It’s a funny old world when anglers travel as far as they can in the belief the fishing will be better. A friend once told me the adage “the further away you travel to fish the worse it will be” and this rings perfectly true when you realise that if you have a river on your doorstep you can hit it any time you want – and only when conditions are optimal.

I travelled up to The Don with some friends last year and blanked rather spectacularly because the conditions were against us, I am pretty sure a Don Fisher could travel the whole way down here to blank miserably on the Kelvin.

Is it about Privacy then?

But there is more to fishing than just conditions. The whole privacy thing is a big issue – I have found anglers to be a contemplative bunch of folks who like a bit of peace and quiet away from the crowds and are willing to pay good money to get it. It is probably for these very reasons you can fish the Kelvin, not meet another fly fisher for miles and get some top sport on the fly rod. Every other hardened fly angler is away travelling miles to fish some remote river they located on an ordnance survey map.

Sure, you run into the odd bunch of guys bait fishing for trout but have you fished any of the popular lochs recently? Or the River Tummel for that matter – those places can be jam packed at the weekends!

I used to get really snobby about guys fishing bait for trout – moaning about it consistently in my online diary. It matters to me less now, they are doing me a favour – when your “get too it” fly fisher sees the bait fisherman they tend to stay away, meaning all the more sport for people who like the idea of casting a fly under a bridge while a bus thunders by. These trout anglers who are out for a dangle are not to be confused with the serious salmon anglers who are doing very well using the worm – their catch rates are improving year on year – They berate me for chasing the “tiny” trout – I smile as they are ensuring that fewer people are going after the trout. Size means nothing to me – I would rather catch a few rising trout every time I fish than one salmon every few sessions. I get a lot of emails about the Salmon fishing in the Kelvin but not as many as ….

The Dreaded Question (should you Kiss n Tell?)

One Question I get asked time and time again is “Where is a good place to fish on the River Kelvin?” This is quite possibly the hardest question to answer as there is around 23 miles of river with trout pretty much all over. A lot of the nice spots I have found have been found through hard work involving trial and error, sweat, blood and torn waders and generally getting scratched by jaggy bushes. Should I give these spots up easily to someone I hardly know?

There is an element of ethics involved here as well, I often go fishing with other people who show me their little sweet spots on the river and I don’t think its right that I give them away so easily. If I were to post specific places on the river that I have been taken to then I would surely find that the next time I go for a nice fish there could be a dozen guys all fishing that spot. My reply to the question is always get your waders on, get a bottle of water and climb over a fence – mucho effort is involved but it is worth it!

A blogging friend from the states left me a comment regarding the way our culture has evolved to accept instant gratification as the norm - anglers and fly shops are expected to give up whatever they know or feel guilt if they don’t- I don’t think I am under any obligation to deliver any shortcuts simply because I keep an online diary. Saying that though – got a sweet spot on a river you know about? – Let’s go fishing and share!

Is it about Solitude?

Anyway, I digressed slightly there. What is solitude? Is solitude being miles from anywhere on the banks of a highland loch? Or is solitude a state of mind? I know you can find solitude on the Kelvin in the middle of the city, fishing a nice run- watching tens of people, buses and taxis travelling over a bridge above me, too busy with their lives to look at a river they think is the rubbish dump for the City. When anyone does notice “hey mate – there are no fish in there” they shout – you just shrug and smile as you have just caught and released some fine trout. Another might be a fellow angler out for a walk “never thought about the Kelvin” they state – “any fish in it?” When you tell them about the sport to be had they walk on musing about the possibilities but then file it away somewhere as the thought of catching trout next to traffic cones and shopping trolleys is just not “correct”.

Anyway, you have to travel far to get good fishing – everyone knows that?

Alistair Stewart is a keen fly fisher who lives in Glasgow. Alistair started the very first fly fishing blog on the Internet, centred around urban fly fishing on the river Kelvin that runs through the city. He fishes 2 or 3 times a week during the season, mainly on the Kelvin, Clyde and some of it's other tributaries. His great love is fishing rivers with the dry fly.

You can visit Alistair's "Kelvin Blog" at www.theriverkelvin.co.uk