I am including Carron Valley in this series for a reason that has nothing to do with recommending a day out: people still turn up expecting to buy a ticket, and they cannot. Since 2021 it has been a private membership fishery with no day rods available. If that is news to you, it is better to read it here than to find out in the car park.
What the water is
Carron Valley Reservoir was formed when the dams were built in 1939, and at over a thousand acres it is a substantial piece of water. It sits between Denny and Fintry in Stirlingshire, around twenty-five miles from both Edinburgh and Glasgow, which historically made it one of the most accessible serious trout fisheries in the Central Belt.
The fishing is fly only, for brown trout and rainbows, from both bank and boat. There are roughly four miles of bank fishing and a fleet of around thirty traditional clinker-built boats, plus two wheelie boats for anglers who need them. There is a lodge and a tackle shop on site, and the fishery offers tuition and a ghillie service.
Two wheelie boats is worth calling out. Accessible boat provision at trout fisheries is thin on the ground, and a venue that has bothered deserves the mention.
The membership change
The move to exclusive private membership means the water is now fished by people who have committed to it for the season rather than by a rotating cast of day ticket anglers. The fishery is open about why: the anglers who fish Carron Valley are there for the wild aspect of the trout, and the membership model protects that.
Whether you think that is a loss or a sensible piece of stewardship probably depends on whether you got a membership. I can see the argument. A thousand acres of wild brownie water under day ticket pressure is a different fishery to a thousand acres fished by people invested in its future.
Current details, including how membership works and whether it is open, are on the fishery’s own site at carronvalleyfishery.com, and their number is 01324 823698. Check with them directly rather than relying on anything you read second hand, including this.
If you do get on the water
Wild browns on a big upland reservoir are a traditional loch style proposition. Team of wets, floating line, work the top dropper, fish the drifts rather than casting at features. Four miles of bank sounds like freedom but it is mostly a way of fishing the wind, and the bank angler’s job is to find a shoreline where the wave is pushing food in rather than the prettiest-looking corner.
Clinker boats drift differently to modern glass fibre hulls, sitting deeper and tracking more predictably, which is a small pleasure if you have only ever fished from the standard fishery boat.
Where to go instead
If you were planning a Carron Valley day and now need somewhere else in the same area, Lake of Menteith is the obvious substitute and takes bookings from anyone. It is a stocked rainbow water rather than a wild brown one, so it is a different day, but it is close and it is open.
For wild browns specifically, Loch Leven is the nearest equivalent experience that still sells boats to the public.
The wider picture for the area is in the Central Scotland and Perthshire overview, which is where I would start if you are planning a trip from scratch.
Sarah Marsh came to fly fishing through her father, who kept a rod on a small syndicate water in Devon. She spent her teens fishing stocked reservoirs and gradually worked her way toward wild fish on moving water – first on rain-fed freestone rivers in Wales, then on the Hampshire chalk streams she now considers home water.
She holds a level 2 APGAI fly casting qualification and guides informally on the River Test and, from June to September, on a private beat on the River Tay for Atlantic salmon. Her personal best brown trout came from the Itchen at 4lb 1oz; she’d sooner not talk about the salmon that came off at the net last August.
At The River Bend, Sarah writes the game fish species guides, fly fishing technique articles, and the legal content covering trout and salmon regulations.
Covers: Brown trout, rainbow trout, sea trout, Atlantic salmon, fly fishing, chalk streams, Scottish rivers, close season and regulation articles