Sunday, 17th June

Linlithgow Loch, Day Session

Tom Steven reports...

After days of horrendous weather, a lovely warm day with gentle ripple to flat calm conditions, and a few trout popping lazily here and there, greeted us at Linlithgow as we loaded the ubiquitous trolleys.

Unfortunately, the sun rapidly burst through the early haze and the temperature began to soar to over 20 degrees Celsius and the fishing, which started quite hopefully to slow fished buzzer pupae and dries, took a rapid nose dive.  The rest of the day took on the appearance of many of our previous June trips to Linlithgow, namely scratching around and persevering doggedly for two or three fish at best, while the populace of Linlithgow frolicked on the slopes below the Palace, jogged the lochside path, fed swans and picnicked their way through the heat of the day!

Forbes Mackenzie stuck at it with determination to land three on lure, buzzer and dry fly, while Edward Hamilton found what was perhaps the most skilful solution -- catching three on CDC emergers.

The only consolation was the fact that several rods caught and released some cracking residents in the 5 - 6lb class which fought very hard all the way to the net.  In my case, a beautiful fin-perfect 5½ lb fish taken on a dry size 12 pearly bibio took 10 minutes to land and jumped about once per minute!