On our way to Frandy on Saturday evening, the weather was very pleasant. The sun was out, but with some cloud cover, we had a light wind from the southwest and the air was 19°C. When I arrived, the day session chaps were still out, so I watched the boats and a few bankies, and none of them caught fish when I was watching – nor did I see anything rise. At this stage, Jimmy McBride arrived and he stood and looked at the water. When we got to talking I said I had seen nothing rise, Jimmy then told me he had seen fish rise all along the south shore and about ten feet out from the bank. Now I know that Jimmy has a wicked sense of humour, so I persisted with my belief that nothing was rising.
The weather forecast was for rain starting early in the evening, and at four it started… that light rain that soaks everything. However, it did stop long enough to let us get our gear ready and get onto the boats. Prior to going out I had a good look at Jimmy’s cast, and to my surprise, he had three dries on. I had used my own judgement and put on three Diawl Bachs that would get me down a wee bit. Starting on the north shore, I spent a fruitless hour with this set-up. I then ventured to the south shore and spent another fruitless half an hour. I did get one pull and that was all. Now, during this time I was thinking about Jimmy telling me he had seen fish rise, and remembering his cast before he went out, I thought that as I was doing nothing anyway I might as well try dries. So, on went on a size 12 orange daddy on the point, a size 12 claret hog in the middle and a size 14 tan daddy on the bob. On my first cast, I had an offer and on my second cast, I had a fish!
I spent the rest of the session going up and down the south shore and found that at the top of the drift, local to the yellow sign that warns you about the shallow water, that browns were patrolling this area. Just prior to stopping, I was drifting towards the shallow water and hooked a brown of about one and a quarter pounds. It had taken my top dropper. It had also tangled my cast, so after returning the fish I took my flies off to sort it out, then I put the same flies back on. After a few casts I had a take that was just one sharp pull. When I looked at my cast, the top dropper had no fly attached and just a pig’s tail where the fly should have been! It’s a bugger when you know you have lost a fish and it is your own fault. I put this failure down to the rain and cold hands, but it may just have been carelessness. I ended up dropping three and missing offers, but netted three rainbows and two good browns. Therefore, thank you Jimmy, and I will be more trusting in future.
Allan Brown and Garry Heseltine had fish: Allan used a DI3 and an orange booby. Garry had his on a blob.
Derrek Kilgour used a DI7 and a candy booby to net six fish.
Our best boat was Jimmy McBride and his guest, Keith Logan. Jimmy used a floater and shuttlecocks with a static retrieve to land eight fish. Keith netted six.
Our total was twenty-seven, eight of which were taken for the pot, and these weighed fifteen pounds eight ounces.
Please note: Derek Kilgour will handle the next two outings, the Lake on Saturday 18th July, day session, and Black Loch on Saturday 25th July, day session.
I am off north, fishing – again. But only for a long week, it is a hard life but one must struggle on.
See you at Glencorse on 9th August – day session.
Regards: Ed.
