hi all,
has anyone on here ever fished the river fillan near tyndrum? expected runs of salmon and good trout fishing apparently, any advice on the river would be appreciated.

I have felt for years that the Fillan and Connonish at Tyndrum should be no fishing and held as spawning reserves, As that is where most of the spring salmon that run the Tay system go.Just my personal opinion.for what it's worth.

Jim

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The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

I used to fish it several times every year using all the usual dry flies, spiders and nymphs. Very long, fine leaders are the order of the day.

It has very good trout but it's a very difficult river from which to extract them on the fly.

In low water it is very clear and some of the very best areas require very long accurate casts from difficult positions. The better fish have to be the spookiest trout I have ever cast to. One fluffed cast and they are gone.

I've never fished it for salmon.

I'm not sure where you get the tickets now. It used to be part of the club waters of the Civil Service and Post Office Club. Tickets also used to be available from the Ben More restaurant.

Tickets can be obtained from the Spar shop in Crianlarich. £5 a day. Great dry fly water, had several good fish last July on very small olive klinks, biggest fish just over the pound mark. Seen some very big fish rising in 2 or 3 of the pools but like Endrick has said they can be extremel spooky. Also, last year I sat and watched a fair size salmon of about ten pounds swimming through a pool with about 20-30 broonies following it! Crystal clear water and thats where your 2 weight rods come into play!

Walker.

reason for asking.....
i was up the fillan last september and got fishing for an hour with a flying c, got a salmon of around 8 pounds from 'the holy pool', it was coloured so obv it went straight back carefully. i recently got a seasons membership with the glasgow civil service angling association, although it doesnt include the cononish as its a main spawning area for salmon, it does include the fillan. i will be fishing mainly for the wild trout as i believe there isnt any chance of catching a clean salmon due to the distance it is from the tay estuary?

as a couple of the guys say when the river is low it is very hard fishing,try to fish it the day after it's been raining & when it's fining away it usually fishes very well for the trout,as walker says small dry flies ie klinkhammers & cdc patterns should do the buisness with the chance of fish up to 3lbs.my mate sat & watched a guy catch & grilse on the fly last year of about 5lb it was a split fresh fish also.

cheers for the info and advice guys, ill be heading up thursday to have a look at the water condition,might even put a spinner through it but think itll be a bit too early for any success. fly rods raring to go for the season opening.
tight lines.

I hope you'll crimp the barbs on your spinner as the chances of you catching a springer will be outweighed 1000-1 by your chance of hooking kelts.

Jim

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The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

their already crimped for my pike fishing days, but ill do it again to make sure just for you jim
ill post how i get on and let you all know.