Lindores Loch, day session, 21 Apr
Things looked a bit ropey, weather-wise on the road north, what with the strong wind and heavy rain. However, we pretty much escaped and had nothing worse than a dreich day with a fresh, mild southerly breeze. And the fishing was as good as ever. Catches were more spread numbers wise than last time, with a wide range of scores recorded. What was very consistent throughout our rods this time was the extent to which everyone was catching with nymphs.
Derek K with a fast-mending stockie
Jimmy M and Steve G had best boat by some way (Jimmy being best rod on the outing). They concentrated on fishing in open water between the home end and the railway shore. They took the majority of their fish quite high in the water, fishing a double strength leader set-up. While they had some to the good old Diawl Bach their stand out fly was Jimmy's flash-back melanistic PTN. The fish they took had been feeding on greenish blood worm (note for later: they live on the bottom).
Also up that end of the water, Leon J was dead chuffed to get his first bag of fish with the swung nymph technique. Leon was using a black buzzer pattern.
Meanwhile, down the far end at the big house, Ian Mac got into the fish with the same technique, using a mini-damsel and a JC Diawl Bach. however, Ian was using a 24 foot fluorocarbon leader. That would suggest the fish were lying deeper than the ones at the other end that Jimmy and Steve were catching. However, we fished right beside Ian and the fish we spooned had been feeding in mid water, on scrotty buzzer pupes and daphnia. So, at one end we have bottom feeding fish getting caught high in the water, and at the other end we have midwater feeding fish getting caught at depth. More stuff to do your head in with! Here's yet more... Our boat sat in between Ian's and Tommy S's: they were also catching fish swinging nymphs. We spent about half the day swinging nymphs -- assorted patterns, assorted leader set-ups, assorted presentations, assorted anchorages. Between us we caught 4 large perch... and not one single trout!
Nice fish, shame about the boat race!
We could only put up with this for so long before we tried another tack. We picked up the other rods with the slow sinkers on them. After a bit trial and error, we found that a moderate paced figure-of-eight through midwater with 2 nymphs (Diawl Bach and damsel) behind an orange blob was as good as anything for catching fish. And we got more residents on the blob than on the nymphs! What's all that about, then?The club's total for 18 rods was 75 fish for 152 lb, with 66 returned.