Saturday, 31st July
Butterstone Loch, Day Session
A contender for hottest day of the year so far, at least by mid afternoon -- after the early mist had burned off. And very, very calm as well, with only the odd 10 minute spell of light breeze to stir things up at all. A cracking day to be out on the water, just the same, especially given the picturesque surroundings that Butterstone provides.
The water was very clear, with sparse hatches of good sized buzzer coming off, along with a few olives. One spooned fish revealed a load of phantom larvae, which may have been the "buzzer" seen earlier. There were also large squadrons of male damsel flies on the go. No females, though. "Whaur's ra burds?", they were probably thinking.
First of our rods into fish was John M, who had one first cast, and 5 by mid-day, including a whopper at 12 lb 6 oz. John was fishing on the left side of the loch. He took his fish to Diawl Bachs on the floater, with a gold head nymph on the tail to take them down a bit.
Big John with big fish: 12 lb 6 oz
We were on the left as well, but our boat was struggling to get tuned in. There were a few very oncey risers on the go, but attempts with dry produced only one short lived contact. Meanwhile, the 2 anglers in the next boat were sconing fish on intermediate and washing line set up, taking their fish on a bibio on the dropper. What successes we had came again to Diawl Bachs, either on a hedged bet rig with dry fly, or just slow figure-of-eighted on the floater. Over on the right side, Richard G and JW Robertson took 6 between them: 3 to Diawl Bachs on the floater; one more to Diawl and 2 to boobies on sinkers.
Eric S with what was probably a big lump of weed
Star of the show was Alan H. He didn't find fish until the afternoon, when a move to the deeper water beyond the cages gave him a chance to get the 'tache into action. Once he got tuned in, he made up for lost time, landing and returning 11 fish on Diawls and Cove pheasant tail nymph.
The club's 11 rods landed a total of 30 fish.
