It looks like a wet day in prospect.  The clouds this morning are dark and heavy with rain which has just started falling.  Good news for a very depleted river, but it will take a few days of persistent precipitation to bring levels to a condition where fishing is at its best.  The river is really too low at present to do any serious kick sampling so the six monthly thorough check I had planned for Saturday is really a non starter.  I will do a bankside check at as many of the four locations that I can get to.  You can't fight nature.

I took a wander down the river last evening as far as the Tay bridge and was pleasantly surprised at the number of fish that I saw rising.  Looking over New Inn bridge I could see a few three inch trout close in to the bank busy feeding on midges that were falling on the water.  Further down at the Rock Pool was a very much larger fish stationed under an overhanging branch.  This is the first time that I have heard a fish slurp as it sucked in flies.  This sound is mentioned by many old writers and I had always assumed that the noise was quite gentle.  Not this one, it sounded more like your embarrassing toothless old aunt drinking soup!  All down the river to Tay bridge I saw rises, most small, but some large and quite violent.  What was bringing fish to the surface to feed I could not discover despite watching quietly for some time.  The weather was warm and sultry with not a breath of wind. The air was full of midges, but nothing obviously larger so like their tiny brethren at new Inn these fish may just have been taking midge, but that would not account for the slurping I think.

Ian