I was partnered with Davie Syme, and after a leisurely start, via delicious sticky buns from David Hannaford’s daughter, and a warning from Gareth that the top end had a lot of weed that was due to be cut in early July, we started off.
It was also great to see Ed Green in the car park. Ed was staying in one of the lodges with Hugh Thomson and had some fish during the week in breaks between the high and swirling winds. He even gave me a yellow owl, with which he had some fish during his stay.
Davie started with 3-foot midge tip and a damsel and various wee flies, and I stayed with dries one of which was Ed’s yellow owl.
Davie had seen a few fish moving along the lilies, so we went up to the point and drifted down. By this time we saw Keith and Davie Hannaford hook and land and few fish on dries. Davie, during the day, hooked, played and lost 8 fish and only landed the one that we saw at the beginning of our first drift!
We continued to fish in the main basin for a few hours without any success, although we had some swirls and follows. We continued to see Keith land more fish.
Although Gareth had warned us about the weed at the top end, we decided to venture there and started from the dyke down to the point at the narrows. By this time Davie had also changed to dries. It was a good decision, and we picked up a total of 9 fish on yellow owls, other CDCs, a claret Bob’s bit and a pearly black spider. Sizes 12 to 16. No consistent patterns.
There were also lots of follows and swirls with most resulting in no contact. Interestingly, we landed all the fish we hooked.
A tough day with the bright sun and changing wind.
