May and June are probably the peak times for insect activity and large hatches of olives, false march browns and needle flies will be the main sources of surface activity. The fish may lock onto one particular species or life stage, which may not be the most numerous. Towards the end of May into June the brightly coloured Yellow May Dun will appear. Despite its size and obvious colour the trout seem to ignore it when it's hatching but very late in the evening when the spinners return to the water the rise can be fantastic. Sedges like the caperer will appear also during June. The hatch can be annoyingly prolific with these tiny sedges crawling all over your face getting into your ears and hair. The fish love them but sometimes they become very difficult to attract to your fly as your artificial will just be one of the thousands of real flies that they see on the surface.
A Kelvin Brown Trout.
For the trout fishermen July and August seems to be a bit quiet on the Clyde on the insect front. There will be large hatches of smaller olives and chironomids but in the main the larger fish will be ignoring them. They have good reason for this. Large brown trout cannot rely on insects alone to grow. The larger fish by now will be almost entirely predatory and spend time mobbing the vast shoals of minnows that inhabit every reach of the Annan. Few people try it but success can be had by fishing very large (size 4 and 6 long shanks or 2ins tandems) sculpin patterns slowly along the bottom in likely places. This fishing isn't delicate but you are 'matching the hatch'.
September can see a return to surface activities with a second hatch of dark olives appearing. This second generation of flies tend to be a bit smaller than the spring ones but the fish do seem to gorge on them when they get a chance. Indeed in September the fish do appear to try and eat everything in sight in preparation for spawning and the long winter ahead where food may be a bit scarcer
A Clyde Spring salmon.
The Clyde begins as the Daer Water which flows north from Daer Reservoir in the Lowther Hills of South Lanarkshire. A number of small streams, the Potrail Water and Clydes Burn run into the Daer above Elvanfoot to become the River Clyde. On its course the river flows past the villages of Crawford, Abington and Libberton where the Medwin Water enters the Clyde from the west at The Meetings. Below this junction the river flows west, then southwest to Hyndford Bridge. Downstream of the bridge the Douglas Water joins the river which then flows northwest to Bonnington Linn and Corra Linn known as the Falls of Clyde. Below Corra Linn the Stonebyers Falls west of Kirkfieldbank bar the passage of migratory fish to the upper river, however trout and grayling fishing above the falls is excellent.
Downstream of the falls the river flows northwest to be joined by the River Nethan just below Crossford at Nethanfoot. It then flows past the towns of Wishaw and Motherwell where the Avon Water joins the river at Ross House, then follows a circuitous route alongside Strathclyde Loch, past Bothwell and Uddingston enter the Clyde Estuary west of Glasgow.
Upper Clyde.
With a surface area of 270 square miles Loch Lomond is the largest freshwater loch in Scotland, and lies in an area of outstanding natural beauty with high mountain ranges on either side.
Below Arden the loch quickly narrows to it's outfall at Balloch and the River Leven. The narrow northern end of the loch has depths of over 500 feet but as it widens it becomes shallower and many islands, some of which a large, are a feature at it's southern end. The loch is fed by a number of small burns and two rivers, the most significant being the Endrick.
The Endrick Water or River Endrick is a river which flows into the eastern end of Loch Lomond, Scotland.
It's drainage basin covers a large part of the west of Stirling District. The Burnfoot Burn rising on the southern slopes of the Gargunnock Hills and the Backside Burn rising on the eastern slopes of the Fintry Hills combine to form the Endrick Water which flows south before turning sharply westwards at the foot of the western dam of Carron Valley Reservoir.
The river flows through Strathendrick, the village of Fintry and past Balfron and Drymen before entering Loch Lomond.
River Endrick in winter
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