This was the club’s first outing to Cobbinshaw in decades. It has not been an option in the intervening years due to the Cobbinshaw policy regarding clubs. However, we are now able to return.
It wasn’t fishing weather – being very bright – lashings of Factor 50 required. The wind was up and down through the day. Any time it was up that coincided with a cloudy spell, it was Baltic!
I was fishing with Peter Fionda. Due to the conditions, I started on a DI-3 with a couple of trads and a damsel on the tail. Peter went with a 12 foot 3 ips tip. We set off to zig-zag the length of the tree-lined north shore, drifting in and pulling out on the leccy motor. It wasn’t long before Peter had our first fish, to a small, beaded orange dancer. Further down the drift Peter added a second, to a sunburst blob on the bob. He then had a wee purple patch, landing 3 more in quick succession. All this time I had not had so much as an offer. I felt like I was fishing without flies on! It was clear I was going too deep for them – though we were both catching weed coming in to the shallows at much the same point. Whatever, I switched up to a 10 ft intermediate tip, adding a beaded orange tadpole to the tail. That did the trick and, next drift down, I had the purple patch, picking up 4 fish, 2 to the orange tadpole and 2 to a fancy Dunkeld on the bob.
I had spent the previous 2 days hunting for a green hairstreak butterfly to add to my photo album of butterflies. Don’t think I had ever knowingly seen one. I eventually found one high above Glencorse Res, in amongst a square mile of gorse. Next day, drifting along Cobbinshaw, something landed on the thwart next to me. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a green hairstreak!
We gave the shore a 3rd drift, but either they had gone off, or they had seen enough of us.
We decided to have a look at the top of the wind, where several boats were concentrating their efforts. When we arrived, we saw several rises. There is a copse of trees that was creating a sheltered area of calm, in which a mass of leaf litter was accumulated. No doubt it had assorted morsels among it that the trout were picking out. We both changed tactics for the calm water. I put up the dry fly rod, with a black hopper and a foam beetle. Peter switched to a washing line set-up, with a FAB on the tail and a 3 foot tip. From that point on, every fish that rose was on Peter’s side of the boat. I just never got one to have a throw at with the dries. Peter picked up a fish on the FAB.
After we had given the area a good shot, we went on to have a go at the south shore. We spotted Bob, and Dougie and Mel fishing it. We both switched back to pulling rods. I picked up a good fish to the Dunkeld, and Peter had another. I could see Dougie was fishing dries, and we saw him pick up a fish ahead of us. I decided just to have a go with dries to see if I could draw anything in the open water. Not that we were seeing much fly life – a couple of huge daddies and one upwing fly was about it. Nothing showed any interest in my dries. Peter picked up the last of the day, just about last cast.
We landed 16 fish for our day… albeit one was a wee pike caught by Peter, plus the 2 perch I had.
