Sunday, 12th June

Frandy, Day Session

This was the archetypal 'four seasons in one day' affair.  At times the wind was gusty, at times it was flat calm.  At times it was from the north, the east, the west, and all the points in between.  At times it was sunny.  At times it was raining heavily.  At times it was chucking down hailstones.  At times it was quite warm, but most of the time it was baltic.  Chilly for June?  ...it was June!

Given all this, no experienced angler will be surprised to hear that the fishing was hard going.

This was a disappointingly small outing, with only 6 club rods and 2 guests out.  Our boat spent the morning up the top end, drifting down the sides with the split wind (trying to be north, it was east at the top end, west at the dam end!).  We saw several risers and we concentrated on fishing dries, which is the norm for us on Frandy.  We drew up plenty fish, but very few went back down with the fly between their teeth.

Guest Alastair Inglis with a muddler-caught rainbow

Ken Maclean and his guest Alastair Inglis came down the same end, and they picked up a fish to a mini-muddler and intermediate, but by mid-day, the wind had become impossibly changeable and both boats headed back down the water.  Our other 2 boats had stayed down the dam end.  Tommy Steven and Adrian Coats worked away with dries on the south shore drift from the harbour to the dam to take 7 to pearly-winged heather fly and Shipmans buzzer.  JSB and guest Les Harris also plied away in the same area and had a bit of a response with damsels, but only one to show for it.  Their only other fish came to a heather fly. 

A quiet corner at the dam end, mid-afternoon

On arriving down at the dam, Ken and Alastair picked up 3 to dries -- claret Bob's bits and black Klinkhammer.  That backed up our findings, having had limited success with a claret Klinkhammer.  The club's total for 8 rods was 15 fish.

As we packed the gear into the cars, the conditions were improving significantly, and fish could be seen rising in the calm, right across the dam end.  Sigh!