Sunday, 24th August

Portmore Loch, Day Session

A game of two halves as they keep saying.  The morning gave us a misty start and then some nice cloud cover.  Just after the boats went out the fish started rising... right where the boats were.  A fall of black gnats got them going, although stomach contents showed more buzzer shucks than anything else.  That and sticklebacks.

The 'backs were back all right, and the fish were having a square go at them.  As usual, the 'back feeders were not easy to tempt.  They would chase a figure-of-eighted dry, but would not commit to it.  We found that the best bet was to fish the dries static and get an odd gnat feeder to take out the blue.  Our success came to black hopper and dark CDC F-fly.

No idea who these guys are, but they were in the right place at the right time

Unfortunately, there seemed to be no fish at all over the rest of the loch, as all the boats that headed out came back to the dam, having caught nothing.  They reported seeing no rises, despite there being plenty fly on the water.   Unfortunately, just as they arrived back where the action was, the sun came out, the north easterly breeze got up, the fish went down, and that was it until 4 o'clock.  Many different things were tried, including going deep, but nothing worked.

In the last hour, the fish finally got on the fin a bit, and we counted a total of 7 getting landed.  Stu B took 2 to boobies (red and orange/white), fast-retrieved just sub-surface.  Jimmy M also realised the answer was to come up in the water, and he took 2 on fast glass and green tag stick/hot-head damsel.

Alan M, with a late, booby caught 'bow (photo by Fraser G)

John R and Eric B had a brace apiece, but left early, so their successful methods remain a mystery.

The Club's 18 rods recorded a disappointing 16 fish for 54 lb 11oz, plus 2 returned.