Sunday, 15th April

Lindores Loch, Day Session

A day of 2 halves, weather-wise.  The morning was millpond-calm, with some of the mist that has been wandering around the east of Scotland over the past week or so.  It burned off, and the sun came through.  It was pleasantly warm for mid April -- no one was complaining about the sun -- a rarity for fishermen!  However, when an odd whuffle came up from the north east it was quite bracing.  Layers went on, came off, went on again...  In the afternoon, a breeze got up -- quite stiff at times, and it clouded over.  This time it was from the west though, and it was much softer.  The water was a good clarity, and what was notable was the number of fish throwing themselves about this early in the season.

Andy told us the water was fishing very well, and double figure catches were the norm the day before.  We found it a bit harder going than that (I remember a similar 'after the Lord Mayor's Show' scenario last year!), although if we had had a better conversion rate, our totals would have been much more respectable.

Andy also told us that pretty much any method was working, and we had fish by pretty much any method -- if you could get tuned in with your weapon of choice.  As is often the case at Lindores though, the choice was principally between fishing nymphs and fishing lures.  Most boats stayed close to home.  Those that ventured a bit further afield didn't hit into any great concentrations of fish -- more a case of one here, one there, sort of thing.

Trevor and Alan found it slow-going early on, but picked up the pace when they moved over to the top end of the railway shore.  They finished with 15, fishing nymphs slow on SSI (super slow intermediate) lines.  Their top fly was a ye olde style pheasant tail nymph (would you believe, I don't have one photographed -- will do when I get a moment!).

Stewart Barnes and Ian Macdonald were only one fish less for their boat.  They were a bit more adventurous, and had a go up a the big house.  They fished 'Chew' style with floating lines and nymphs, notably Diawl Bach and damsel, but also taking fish to cormorants.

While we are still in nymph mode, top boat of the day was Dougie Skedd and Tommy Steven, who ventured all of 50 yards to Milanda Bay, whereupon much sport was to be had.  They took 22, fishing floating line, with Dougie scoring on flashback Cove PTN, and Tommy on PTN, Diawl Bach and red holo Diawl.

So, who resorted to lures?  Er, well, it was like this, M'Lud...  I started with a hedged-bet rig of 2 nymphs and a black tad on the tail, slow figure-of-eighting on floater, then on ghost-tip.  First fish was on the tad.  So was No. 2, and No. 3.  So were 4, 5 and 6.  I kind of made the assumption then that that was the sort of thing that was working, and went with it.  I was glad to see in the returns that I wasn't entirely alone.  John Robertson reported a bag of 5 to black-and-silver lures.

The club's total for 14 rods was 71 fish.

Photos (good light for it!):  Canon 10D with 28-135mm IS lens