GLENCORSE 9.8.09

This was a good fishing day with temperature in the low 20’s and a warm south-westerly breeze.  Cloud cover was pretty good over the day, although one heavy downpour was most unwelcome. 

The stand out boat was that of Tommy Steven and Bob Allan, who between them accounted for 21 fish.  They found co-operative residential fish in the shallows at the top end that were keen to take dry bibios, matching the occasional heather flies that ventured onto the water.  Tom was a clear top rod with 13 fish, while Bob also took an excellent bag of 8.

Other notable catches were from Ken Maclean, making one of his few appearances, who managed 6 fish and from Ed Green with 5 fish, both using dries while roving over most areas of the water.  John Miller and Trevor Gibson managed 3 fish each on dries and blobs respectively.

12 anglers caught a very good total of 49 fish, of which 45 were returned.

 

MENTEITH 16.8.09

This was another new venture for the club as it was our first attempt at the unusual Sunday session on The Lake, which is from 12 noon until 7.00 p.m.  On our regular Saturday session we sometimes have to leave the water just as the rise is starting, and it was hoped that we might benefit from fishing through into the evening. 

Conditions didn’t seem to be great and, with one exception, not a lot of fish were caught.  Dougie Skedd tuned in to what was required however, and had a phenomenal catch of 20 trout on dry heather flies.  His successful areas were round about Arnmach Point and in Gateside Bay.  Adrian Coats put in a rare appearance to finish second some way back, but still with a creditable performance of 6 fish on dries and Diawl Bachs, mainly from Gateside Bay.  He was partnered by Bob Allan, who had 3 fish on dries – heather fly and parachute dry.

13 anglers weighed in 16 fish and returned 27.

 

Coldingham, Sunday 23rd August

Wet and windy.  A day to test the water-proofing of your water-proofs, this one.  Not ideal conditions for dry fly, but history suggested it was a good bet, Douglas suggested it was a good bet and, with weed but a few inches below the surface over much of the water, it was a good bet.

With the wind coming SSE, Stewart Barnes and I drifted from just outside the boathouse, all the way across home bay, round the shoulder and up the west arm to the lily beds.  Not a lot happening until we got within range of the lilies, and then there were fish everywhere.  Several were holding station in the water with the tips of their tails sticking out like wee sails.  Never seen anything quite like it before.  Only lasted a few minutes, then it was down to business.  We had good sport, though the fish were divided into 2 distinct camps.  Type A were prepared to show at your dry once (lift and cover again), show again, (lift and cover again), show again, and maybe even again a 4th time.  But these guys never took the fly down with them.  Type B would only show once, but that was all they needed to do, as they took the fly down no bother.  It paid to give them a second before lifting, though.  Our stand out patterns were size 10 sedge-hogs and size 12 half-hogs.

Tommy Steven and Dougie Goddard shared the drift with our boat, also fishing dries (pearly bibio, black ethafoam beetle).

There were a few fish rising throughout the day, except for about an hour mid-afternoon when the rain was at its heaviest and, though they were only ever up once, an accurate cover (wind allowing) got a reasonable response rate.

The main alternative to drifting the shallow weedy water with dries was to anchor up in the deeper water of the main basin, which is what Gary Wright did, to take a good bag to figure-of-eighted muddlers and cormorants on floating line.

The Club landed 50 fish for 13 rods.

 

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1: The catch. 2: The... ... ... release

 

GLENCORSE – 30.8.09

Although things were a bit slow to start, conditions seemed pretty good for top of the water fishing, and indeed this turned out to be an excellent day for the club with Glencorse rainbows co-operating well and with even some brownies joining in the action. 

Some early fish fell to lures, but as the afternoon developed, dries became the order of the day, particularly on the South shore.  The main reason was a fall of heather flies from the high bank and the fish were going at them hammer and tongs.  Top boat by a mile was that of Dougie Skedd and Tommy Steven – a pretty doughty pairing at any time.  They picked up 16 and 10 respectively on dries – predominantly pearly bibio and heather flies.  Trevor Gibson with 8 to a bibio hopper and Gavin Macdonald with 6 to various dries also had a great day.  Bob Allan and Stewart Barnes weren’t far behind with a total of 13, albeit 9 of them came to Bob’s dries.

Ian Macdonald wasn’t to be outdone by his son and had 7 to a mixture of tadpoles and dries.  Bob Whyte was the odd man out of the top rods as he pulled damsels and bibios on an intermediate for his 7.

It was an excellent day’s angling, with 15 anglers finishing with a fine total of 79 fish, virtually all of which were returned.