Sunday, 8th June

Frandy, Day Session

Cap'n F otherwise engaged – the secretary reports:

As we drove over the Forth Bridge en route to Frandy, the day seemed very promising.  The temperature was at last rising, there was some cloud cover and, very importantly for Frandy, there did not seem to be more than a light breeze.  As we breasted the brow of the approach road, the latter part of that illusion was promptly shattered.  All we could see were white horses scudding across the loch towards the dam – damn!

The word from Ken McCutcheon at the lodge was not encouraging – stronger winds were forecast later in the day.  However, the fishing had been reasonably good and at least the midges, which had been terrorising anglers recently, should not be a problem.  

Strangely, as we set off from the jetty, the wind had eased a bit, which was welcome, but that didn’t last.  As usual boats spread themselves out over the loch.  Some went to the narrows at the top of the loch, others chose a mid-way station and others started in the main bay opposite the Lodge.

Bob Whyte and I joined the latter group.  Starting right at the jetty we quickly found ourselves drifting diagonally towards the North end of the dam.  I hooked one near the tower and Bob lost one near the end of the drift.  We also saw Trevor Gibson into a fish near the dam.  We decided to repeat the drift, but, using a drogue, we tried to keep as close to the South shore as possible.  I soon had another couple of fish and Bob lost a second one.  Trevor clearly was having some success and he and Dougie Skedd also repeated the drift.  By lunchtime the sun had broken through, the wind had picked up, albeit with some softer spells, but the air temperature was reasonable.

Unusually, we did not see much surface action, however Bob and I pegged away in the same area with a mixture of floating and intermediate lines, along with various lures, wets and nymphs which were doing the business.  I actually had my first five fish on five different flies, ranging from a Yellow Dancer to a Clan Chief.   A Holo Cormorant was the best as it totalled three plus a breakage. Bobs had three on a Kate McLaren  plus one each on a Cats Whisker and a “Shuggy”.  We ended up with a healthy total of 12 fish for the boat.  However this was eclipsed by the best boat of Trevor and Dougie in which Trevor had 13 fish to his own rod, all on a small orange booby fished washing line style on a floater.  Dougie reluctantly gave up on the dries and took three on Hi-D and booby.  If bank anglers had not picked up on the fact that the bottom end of the South Shore was the place to be, a number of us would have done even better as a lot of the fish were close in at that point.

Of those who spent at least some time further up the loch, Tommy Steven and Allan Everington stuck with dries and managed 6 on such flies as Bibio, Half Hog and Deer Hair Emerger.  Hugh Easterbrook and Jim Walker fished Cats and Dancers for 5 fish.

We have come to know Frandy as very much top of the water country and it was disappointing that, for once, dries did not do as well.  However the conditions did not help, with the strong wind and bright sun keeping the fish from rising.  We hope that the July outing will provide more appropriate weather for the floating line.

The Club finished with 47 fish for 16 rods.