Arrived at Frandy and the conditions looked very promising. Wind was moderate and off the north-east and not too cool. Plenty of cloud cover.
I was paired with David Risien and I was looking forward to see how he fished with the bung, one of his favourite methods. Interesting to see the changes to the lodge and surrounding area. A large decking is being build on the shore to the right of the boats and a number of small canoes were evident. Also a yurt has been erected overlooking the water. Looks like the Gleneagles Hotel guests will be visiting the venue for more than fishing lessons!
We decided to go to the top of the reservoir, where on the last club outing I had some success, with Peter Fionda. It certainly was a bit more sheltered from the wind and looking relatively steady. Sometimes this area is subject to swirling, winds which make life difficult. We saw a few rises as we arrived at the mid point of the arm, so I decided to start with the dry fly rod, which had a size 12 pink daddy on the point and a beetle on the dropper. David set up with dries as well. The wind was behaving itself and we had a few good drifts.
The first hour or so produced 5 fish to the daddy. David changed to using it as well, but he couldn’t seem to hook a fish, despite a number of rises. David changed to his pulling rod and had a couple of fish to an orange-headed damsel. As is normal with this area, the wind then started to give us issues and as soon as we set up for a drift it was in our face! The takes to the daddy stopped and I changed to the pulling rod. Result! A nice fish to the gold-headed damsel and a lovely wee brownie to a black pennel.
By this time Matt Wolstenholme had joined us and was picking up fish on a cats whisker. Then Peter and Davie Syme appeared and had a couple of fish. With the wind becoming difficult, and too many boats in the confined area, we decided to head on back down the reservoir. David picked up a fish to a suspended buzzer on the way down. We then started a drift on the south shore, half way down between the boats and the buoy. I had a few swirls and splashes to the daddy, but was finding it difficult. David had changed to the bung and was getting takes, but was also finding it difficult to hook anything. An adjustment to his point thing, involving cutting the tail shorter, saw him start to hook fish.
I then managed to hook another nice fish after a ferocious take on the daddy and then it was time to head back to the pier. Sixteen rainbows and 1 brownie to the boat: not a bad day!
Dougie Skedd adds…
Another day, another venue. Here we were at Frandy on a surprisingly cool morning. Not a fish broke the surface, but the conditions weren’t at all bad. We had enjoyed a very good outing here last time. We were hopeful of another. Another new member, Dave Hannaford, had drawn the short straw this time. We set out to see if it was going to be another bonanza. We set out from the dam. Quite quickly, we saw a boat in front of us catch a fish. As we drifted through the same water Dave hooked our first fish. Good! On the score board. Shortly after, he caught another, then hooked a third fish that unfortunately fell off. I was getting left behind. We moved across to the draw-off tower and began a drift. Again, a boat in front of us caught. As we drifted through the same water a fish attacked my tail fly, missed it, came back and was hooked. Granny off. We carried on. We caught a great deal of nothing. We saw one of our members catch a fish. He was in the area where we had done well on our last visit. We tried that drift. Some more fish were taking. Eight for the boat was a tricky day. We did better than some, not as well as others. One of our boats went to the top of the water where the burn enters from Upper Glendevon. They did very well indeed. Ach well, you can’t win them all.
The Club’s 11 rods landed 55 fish.
