Ye olde street fishing.

Scott and I had a few hours to spare on Tuesday afternoon so we grabbed the opportunity and our rods and headed off to fish the Water of Leith. We had received some interesting new jig heads from the far east called "Crazyg Wave HD" made by Ocean Ruler and we were keen to see how they performed. We were joined by Scott's mate Naz who is also a keen angler and has spent a lot of time fishing in and around Edinburgh. We started off in Leith but the flood prevention works had turned the water into mud so we elected to head up stream and began fishing again at Stockbridge and worked our way further up a really beautiful stretch of the river with many nice pools and fast flowing runs ending up on the section of the river that runs through the idyllic Dean Village.

Dean Village. A little hamlet tucked away in the middle of town.

I rigged up with a red Gulp 1" fish Fry on a 1.4g Crazyg Wave HD jig head and we began exploring the pools. As they are designed to, we noticed that the jig heads gave the lures a little more "wiggle " than conventional jig heads, especially in a current. We fished up the river hopping from pool to pool and it wasn't long before I was into a fish. I was working the lure across current with little twitches and just as it began to swing around a trout seized the lure. He gave a surprisingly good account for himself in the strong flow but was soon brought to hand. This brown trout had a slightly deformed mouth but never the less apart from the usual wear and tear on it's fins an otherwise very healthy looking fish.

Our first stockie from the Water of Leith.

Bit of a David Coulthard look about him.

I slipped him back and he swam off upstream in a huff! Naz led us upstream to a large weir which looked very nice indeed. 

Simply stunning and right in the heart of Edinburgh.

An absolute pleasure fishing here.

Naz has had some good fish from this weir pool in the past and we were keen to try it! We couldn't access much of it due to the high water level so after 15 Minutes of trying we headed up stream. Seeing the water hammering down the weir got us talking about whether sea trout could scale it. We were still discussing this as we were crossing a bridge overlooking the pool above the weir. The pool looked so inviting we had to have a shot. We were high up above the water but we are used to fishing from heights due to our harbour fishing experiences. I stuck with my lure choice and Scott rigged up with a red 2" Ecogear Strawtail on an AGM 2g #6 finesse jig head combo. I fished up stream and Scott took the down stream stretch. My lure had barely touched the water when I heard Naz say "Brownie!". Scott was in! Then off! A big brown trout had grabbed the lure but thrown the hook in a flash of gold. Scott cast again and began working the lure very slowly up stream whilst constantly twitching the lure.The great thing about being so high above the river was that we could see the lure working. We could also see a flash of silver followed by Scott's rod hooping over. Fish on and question answered as another Water of Leith sea trout fell to Scott's rod!

Amazing, Scott's second sea trout in as many weeks!

Scott and myself had both caught and it was Naz who was in next. Although not really the intended species as he wrestled a pair of chest waders up the bridge!

Heaviest catch of the day.

They were a bit damaged, possibly from ascending the weir on their way to spawn, but otherwise in quite good condition. That was the last action for the day but a successful little recce further up river and it's somewhere we must visit again soon.

Tight Lines, Schogsky.