It was another good club outing, with 7 boats booked for the day. Glencorse, like many Scottish fisheries has had an up and down start to the season. The unpredictability of the weather has been a major factor across all venues. However, the condition of the water was excellent with great visibility and, although there was still a chill in the air due to the predominantly easterly wind, the conditions were favourable. The temperature was expected to pick up during the day. Kenny mentioned that the reservoir had been stocked earlier in the week. The following day there was a FastMailTackle pairs’ competition, and a few anglers were out practicing.
I was paired with Dougie Skedd. We set-up with slightly different approaches. For some unknown reason, which will remain a mystery even to me, I thought this was a day to Christen a 12ft Snowbee fast tip to open proceedings – it had never seen the light of day, despite being a couple of seasons old. How often have you opened your fly box, looking for a particular one, only to be seduced by a killer pattern you’d never even considered? Most of the club started with that Glencorse favourite, the Di-3 sweep, with some going even deeper. There were a few fish smutting in the bay in front and of the boats. Earlier in the week fishing had been very good, and it was Di-3 and damsels, with myriad variants, that had apparently been working to good effect.
The fish that were showing looked like they were nymphing just under the surface, so we hoped the fish were high in the water. All the boats quickly spread out, but we decided to try and keep in the main basin. The top end apparently was still problematic, with a bit weed, so our lines would have made it difficult to fish there. The road shore was already busy with a procession of boats extending from the wall right down to the culvert at the corner. We headed to the bay to the far left of the bench and set-up our drift, heading onto the point. The thinking was we would work our way along the shoreline. However, we were soon into a few fish. As usual, they were excellent quality and gave a very good account of themselves. We had this area to ourselves for a good while and repeated that drift on a few occasions before other boats started to creep our way.
The 12ft fast tip seemed to get my flies in the right zone for most of the day, so it was just a case of adjusting retrieve to the area and depth. In the morning the fish seemed to be going for a bit of colour, but in the afternoon that changed to the more natural and subdued. Dougie was experimenting with flies and lines and as usual found a few answers and soon started to pick up some good trout and some resident smaller brown trout. We then joined the boats on the road shore. There was a number of fish smutting under the trees. Dougie, by this stage, was flicking his flies under the branches and it was amazing to see some pretty big trout in quite shallow water take a bit interest.
We could see a number of rods bending all along the road shore – Bob and Brian were fairly busy with their nets. Stewart was also putting a few in the net. By now, a few had set-up with dries, since an occasional fish was beginning to move, out in the open water. Dougie could not resist the temptation and also set up with dries. The wind by now had quietened. We got ourselves close into the back of the island: a pretty good spot for buzzers. Sure enough, we saw a number of fish rising fairly consistently in the margins. In the last hour we picked up some real quality trout close in. We had two double hook ups. I was still on the 12ft fast tip and Dougie was on dries.
Our 16 rods ended with a total of 68 fish, including 6 brown trout and some great sport. Most successful flies included damsels, cormorants and mini lures.
