Annan - 鳟鱼等

Trout

Annandale offers some outstanding trout fishing for the discerning angler. The river boasts an extremely diverse range of aquatic insects that can be relied to hatch pretty much throughout the year. In addition to that the swarms of minnows that appear during the summer provide high protein snacks for trout. The trout gorge on this rich food supply and regularly grow to sizes in excess of 4lb with average sizes approaching 2lb. Although there is a small amount of stocking carried out at Royal Four Towns the bulk of this fishery is entirely wild and currently largely unexploited except by a small band of anglers that are 'in the know'. Because this fishery is almost entirely wild you cannot expect the trout population to be massive. Some searching for feeding fish will be required. The vast majority of anglers who currently target these fish put the majority of the fish they catch back and this is important as competent anglers could easily empty large stretches of river over the course of a season if they were to kill everything they catch.

In March and April the streamy parts of the river will have large hatches of March browns and dark olives that will readily be taken by early season trout. These rises are often short-lived affairs and generally peak around the middle of the day through to early evening. At this time of year there is plenty of time to fish and get back to the pub before closing time! If there are no fish rising remember they still have to eat and well-presented nymphs will score well.

A typical Annan Brown trout.

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.

An Annan Brown Trout

For the trout fishermen July and August seems to be a bit quiet on the Annan 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.

Most beats on the river do not offer a specific trout ticket and you will have to by a permit which allows you to fish for salmon and sea trout as well, but in reality the pricing of these is so competitive that fishermen will find most of the rivers fishing outstanding value for money irrespective of the species they are targeting.

Grayling fishing is much prefered on the river and some very strong are to be found.

Grayling fishing

History

Grayling fishing in Scotland has and still is developing into a branch of fly fishing in its own right as opposed to the days when many anglers fished occasionally for grayling during the close season of other game species such as salmon and trout. The river Annan as well as many of the other border rivers is gaining a reputation, not only as a good grayling fishery, but also as a fishery where specimen grayling over 2lb are fairly common with a good chance of catching a 19 inch plus (or 3lb plus) fish which for many anglers is the pinnacle of grayling fishing.

Grayling are not native to the Annan but they are certainly thriving after their introduction in the late 1800's and despite periods of persecution from anglers and older fishery management practices the current stocks of fish are very good with regular reports of fish over 3lb as well as the occasional fish of 21 inch plus (or 4lb plus).

Availability

Grayling are present on all beats throughout the main river as well as parts of the Kinnel and the Ae. Winter grayling fishing is not accessible on all beats but the majority of the river is available on a day ticket basis covering a good selection of beats on the lower, middle and upper river.

More information on this can be found in the fishery descriptions page.

Grayling fishing

Where to fish and when

The choice of where to fish is dictated by personal preference as to the size of river and also the size of fish. The lower and middle river have much larger shoals of grayling represented in multiple year classes and once located good numbers of fish can be caught without moving too far within a pool whereas on the upper river the grayling are more distributed and the shoals are much smaller but often contain larger fish which represents the best chance of catching a specimen.

The other main difference between the upper and lower river is the water flow and height and obviously, being primarily a winter sport, rivers tend to carry extra water and are often in flood during the winter grayling season. During 'ideal' grayling conditions where we have cold dry weather resulting in hard frosts the river levels drop and the water clears giving perfect conditions for the usually flooded and fast flowing lower beats.

It is in these conditions that food becomes harder to locate for the grayling and at this point in the depths of winter they will shoal up to form much larger shoals of fish meaning several fish can be caught from a pool in a short space of time without moving.

During more unsettled conditions the upper beats will be carrying more water and unlike the lower and middle river which can often run coloured for weeks during winter rain, the upper river tends to run off and clear quickly whilst maintaining a good height allowing anglers to fish.

Grayling bug flies.

Tactics

The traditional method for winter grayling fishing involved fishing either worm or maggot on a stick float to present a bait on or very close to the bottom where during the colder weather the grayling are likely to be feeding. These days there are a number of techniques using heavily weighted flies or 'bugs' presented on or near the bottom under a form of indicator either cast upstream and slightly across the flow and allowed to drift down and past the angler or fished 'Czech nymph' style almost under the rod tip, again fished upstream and allowed to drift downstream and past the angler.

Flies used for this method are designed to represent the many invertebrates that live in our rivers which provide the majority of the food for grayling and other fish species. Many of these species can be found living hard on the river bed during the cold winter months but slight rises in air and water temperature will prompt a change in behaviour as larvae and pupae ascend in the water column so it also pays to fish at varied depths.

A good winter Grayling.

Grayling are free rising fish and during milder weather in the autumn and spring (and occasionally during winter) there will at times be hatches of flies. Even on a day that to us feels bitterly cold, a slight rise in air temperature can result in a hatch of flies and grayling will take them readily.

During the winter there are often hatches of midge which grayling will happily take but it is during early spring and late autumn when the more consistent hatches of small and large dark olives (spring) and pale wateries (autumn) ascend and hatch during the late morning and early afternoon. This is when the grayling become most active near the surface.

Grayling are a fantastic and much underrated sport fish that should continue to thrive in the Annan catchment for years to come with the continued support of anglers. Catch and release of grayling is now standard practise with the majority of grayling anglers these days and this is supported and expected by most of the River Annan beats.

To aid conservation and to gather additional information on grayling stocks the River Annan Trust runs a number of grayling events over the winter to collect data on numbers, weights and lengths as well as to collect scale samples from the larger fish. However, the main objective is to have an enjoyable days fishing when conditions allow.

More details of this can be found on the trusts web site

Coarse Fishing

This small corner of Scotland boosts no fewer than three Scottish records for coarse fish with the largest chub, bream and tench ever recorded in Scotland coming from the river or its surrounding still waters.

The bream, roach, tench and pike fishing in the lochs around the historic town of Lochmaben (birth place of Robert the Bruce) is outstanding with some of the fishing free and the rest on very affordable day tickets. In addition There is a number of still waters around Annan and Moffat that are fishable on a day ticket basis.

On the river the main quarry species for the coarse fishermen is the chub, which grow to specimen sizes. There was a report of a 10.5lb fish from Kirkwood caught by a Dr. Cameron, that held the British record for a long time until it was removed. The current Scottish record, which was recorded at Dryfeholm, at just over 6lb, is probably a more realistic picture of the top weights achieved by these fish on the river these days.

Large pike have also been caught, generally by accident, on the river from time to time with the largest recorded fish around 25lb (there are stories of larger fish but they are unauthenticated).