Loch Leven, eve session, 28 July
An amazing change in weather again, as we left Edinburgh, dry, with a stiff breeze blowing, and arrived at 'Tombstone' to find it soggy wet and mirror calm. We had another poor turn out, with only 3 boats out for the 3rd time this season. We all concentrated on the St Serf's area, and Dougie S was soon into a good fish on suspender buzzers. Our boat went with nymphing tactics too and had some early offers, without connecting.That kept us on what turned out to be the wrong tactics. We reckoned the numbers of rises did not match the amount of fly, the latter being prodigious, with Caenis, buzzers (bright greens and yellow owls) and sedges covering the water.
Alan M, into a brownie on a claret bits. Note the coating of Caenis on Al's back...
After too long with nothing, Alan M took the plunge and switched to dry flies and was broken first cast! A few casts later and he was in again. A quick change to dries for Cap'n F, and it was all go in our boat for a frantic half hour. Key fly was Tommy S's half-hog from last season. We were now seeing plenty risers, including a group of 3 or 4 fish in the 8-10 lb class! I had just got in nice position for one of them and a wee rainbow came from nowhere and took me. Next time....
...and here it is, proudly displayed by Alan's son, Iain.
Alan got straightened out by a brownie we estimated at 4-odd. We were really getting somewhere now... so, a cool sea breeze came in from the east and put the whole lot off the top! Oh well, good things come in small measures. At least it left us with nice pulling conditions, albeit with fast-failing light. Stu B got into fish late on and put a bag of brownies together with the floater and a Dunkeld variant. Jimmy M had one on dries and one on a totty wee butcher muddler.
Our total for 8 rods was 7 rainbows for 15 lb 2 oz, plus 6 browns for 10 lb 10 oz and 2 others returned.
