Hoddom Beat River Annan

This was day 2 of our road trip and the agenda was a visit to the popular and famous Hoddom beat on the River Annan. We should have been full of optimism and anticipation but the reality was that the conditions were very poor for salmon fishing. The lack of rain meant the river level was only 2 inches above the lowest summer height and the Fishpal website showed that no salmon had been caught in the 5 days of this week.
We parked up and entered the gatehouse where the ghillies are based and any optimism we had was finally dampened when the ghillie said it had been fishing crap and today was unlikely to improve on that.
The beat is over 4 miles long so Colin and I elected to go upriver and fish our way back down. We took the car the short trip to Mainholm and parked up near the footbridge and walked up to the beat boundary.

Looking up river Horse Pool

This area down to the footbridge has some lovely stretches of water where salmon will lie but not today. My initial mistake was not to take my wading stick as the water was low. But the ongoing low water and the sun were perfect conditions for algae growth and I could hardly keep my feet. There was no danger of drowning but a broken limb was a strong possibility if one fell on these rocks. My second mistake was taking the double handed rod, the water was not good for this.
Already sweating in the blazing sun I hiked back to the car to change to my single hander rod, get rid of a layer of clothing, apply sun lotion and grab my stick. A fair bit of wasted time.

Looking downriver from footbridge

We fished the stretch down to the foot bridge and then onwards towards the lodge where we met the rest for lunch. There were a couple more anglers on this stretch but they had no luck either. Some of the water is awkward to get access to a few slides down the embankments. A couple of small brown trout had been caught but no salmon. 
Over lunch, fancy name for a salad roll and a bag of crisps, Rabbie did say he saw one big salmon leap at the other boundary at Scales Pool so refreshed, Colin and I took the long walk to there to fish back up to the lodge. However as we tackled up again I realised no landing net, it had presumably came off on one of my bank slides. A quick rush back to Mainholm and a walk up the banking and luckily there it was at one of the points I slid down to access the river. 
On the walk down the banking here is covered in Hymalayan balsam, an invasive parasitic plant that will take over and destroy all other vegetation as well as erode the banking. Much work is required here to halt its progress.
Scales pool narrowed well and in the low water a salmon would breach it moving upriver but nothing for us to see. Colin saw a seatrout on the next beat but it never showed for us.

The beat boundary

We then fished Ducks pool which looked an ideal holding spot, deeper water just below a weir with a good sandy bottom for wading. After thrashing about for a while with no success I left the water to speak to a couple of the guys at the car park and suddenly behind me a big swirl right in the area I had been fishing. A few curses, back in but no joy.

Looking up river towards Calvert's pool

A final few casts at the Churchyard pool but again no success and the water was very low.
One advantage of the low water is seeing where the lies are and where you can wade safely in better higher water conditions. No success today but another place to return to with better fishing knowledge of the water. 

Drum Loch Dalswinton

The final leg of our road trip had no fishing booked or even agreed so that left plenty of time for debate and argument over breakfast. Friction resulting over the fry-up! After much internet searching we agreed to go to Drum Loch; it looked a reasonable size, 6 acres, we should get on to the water without a booking and it was on the road home, just. We also wanted a fishery where we would all have a chance of catching fish.
The main issue we had was finding the fishery. We got to Auldgirth okay then we were up and down country lanes, there was nobody around this sleepy hamlet to ask for directions so early on a Sunday morning. We had called the mobile number on the internet and the guy said just to go and start fishing and he would come down and get the money. We had 3 different cars all taking the postcode from the internet and we could not pin it down. How can Sat-navs differ so much as well as the 3 could not agree!! We finally drove down a country estate driveway and ended up at a rather large country mansion with a run down looking bit of water in front of us, surely this was not it? Where were the fishing platforms described on the site.

We heard barking and a male was coming down from the big house with 3 dogs in tow. Turned out it was the lord of the manor down to collect duck eggs for his breakfast. He was a very nice bloke and yes we were close by but we had missed the fishery entrance at the village. He did allow us to take an alternative route through his estate and within a couple of minutes we were there.
The small car park was fine, we tackled up and went for a look at the water. It turned out that the Dumfries and District Angling club had only taken the fishery over a few weeks ago but they had done a fine job tackling the bank vegetation, reducing the weeds in the water and putting up a decent hut with a proper loo, well done guys.

There was no sign of fish rising so I started with my usual wets, Kate & Bibio but with no success. After half an hour or so the temperature was rising and there were the encouraging ripples of rising fish taking food from the sub surface layer. I immediately changed to my suspender buzzers, these were successful at Alderneuk just 2 days ago so try again. I decided to fish these static and within 5 minutes there was a good take, a rainbow of about 2lb but with the fight it put up I thought it was a much larger fish. A good start for me in our sweepstake.

A short while later I saw Ally into a fish and turned out he was using the same tactic. Nothing else was caught by anyone that morning. I had a few rises to look at the flies but none were keen enough to take them.
After lunch I stubbornly stayed on the dries, it is my favourite method of fishing. I had stuck with various suspender buzzers as fish were still rising and giving me hope, albeit occasionally and mainly out-with my casting distance.
It was now getting windier and therefore choppier water so I put a yellow/grey dry buzzer on the dropper mainly as a sight indicator. Lo & behold it was hit hard and another fighting rainbow on board. Circumstances meant I was eating alone tonight so rather than go shopping after this long day I chapped this rainbow, it was a nice size for one person.

Rabbie had caught 1 on the dry as well and then Colin got in on the act with a different tactic a wet Black Pennell.
With half an hour to go I was still leading for the money with my two fish but 3 of the guys had to leave early, the car driver had a wedding to get to, so I was happy, less competition.
Colin came to fish the stance beside mine. It was now getting cooler, the fish were down, rarely showing and some drops of rain arrived.

And guess what happened, Colin caught 2 fish in 2 casts to take the lead, not that I was calling him a jammy git.
Thats how it ended, 3 to Colin; 2 to me and 1 each to Ally & Rabbie. Sadly the other 3 blanked.
We called it a day and within minutes the temperature rose, a sedge hatch came on and the fish were rising again, sods law.
It was our first trip here but it will not be our last, we all agreed to have one of our full days next year. it's a lovely tranquil location, very well kept and a bargain at £10.

For my dinner I had rainbow trout fish and chips with garden peas and used half of the fish to make a trout pate, delicious and a fine end to the road trip. I had to open a bottle of wine as well.