Sunday, 19th June

Linlithgow Loch, Day Session

A perfect, warm, overcast day with a light westerly.  What more could you ask for?  Er, well, a more even distribution of catchable fish would have been a bonus for a good number of us on this outing.  It seems that the fish had all headed for deep water.  Not sure why.  The weather hadn't been particularly warm in the lead-up.  The water was crystal clear.  The weed growth was normal for the time of year.  Whatever... There was another club out, and they had obviously been fishing the loch regularly, as, at the gun, they all headed straight for the deep water off the Palace bank, dropped anchor and got stuck into the fish.

That is not to say that there wasn't room for us to get involved.  It was more a case of several of our boats heading for quieter water and expecting to get some fish.  However, it did seem to be that the boats who got tuned-in, in water of at least 20 foot depth, got fish, while those who looked elsewhere struggled.  Really struggled!

A two-up for Tommy and John

Of our 8 boats, 3 got tuned in and had 36 fish between 6 rods.  The other 5 boats had 7 fish between 10 rods -- 3 of them to one rod.  So, to the 3 boats that did catch...  In no particular order... well, OK, having already put their mug-shots on the page, I'll do them in the same order.  Tommy Steven and John Gibson had ventured up the east end, but gave up on that mid-day-ish and came back down to the town bay area.  They stopped in a good depth and John started to get fish to DI 7 and a washing line set-up.  Fishing deep with a slow figure-of-eight retrieve, most of his fish took a size 14 anorexic hare's ear nymph.  Tommy gave up on the floating line approach and followed John down to the depths with a washing line, taking fish to a size 12 hare's ear booby and nymphs.

Trevor goes 'tache-less!

It looked to me that Trevor Gibson and Boyd Scott stayed in slightly less deep water, but Trevor assures me they got their fish in 20 feet.  Boyd was the first to get tuned in.  After losing several to damsels, he started taking fish on a weighted black fritz tadpole on a floating line and long flouro leader.  Trevor gave up on the 'tache and buzzer approach (no your eyes do not deceive you!) and followed suit, figure-of-eighting 25 foot of flouro with a black dancer on the tail.

A stretch for Gav, as he nets a fish for dad Ian

Last but not least, Ian Macdonald and number two son Gavin had top boat with 13 fish.  Ian was the only one of our number to make a success of swinging nymphs, albeit over deep water.  Ian took fish to Diawl Bach, hare's ear and bloodworm.  Gavin ended up fishing assorted boobies on a fast sink, and had a superb spell in the afternoon.

The club's rather skewed catch totalled 43 fish for 16 rods.

Photographs: Canon 10D with Sigma 28-300 mm lens.