Portmore Loch, day session, 28 September
A cool, but otherwise perfect day for a bit of autumnal fishing. Thankfully the stickleback hordes had fragmented into small pockets and the fish seemed to be over their fascination with them. Most of our boats concentrated on fishing the top end, where there were chances to be had with dry flies, but not a lot else, despite some lovely big buzzer pupes being found in the stomach contents. A hatch of olives in the afternoon got a few fish on the pop, but they were no mugs.
Leon J with a fish taken on a black hopper
Some of us struggled, going smaller and finer and still fresh-airing and jagging the few chances we got. And just to get a chance, it had to be a cover. Nothing was coming out the blue. Meanwhile, Jimmy M was doing by far the best, taking 9 fish to a set of size 10s. They were nearly all out-the blue shots, but Jimmy found he had to fish fluoro. When he went onto double-strength, the chances stopped, and that was despite there being a ripple and good overhead cover. Jimmy's successful flies were a pair of CDC/stimulator/hopper hybrids in black and red, and a ginger hopper.
Next after Jimmy was Steve G with 6, and these were taken to small Shipmans fished on co-polymer. Many of the fish taken on dries were superb residents that had been in since early season and they went like stink.Meanwhile, down the other end, Stu B had found a different group of fish that responded to pulling tactics, and he made the most of them. Many flies worked, on his slime line set-up, but the stand out one was a black blob.
The club's 17 rods weighed in 37 fish for 80 lb 10 oz, with 18 more returned.
