I'll be back in the spring. Last season was a bit crap, and I didn't really get much time on the few good days, but I've got everything in place for March.

thanks. you'll need a permit to fish the almond, you can get it online, although next seasons arent available yet. its £40 for the year, and a further £15 if you want to fish the WLAA stretch. fish around the forth has all the details you'll need.

@ cheers pal

it is a hard river to fish, but I've had some good days on it. it maybe doesnt hold the numbers or size of fish that the tweed and tay hold. it can be like fishing on an ice rink, but i get it to myself most of the time, and Im willing to put up with its crap for that alone.

the lower beat, from the toll brig to the car park would be best I think. it can be tricky to fish beats 2 and 3 if you dont know the river very well. there are a few big slow pools from just upstream of the brig to the lower car park that would suit you

@@thetattooedangler perfect mate thanks, didn't get out today as the Mrs had other plans 😆 but will hopefully get out next week and give the lower beat a go.

@@allanstewart6894 you didnt miss anthing. i caught one wee fingerling and didnt see a single fish rise all day. the summer hasnt quite reached us yet

its caught me out a few times now. theres not 3 inches of flat ground in a row.

its the second time this year, if you count me not setting my reel in the seat properly and having to dive into the tummel to save it.

It's coming, but its as late as I've ever known it to start.

It was long over due.

a 5 weight is just about perfect as an all rounder on the almond. its good for the sea trout as well as the browns. I generally use a single dry, either a size 14-16 greenwells glory, or a size 14 daddy long legs. a short tapered leader, 9-11ft, on a floating line does the job for me. use gink too kep them afloat. short upstream casts work best for small dries, stops them getting pulled under too quickly, or creating a wake behind them. that will put a fish off every time. if you want to use wet flys, the same leader will do as the river isnt very deep and you dont want your fly to sink too fast. a small buzzer or a blue and silver works well the whole length of the river. You can use a team of flies, but until youve had time to practice, you should stick with a single for now. cast the wets across and downstream, with a mid to fast retrieve, and dont lift your fly out of the water until you have too. a lot of the time a fish will follow it right in close.

thanks jon. I love fishing the almond, mainly because it can be a bit challenging but holds some big surprises. Ive seen a few monsters at the bands there, but theyre way too smart to fall for my crappy casting. my biggest sea trout was caught down at the lower car park, a fresh run beauty of about 5lbs. it put up a hell of a fight in that wee shallow lie on the far bank. still not had a salmon from it though. one day.

@@thetattooedangler I once saw a good salmon taken on fly from the car park pool. They are there for sure, along with a few personalities fishing for them.... Learning to catch trout on a challenging river was a good thing. It didn't spoil me with fish every time I went, but there were enough to keep me going back (every day through school holidays.) I was very lucky to have the river a short bus ride away growing up.

aye, it always seems like youre getting pushed to buy a season or salmon ticket, and the price of those can be ridiculous. the almond can be hard to fish. high, overgrown banks, slippery rocks and sudden drops and holes eveywhere. keeps you on your toes though, but you would be best with chest waders just in case. will do a rig rundown next time im out.

I remember used to fish the Tay at kenmore £6 for a trout permit about 20 years ago. Great sport. Now I don’t think you can fish that stretch anymore. 🙄

@@patrickburns406 that's the recurring theme. if a single tourist gets spotted, suddenly its a salmon water and the ticket price trebles overnight. its ridiculous that the trout angler is getting priced out of even the most obscure backwaters.

aye, if it would just stay like that for a while. you wet a line yet?

@@thetattooedangler Still not been out yet. A record late start for me!

no. it was way down at the estuary end of the river.

I’ve just started fly fishing, where would you recommend on the almond, a nice quiet spot to get my confidence up? Sorry for the questions 👍🏻

That spot at the bridge there looks ideal, just need location 😂😂

@@thomaschapman1158 I would practice casting on a still water first mate, its a lot more forgiving. casting on a wee river like the almond needs a fair bit of control over the line, so someplace where you can let the line out behind you would be best to get the feel of it I reckon. if you want a quiet spot, pick anywhere on the river mid morning and mid-week. you'll get the place to yourself most of the time. you'll only learn so much that way though, so ask somebody to help you out. most will. the bridge is the queensferry road bridge, just upstream of the aul brig in cramond village.

@@thetattooedangler thanks for your advice mate, I appreciate it 👍🏻

cheers. never fished the devon. looks a nice wee water tho

Aye, a wee bitty later than I hoped, but I'm glad I made the effort. The lower beat always fishes better at this time, but it's too dog walkery for my liking at the weekend. The WoL is looking good around the village. Might give that a cast in a day or two.

ta. that george lad from adventure fishing is looking at coming up the west coast, so i might bring him to the hill lochs, see how he does with the spinners. Im beginning to get the feeling that the leven club doesnt like sharing, so they can do one.

Aye, none of that fancified lure fishing for me. I was going to buy a season ticket for all of the major rivers in the central and borders region, but once i added the cost against how often I would visit, it didnt make sense. I had some half baked idea of picking a water at random, grabbing my rod and heading out to blank somewhere new, but Clan McWullnie have conspired against me once again.

If youre fishing the WOL, then the 8ft leader is best for most of it, seeing as its pretty tight. I normally use a 9ft 6x tapered and just cut the last foot off, leaving a loop to add tippet if needs be. Its best to use a tapered because you dont get much of a back cast, so it helps transfer the energy to the business end. The rule is to use the longest leader than you can comfortably turn over, but 8ft is plenty at this time of the year. later in the season, when the fish are a bit more cautious, adding a foot or two is best practice. In my experience, the best flies to use are size 14-16 greenwells, size 12 daddy, and 14-16 klinkhammers and spiders. The angling centre in granton has then by the dozen for around a fiver. I dont use wets much, but wee red or green buzzers do the job if the waters a bit fast for dries. for sea trout in the lower almond, I use low water blue and red doubles, or a standard butcher pattern. Ive caught some good fish on them so thats what i recommend.

You’re a star thank you so much I e mailed that site selling the mixed box of 40 & they do come in different sized hooks you just have to ask on your order so all good they also do packs of 12 but with 3 different patterns for a fiver so I’ll get a mixture of those as well thanks again pal Tight lines ✌🏼💙🎣🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Craig 👍🏼 John is what I call my wee brother in my videos 😂😁👍🏼

Hi again I’ve just ordered the flies I mentioned a box of 40 mixed but they advertised as a mix of small hook dries size 16 & 18 but I emailed them on Monday to ask if they could do them in size 14 & 16 & they replied yesterday saying no problem so happy days I’ve also ordered a 12 pack of Klinkhammers in beige olive & black in mix of 14 & 16 they were £6 I knew about the Angling centre doing packs of 12 but not sure if they do a mix of different patterns but this site does so it’s good to have that option so I’m basically ready to go when they come I’ll need to try tapered leaders though I was just using 8ft of tippet as my leader but it’s too expensive to keep on using that Pulling Mill tippet 🤷🏼‍♂️ I hadn’t heard of Klinkhammers until you mentioned them but they randomly popped up while I was looking through that site they look like they’ll be good flies so thanks again there’s one last thing I wanted to ask when I’ve been tying my flies on the leader gets kinks in it from the fly to about 8/10 inches up 🤷🏼‍♂️ I moisten the leader so don’t know what’s wrong I don’t know if the fish can see the curly line on the surface it’s the one thing I can’t get right 🤷🏼‍♂️ Thanks pal I appreciate you taking the time to read my comments (rants) & give me the advice I’ve asked for it’s unreal the amount of people that don’t do it so thanks again 🙏🏼 take it easy & Tight lines ✌🏼💙🎣🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿👍🏼 www.troutflies.co.uk/ Here the link for that site 👍🏼 its perfect for me & cheaper than the Angling centre also I don’t drive & live miles away I’m down beside where Mikes Tackle shop was it’s a shame all the wee independent shops have shut down I hate going to the angling centre it’s so American 😂 cheery by 👍🏼

@@craigleith100 getting kinks in the line usually means that the fly isn't heavy enough to turn the leader over properly, so you need to change one of them out. i.e if youre using a size 12 on a 6x andf its kinking, go to a 5x or a size 14. the fish can absolutely see kinked line on the surface and they will not take a fly if theres even a hint of leader afore it. Greys do a good tippet for not a lot of money, so if you have 15lb or12lb mono to hand, you can make a good taptered leader for a fraction of the price you would pay in the tackle shop. just graduate the diameters as you get to the business end and you'll be grand. its a shame about mikes, but he was getting outgunned and robbed blind, so I dont blame him for packing it in.

Good luck. This is the latest start to spring that I can remember. You chaps down south usually get it a week or so before us, but not this time.

sounded it too. at least 3-4lb i would guess

I'm going out on saturday with luck. work and weather have put the dampeners on it for a while, but its starting to come to life.

I wondered if it was maybe in distress, with a hook stuck in its lip or something. Ive seen pike and carp do the same thing a few times.

@@thetattooedangler its a pitty it didn't grab your fly there stunning looking fish and good fights of them

i tried, but it wasnt having any of it.

I've got my WLAA ticket for this season, just need it to stop raining for 5 minutes.

Nice one. Ive been look at bigger rivers, hoping that theyve not been flooded but everywhere looks the same for now. bollocks to it.

awesome. i might head out to the west coast hill lochs that I know fish even when its shitey weather if the rivers wont behave themselves.

@@thetattooedangler Wee bit early for hill lochs for me mate, They tend to not offer much until into May, some crackers round here that you could train it to, gimme a shout when ye fancy it, be glad to show ye about.

nice. ive been watching the WoL for a week or two. it doesnt get washed out as often as the almond, and it looks fishable from dean village to pilrig. well, it did before the rain last night.

looking forward to your adventures this season. have you written some new tunes?

just below 0.5 is best from the railway bridge down to soggy arse and the pines. 0.5 - 0.7 from the old brig down to the ladders below the weir. the tide doesnt make too much difference to the water level above the ladders, but the fish wont run unless its somewhere around the .7 mark

@@thetattooedangler appreciated 👍

aye, i skipped a few pools today because I cant see whats lurking under the surface. nothing helpful I'll warrant.

if this season is anything like last, i will be taking my rod across the water and fishing your rivers there mate.

​@@thetattooedanglergimme a shout pal if you do!! cannae get you salmon but id show you enough seatrout in the tide to cast a patergriesen over 👍👍🎣

ive not fished the clyde apart from the estuary when I was living down balloch way. its about time i went up the non tidal parts. looks like its holding some good grayling

@@thetattooedangler it does and a lot of very good trout aswell but same as everywhere you need to get

pish, innit.

Might be another week or 2 of still water fishing. Btw Guideline switch rods are brilliant. I have been using a Laxa 7/8 wt.

usually theyre out of my price range, but I got a good deal on an ex-display rod, so I couldnt pass it up. got a reel to go with it, then found out that its been discontinued, so I cant find a spare spool.

Aye, just as I gave up, the drizzle started. By the time I got home it was pissing it down, and still is. It's put the kybosh on my plans for fishing one of the 3 T's later in the week. The rod feels like it's going to be a lot of fun. I bought it direct from maxcatch. It took two weeks to come, no problem in the close season, but it was about £20 cheaper than amazon. The only issue I have it that there's no groove or whatever it's called in the reel seat, so you have to kinda jam it in and tighten as much as you can.

@@thetattooedangler According to SEPA our rivers are rising again this morning. Never mind, in a few months we will be complaining about the lack of water! 😄

maybe we should start putting buckets out?@@wildfisher

Feels like a wet noodle.

@@thetattooedangler I fish the west lothian stretch been down to look a few times but just not worth getting the rod out just yet

Ive got my permit for thr WLAA stretch. Looking forward to wetting a line there. @@JamesBennett-uw7dx

We don't have the stretches you have but it is still good sport tho

Aye. Ive been wanting to get out early season for a bash at the tourists, but one thing or another has gotten in the way. Come the 15th I should be tackled up and ready though.

@@thetattooedangler nice

the west lothian club have the rights to the stretch by you. its only £15 for the season and they do a lot of teaching days and tying nights. theres some good fish up that way, so its well worth it.

aye, it sometimes has a very familiar aroma.

I bought thier 3wt fiberglass rod in the close season, but haven't had chance to use it yet. looking forward to that. how do you find it? Im likely going to take the v switch out for a sea trout bash next week, see if it behaves itself this time.

its the lower stretch of the river.

Dont know, I rarely cast a line up that way. best ask the west lothian guys, theyre doing a lot of good work up that way. facebook.com/WestLothianAnglingAssociation

I did. I emailed them direct and got it within a week, even though the rod was well out of warranty.

@@thetattooedangler That’s great service, mate

aye. i was surprised because i initially asked if they sold spares. i cant recommend the rod, but I cant fault the service.@@theanglingfront

Greased Weasel 40lb mono

@@thetattooedangler thank you