Cramond Angling Club

The story started in the middle of a short summer night, in the heart of one of Edinburgh’s popular students area, Marchmont. It was quite a dark night, and quite damp too. I was in my flat, lighting up a Camping Gaz camping light, preparing for a trip out onto our back garden. Worms, I need some worms for the fishing tomorrow.

It was my first month of salmon fishing. I was so into salmon fishing that I was prepared to do just about anything for a salmon! I have learned that you can use worms to fish the salmon. So that was the idea. I need some worms.

So, after lighting up the camping light, I realized that I would need some sort of digging apparatus so that I can dig the garden for the worms. Being in a student flat, there was a slim chance to find a shovel, or a spade. I went into the store room in our kitchen hoping to find something, but it was fruitless. Failing to find a shovel or a spade, I had to settle for the next best thing, a big wooden spoon from the kitchen drawer. It was long, big, strong and looked like a small shovel/spade and more importantly, it would do the job.

Anyway, to cut the story short, my improvised shovel/spade did a good job. About twenty garden worms would be enough for me. The shovel did not survive the whole session, the handle broke. It was 12.30 by the time I got back to our 3rd floor Marchmont flat, time to go to bed; early start tomorrow.

6.am I was waiting for the 41, right in the middle of Marchmont Crescent. The bus was on-time. I was carrying a 9 foot 9 weight fly rod (which I bought specifically for salmon fishing – but no success yet) and a 6 foot spinning rod, a tiny rod compared to what other rods used by salmon fisherman. I was heading to river Almond, in Cramond. The last stop in Cramond is just 5 minute away from the river. A quick walk, straight to the Waterfall pool (I saw a salmon caught there a couple of weeks before).

The water was high; and a bit coloured too. There was another fisherman in the pool at that time. He must be a keen fisherman too. Only keen fisherman would wake up before 6am on Saturday morning. I did my angler’s hand gestures of “hello”, “how many fish?” and “have you seen any?” to the fisherman, and he replied (also by using the angler’ hand gestures and signs) “oh, hello there”, “none” and “nothing”. Those were my interpretations anyway. To those who wondered why hand signals were much preferred to the normal vocal communication method, it was because the sound of the waterfall during the high water was deafening. You really have to shout even when the person is within a couple of metres away from you.

Anyway, I took my time tackling up. No fly fishing today as the water was high. It had to be the worms, the Marchmont garden worms. A very simple setup, a weight and a single hook. Nothing else. I attached 2 juicy looking Marchmont garden worms and made my way closer to the waterfall. Slowly I walked. You can actually walk pretty close to the waterfall if you knew the water well. The other fisherman was having a cigarette break. He was fishing with worms too. He was on the left and I was standing in the middle of the pool.

Looking up to the waterfall pool on Cramond Angling Club water.

I cast the bait to the right hand side of the waterfall (if you are facing the waterfall). The weight which I used was not that heavy, so the fast water from the waterfall was bouncing the worms along the current. This was good as I thought it would be better than fishing at one spot. To be honest I had no idea what would it be like if a salmon decided to take the worms. I had never done this before. I was casting the bait to a few different spots to cover the water.

Fishing the waterfall pool.

It must have been after the 10th cast when I realized that I had some fish on the end of my line. I did not feel any take or pull or anything. I was just reeling in the bait and out of nowhere, and there was the fish. The other fisherman saw this and finished up his cigarette break and came close to me. He mentioned to me that it was a salmon. That was that! As soon as he mentioned the “S” word, I started to panic and again, my knees starting to shake again. The fish did a few runs in the pool before coming to the surface. “Nice fish, nice fish”, said the fisherman. I was really hoping that he would not say anything about the fish, as this would make me even more nervous.

He offered to net the fish for me, which I agreed with. After a few more runs the fish started to come closer and closer to me. And when it was close enough to the other fisherman, he netter the fish. “My first salmon”, I told him. “Well done” he said to me.

A salmon of around 7 lbs. My very first salmon. Happy, I was very happy. I sent a quick message to my father just to let him know. I was a bit puzzled to why would this salmon grabbed the worms, and what was it that I did to get this fish? Will I be able to do this again? But those didn’t matter as I was like on top of the world with my first ever salmon.

I stayed fishing till the end of the day with nothing else caught. One salmon, the very first salmon was good enough for me. I had a big feast with all my flatmates that week and it was tasty!