When we arrived the weather was shaping up to be similar to the previous day, not a cloud in the sky and scorchio!  The previous day had actually been bright and breezy with the East wind strong enough almost to stop fishing.  However, we had a much milder wind, albeit with blue skies and temperatures in the seventies.

Looking East, towards the dam

This didn't stop the fish though, and Dougie Skedd was into them straight away, taking 3 and losing another in his first drift across the reservoir.  He took another four on a drift along the far side, from opposite the hut up to the little bay half way, leaving his boat partner (your humble scribe), who could only manage one at this stage, trailing in his wake.

Dougie Skedd brings another to the net

Elsewhere, most of the Club's boats elected to fish at or around the dam area and were picking up fish steadily, mainly to dries such as claret and black hoppers.  Later in the morning the wind got up a bit, changed direction, and the fish predictably went down.  However, after an hour or two conditions started to settle again and the fish were back on.  For Dougie Skedd and I it was any colour as long as it was claret, with Shipman's, hoppers and Klinkhammers all scoring heavily.  For Tommy Steven's who was out on his own all day after a no show, black was the colour and a pearly bibio did the damage.  Tommy stayed in the home shore area, from the hut to the right corner of the dam, all day and picked up 8.  John Gibson and Ian McDonald picked up 16 between them from the same general area on balloon caddis and hoppers.  Ivor and Lenny picked up 4 on dries in and around the dam.  One feature that everyone noticed was how hard-fighting the fish were.  They seemed to be supercharged and there were a few lumps around which took a bit of getting in, particularly the blues (see photo).

The author with a well-set blue

Virtually all our fish were taken on dries which made for great top-of-the-water sport.  The osprey put in an afternoon appearance, and curlews, wagtails and swallows were present all day long.

Dougie Skedd and I finished top boat with 27 fish (26 rainbows and a brown) with Dougie finishing up as top rod with 16 rainbows.

The Club's total for 11 rods was 27 fish weighed-in for 55lb, with 37 others returned.