Glencorse Reservoir, evening session

Friday, 9th July
Another one of those days (there have been so many over the years) when, looking out the window at work during the day, it looked all set to be a great evening... warm, calm, overcast... might even get a Caenis hatch (I would genuinely like to see one - it must be at least 5 years since I last did).  But then when you arrive, you are met by bright skies and white horses coming down the water!  Ah well, at least we are used to it and just accept our fate...

The word was that dries were what was working, and 3 of the 5 boats chose to go with that and start by heading up to the top end to get what quiet water there was.  Of the other 2 boats, Trevor and Alan Holbrook stopped in the quiet water at the dam, while John Miller and John Levy headed for the middle bay.

Bob Allan and I were one of the 3 that went up top, and the short answer was that not much was happening there.  Gradually, the boats made their way back down the water.  We drifted our way down the road shore.  We tried a switch to pulling on intermediates.  Nothing.  Wondered if the warm weather had driven them deep, so we tested them with DI-7s.  Nothing.  In fact, we started to see an odd rise in water that was catching a bit shelter as we worked our way down towards the elbow.  Back to dries, and we picked up our first fish from that sheltered water - to a daddy.  On the elbow itself we encountered a good number of undersize browns muckin' about.  Beyond the corner, we tucked in behind the 2 Johns, and before you knew it they had boated 3 fish in quick time!  Looked like they were pulling, but we stuck our ground on dries as there were fish showing now.

It wasn't hectic, by any means, but we gradually picked up fish on the dries, with the daddy and bushy claret hopper scoring.  Usually you look to go a size larger as the light fails, but the strong wind dropped so much as the light went that we found ourselves dropping down a size, from 10s to 12s.  That kept us in touch with the few fish that continued to show, with an Adams Klinkhammer proving best pattern.  There wasn't much meat on the water - goodness knows what they were finding to rise to.  We saw a very occasional Caenis drift past; that was about it.  Towards dusk, it kind of tailed away, and we made our way down the water to see if the boats that we could see assembled at the dam end were into something.  Turned out they weren't, and we drew stumps.

Star pairing on the night were the 2 Johns, who had stuck with pulling Kate McLarens on floaters, to boat 14 fish between them.  Dougie Skedd and Bob Whyte went back up the tap end and found a decent hatch of Caenis late on.  As often, even a modest hatch proved tricky to deal with, but they eked out half a dozen between them to sparkle gnats and other assorted dries.

Other points of interest included an ever increasing head of grey lag geese on the water, including those camped out among the heather on the high bank - very odd-looking sight.  Also, a superb red sunset developed behind us, though the high sides made it a dead loss to capture in any way worth displaying.  Instead, I had a go at getting the strange half-rainbow effect that developed away to the east.

The Club's 10 rods landed 33 fish

 

BUTTERSTONE 24.7.10

It is a long drive to Butterstone, but our early outing there had been a real cracker and there was a real feeling of anticipation on the way up.  An absolutely flat calm was not what most of us were looking for on arrival.  However, the fact that fish were popping there noses up all over the loch had us champing at the bit.  As boats were not moving in the calm it was a case of sitting quiet and letting them come to you.  Sudden movements or noise in the boat only succeeded in the fish giving you a wide berth.  Thankfully, by mid-day a slight breeze picked up that allowed a bit of movement, and the ripple also gave casts some cover. 

Someone who is always happy to fish dries in the calm is Dougie Skedd and his overall total of 8 fish with quite a few other offers was the best basket.  Successful flies for him were an orange hopper and a claret half-hog and he had ranged over most of the loch by the end of the day.   It was good to see “El Presidente” Richard Goddard sharing success in Dougie’s boat with 4 fish to give them top boat.

Not far behind was the pairing of John Levy and Gavin Macdonald.  John had early success and fished buzzers and dries in the main basin to boat 6 fish, while Gavin had four on dries.  John Miller also scored four fish with a black diawl bach and a green buzzer on the south shore.

The Club’s 12 anglers caught a total of 39 fish.   

 

FRANDY 18.7.10

Frandy has tended to be a pretty solid venue for the club, with good top of the water fishing, however this outing was to be much more trying than usual.  On arrival, the conditions looked excellent as, despite a smirr of rain there was a lovely little ripple, good cloud cover and a pleasant temperature.   First drifts produced some rises to the dries and the day looked promising.  Most of the boats stayed in the main basin, drifting on to the dam, but with the wind increasing some sought shelter at the top of the water.

As it turned out this was a good move for the top boat of Bob Whyte and John Levy, who netted four apiece on the dries.  Bob used a black Shipman’s buzzer along with half-hogs in claret and olive.  John favoured a black Klinkhammer to get his fish.  Nobody else was doing anything worthwhile.  Dougie Skedd and Stewart Barnes had only one each up until mid afternoon, despite having a few offers to the dries.  A move half way up the far bank led to more interest and in a last minute flurry Dougie took a further two rainbows and two takeable browns.  These fish were lying virtually up against the bank and were much keener to take the dry offering of claret hopper and Klinkhammer, followed by a hare’s ear Klink.

The total catch for 14 rods was a disappointing 23 fish.