Sunday, 14th August

Glencorse, Day Session

This outing was originally scheduled to take place at Ballo, but the management there took the majority of the boats off the water to concentrate on bank-based bait fishing!  Oh, well...  Having had a good outing at Glencorse in June, we sought refuge same.  And we were glad we did, as we got a cracking day... again.  It was a pity there were only 8 of us.

Many other waters have been struggling to provide sport in August due to high temperatures and stagnating water.  With several water inlets, and a good depth over much of the reservoir, Glencorse seems to have managed to keep sport going at a high level.

Callum Macdonald with the first of the day, to an F-fly

A weather system ran its course over the day, starting cloudy, turning to rain, clearing up early afternoon, and ending up bright sun.  Wind was light and variable, and the water was in good nick.  Not much real fly about -- possibly due to the damp, but there was a fall of tiny black scrots that made the fish tricky while they were on the go.  Essentially, everyone fished dry fly and everyone caught fish, our 8 rods averaging 9 per man -- really excellent, given the tales of how other waters have been struggling.  The fish were a healthy mix of stockie and resident rainbows and blues, plus wild brownies.  Several nice browns over 10 inches were caught and returned.

Tommy and Adrian, watching for a rise to their flies

Everyone fished around the water a bit, but the bulk of the catch came from 2 main areas: the bays half way up the road shore, and the narrow top end.  The Macdonalds, Ian, Gavin and Callum, Tommy Steven, Adrian Coats and m'self concentrated on the bays, while Dougie Skedd and Trevor Gibson had the top end to themselves.  (Apart, that is, from when 2 Irishmen rowed all the way up, only for them to row back down 5 minutes later.  What was that about? -- must have seen Dougie and Trevor!)

Flies used by the 8 rods reads quite conservatively: heather fly (12 + 14), claret Klinkhammer (10), black/red Shipmans (12), hare's ear F-fly, black F-fly, half-hog (12), Adams Klinkhammer (12), daddy-long-legs (10). 

Dougie and Trevor ply the top end

Dougie Skedd just pipped the others for top bag, with 15.  Dougie commented, "The fish in the morning were mostly from covers to tiny dimpling rises.  In the afternoon they were mostly to figure-of-eighted flies.  The fish came pretty much equally to the two flies that I was using.  The blues seemed to favour the Klinkhammer and the rainbows seemed to favour the shippie!  The browns all came to the klinkie."

The Club's 8 rods caught 72 fish.  (Thanks Ballo!)

Photos: Canon 10D with Sigma 70-300 mm lens