if you are having no luck

5, check the water and see if you can match what the fish are feeding on

hope these are of some help, they are exactly what i was taught when i first started and they have helped me even when no one else was catching

__________________
new to flyfishing,recognise some members names from other forums

hey guys
i fished craufurdland tonight,
........................................got a trout on a klinkhammer, was pulling it in and then, ............kaaablooom,....... lost it at the last second!
anyhow, tried the tips and it obviously worked.
cheers
rusty