Saturday, 8th September

Glencorse, Day Session

Weather-wise, what we had was a bright and breezy start, with the wind dropping to an ideal level, although it did tend to swing about as it often does at Glencorse, as it tries to find a line of best fit through the hills.  The sun also gave way to cloud as the day went on, although for those of us that went with dries, the best of the surface action was strangely before the cloud came over.

Early on, most fold went with dries, but it was slow-going -- probably just too cold at that time, added to there being very little meat on the water.  Boyd Scott and I fished all the way from the top end to the dam for not a fish.  Trevor and Bob Whyte did the same drift, with Trevor picking up their single fish to a half-hog.  It was much the same story for Dougie Skedd and Fraser Gault.  We all arrived down at the dam around the same time, where John Gibson and Greg Milne were fishing.  Things changed quickly.  Firstly Greg Milne caught one on a yellow lure and intermediate.  Then, Dougie Skedd, having given up on dries for a bit, caught the first of 3 in short order, figure-of-eighting a cat-minkie-booby on a Hi-D.  I had also tried a change by now, and banged one on Hi-D and lures while Dougie was playing his first.  Hhmmm...  stockies about...  stay on, or get off was the question.  It was getting busy anyway, and Boyd and I decided to get off, and we went back up to the top end to start over with dries.

Trevor with an early one to dry fly

Nearing the far end, we ran into Ron McCarron and Bill Scobie, also fishless, but even as we were speaking to them, Ron hooked into a fish on dry fly.  That gave us renewed enthusiasm, and we set about it.  The next period saw us get a lot of sport, mostly from brownies, with an odd rainbow in among them, though our conversion rate was very poor.  The likelihood was that they were taking the very small scrots that were all we could see on the water.  Our 12s and 14s were massive by comparison.  I thought a change down to extra smalls would just get less chances, so I stayed with my team of: half-hog, pearly-winged heather fly and mkII black Klinkhammer.  Boyd was switching between figure-of-eighting dries and doing same with nymphs, his best pattern being a nymph tied from Nutrigrain bar wrapper.  Gradually we got our names on the score board.

A correctly-proportioned rainbow

It was still bright, but we could see clouds approaching, and we thought we were in for an improvement.  Alas, as it clouded over, sport slowed-up!  The whole day was probably temperature-driven.  This idea was backed up by news from Dougie Skedd and Fraser Gault.  They had also come away from the stockies and, as they worked their way up the water with dries, they ran into a group of keen-yins at the knuckle.  Dougie had success with his Madam X again.  However, those fish had also went-aff as it clouded over!  Stewart Barnes also had a tale to tell of a frantic spell with dries in the middle of the day.  He was at the back of the causeway wall when they came on.  It was all go (bibio hopper), then all stop.

Dougie Skedd readies the net for Fraser Gault's fish, caught on a bibio hopper

Anyway, time for pastures new... Boyd and I went down the arm and round the corner into the first bay on the road shore.  We got some fresh sport here.  I noticed a distinct change in the fishes' preference on my team.  The ones up the top bay had all been coming at the Klinkie and heather fly, ignoring the half-hog in the middle.  The fish we were among now were all coming at the half-hog (which was a particularly sparse specimen).  A look around at what was on the surface revealed that fishy favourite: fiery brown flying ants.  I changed the other 2 flies for stuff more like the ants, and sure enough, there was instant attention to both substitutes -- for exactly no fish landed!

Time ran out on us -- and everyone else.  Back at the harbour, Trevor and Bob had taken the stockie option down at the dam, and our total for the day was highly indebted to their choice.  They had fish to slow retrieve with intermediate and midge-tip lines, mostly to cat's whisker, damsel and orange blob.

The club's 11 rods landed 36 fish

Photos: Canon 10D with 28-135 IS lens