This was our second outing of the season to Frandy, an increasingly popular venue for The Club. On our first trip we met the back end of Storm David and ended up fishing for a couple of hours in a fairly spectacular blizzard. A couple of weeks at this time of year in Scotland can make a very big difference, and today was no exception. it was almost pleasant in comparison, but still cool. We had 5 boats booked for the session, after a couple of call-offs during the week. We were also joined by a couple of guests: Barrie McFarlane and Jim Jack. Developments at the fishery continue apace and I can honestly report that the new toilet facilities are certainly the best and most comfortable that I’ve ever experienced at any fishery in the UK. I mean luxury hand wash and hand cream! What an unexpected treat! Can’t wait for the upcoming bacon rolls and coffee – us anglers must be getting soft. There was also a sprinkling of very good anglers out, practicing ahead of the National Heat the following week, so there was a nice bit of colourful banter in the car park as we all set up.
Although there had been a fair amount of fresh rain since our last outing, the water level appeared to be a bit lower. We were all a bit confused, since the normally highly visible orange buoy that is a good sighter along the south shore seemed to have disappeared.
I was delighted to be fishing with Jim Jack, top angler and great craic. We didn’t really have a strong conviction, but headed left towards the narrows, to take it from there. Given the prevailing westerly, in theory we should have been able to drift right along the south shore towards the dam and do a bit prospecting.
Once again, a variety of lines and flies were in evidence. Jim and I preferred to target the upper layers, since there were a few fish showing. However, reports suggested that the fish had not really turned into the dries. They were pulling the fish up a bit for an inspection but without much conviction.
I contemplated the full floater to begin, but in the end went with a 3ft tip, while Jim went for a 6ft tip and washing line approach – the cast anchored with either a FAB or Candy Booby.
Boats were spread in front of the dam and along both south and north Shores. We started drifting along the south shore, nipping behind Mel and Barrie. I picked up an early trout that took an olive nemesis on the top dropper. Jim was soon off the mark, with a fish to the trusty Candy, on the point. Ahead of us we saw Mel catch 3 fish in very quick time, so it was clear to us that although there is an expectation that fish hold closer to the shore at Frandy, a few pods were also cruising that bit further out.
Our first drift proved to be very productive, with consistent sport and action. The hot spot seemed to be the drop-off, 5 yards from the shore. There were occasional fish showing out in the open water. It seemed a lot of the resident small brown trout were actively picking out emerging buzzers.
We were careful to give the bank anglers, of which there were a few, plenty of room. We continued to enjoy consistent sport right along the South Shore. We could also see a few boats repeating drifts along the north shore, particularly in front of the dam. By now we had chopped and changed flies a fair bit, but continued on the same density lines. Jim, in particular, was doing very well with a Carron Bunny and small beaded damsel.
We headed to the far side of the new Sauna (seems to be a thing these days) by the lodge, and continued to have consistent sport. From what we could see, most rods were getting some action. In the early afternoon the fish had moved more into the open water and were definitely more active in the upper layers. To be honest, we both thought that a full floater with small nymphs or buzzers might be better, but we were having plenty of action with our set-ups. So, we persisted, since it seemed too much of a hassle to change. The better quality fish were certainly towards the dam end.
Ospreys were back in action and swallows and martins were doing their thing from in front of the towers. We decided after a while to head back to where we started and found the fish had not really moved.
This was another enjoyable outing with out 10 rods returning 70 fish and consensus is that Frandy is fishing very well right now.
