Sunday, 23rd April

Linlithgow Loch, Day Session

Boyd Scott and Bob Whyte, below the Palace Bank

Another cold, bright and breezy day, although as with last week, the fish were on the fin.  Also, as with last week, they were decidedly localised.  There seemed to be 2 main groups.  The first group, comprising mostly stockies, was situated in a spread about 50 yards out from the Palace Bank.  The second group, comprising mostly semi-resident and resident fish were up the north-east corner.

Trevor's guest, G Heseltine, shows him how it's done

The water had a bit of colour/suspended matter in it, but was fair to middling in clarity.  There was a smattering of buzzers coming off throughout the day.  The stockies were fairly high in the water and could be picked-off drifting with slime line tactics.  The residents up the east end were coming to swinging nymph tactics -- on all positions of the cast, suggesting they were not holding any particular depth.  A slime line and a white tadpole was a good fall-back for both stockies and residents.

Bob Allan, with an east end buzzer feeder

Top rod of the day was Ian Macdonald, who took a couple up the west end, before heading east, and getting tuned in to the more resident fish.  Ian swung a floating line with a combo of Diawl Bach and hare's ear.  His son Callum chipped in with a bag to snatchers, blobs and damsels on floater and slime line.

Tommy and JSB, making up for lost time

Second best boat of the day was Tommy Steven and Club Secretary Stewart Barnes, who 'came from behind'.  they only had 3 in the boat going into the afternoon period, when they settled in on the other side of the island from Ian Mac.  That proved to be a smart move, as they got tore in about them, adding 14 more before the 4 o'clock finish.  Tommy and Stewart both swung teams of buzzer pupae, in green, black and claret (size 12).  Another good boat was Trevor and guest G Heseltine, who took 16 to assorted buzzers.

The club's total for 16 rods was 69 fish, 51 of which were returned.

Photos: Canon 10D with 70-300mm IS lens and polarising filter

1:    ISO 400, f4.5, 1/1000s

2:    ISO 400, f4.5, 1/1000s

3:    ISO 100, f5.6, 1/125s, -1EV fill flash

4:    ISO 200, f4.5, 1/500s