Portmore Loch, day session, 25 August

Conditions to die for -- but it was not quite that simple... and then some!

Plague of locusts, plague of frogs, what were the other ones?  No mention of a plague of sticklebacks, was there?  That's what is up at Portmore just now.  It's worth a visit to get involved with the phenomenon, if you haven't experienced it.  There must be 10⁸ of the little critters, and they are right across the entire surface of the loch.  "Takes a mess of them to fill a skillet!" (Sylvester).

No one seems to be quite sure what the effect on the trout has been.  Have they been filled to the point of becoming stuffed?  Have they become confused to the point of going off the feed (sticklebacks are spiny and tend to run away, after all)?  Whatever, the trout have been very difficult to interest.  But, there's a challenge there to anyone who is up for it.  There was certainly a number of fish that were on top and visibly worrying the 'backs whenever it was flat and dull.  (It seems that the sticklebacks only gather on top when it is flat and dull).  However, to get a trout to engage you, it seems that you have to drop a fly, of sufficient allure, almost into its mouth when it appears, or else you just don't get a look.  This was working to an extent while it was dull, but the second half of the day was bright and it was all a waste of time, as both 'backs and troots disappeared to the depths.

What constitutes sufficient allure?  Well, any kind of stickleback imitation was useless and the only success we had was with either a dry fly (including the half hog), left static, or a pearl blob, stripped away fast.

JWR displays a silvery resident, taken on a micro-booby

However, there were other ways to get a fish or two.  John W R fished a tiny (size 14) white booby on the Hi-D (pulling) to take 2 big fish (4lb 10 oz and 3 lb 10 oz) early on.  Stu B had tried everything except a booby on a DI-7, when, for the last hour, he tried an orange booby on a DI-7 and took 4 fish on it, out in the middle of the water.  Could be there's a load out there, lying deep?

So that was it.  Strange day -- one rod had 4, one rod had 3, one rod had 2 and 13 rods were blank.