This was the 2nd week of the season for Glencorse fishery. It seems like the weather gods are against us for most of our outings to Glencorse, and today seemed no different! The trouble with weather forecasts is that they’re right too often for us to ignore them and wrong too often for us to rely on them. We turned up in hope rather than expectation, to be greeted by white horses. The signs were ominous. However, Kenny had clearly been reading some of the more optimistic fishery manager forecasts and apparently the wind was expected to moderate later in the day.
It was a fairly busy outing for the club, with 7 boats out. A few in the club looked rightly cautious about prospects for our fishing day. I was originally appointed to be the lone ranger for the day but was delighted that Jim Jack was happy to join us. The opening weekend weather had been a lot more favourable and catch returns had been impressive, with the usual hot spots along the road shore and the shallows at the top of the reservoir holding fish.
Most of us loaded up with Di-3, 15ft – fast tips or fast glass lines. To be honest, I have always enjoyed a wild day’s fishing and was looking forward to heading out on the water with Jim. Fly choice in the early season tends to be less important but colour was clearly prominent on all of our casts. Both Jim and I opted for Di-3 sweep lines with various lures.
As the boats departed up the reservoir, the wind, if anything, had picked up further. It was slow progress for most boats, apart from John McGonagle and Jimmy Anderson, whose Torqeedo outboard came into its own. We had planned to head to the top of the water and work our way round and down the road shore. However, we struggled to make much progress, and veered towards the bay just before the narrows. A couple of boats headed to one of the recognised hot spots in front of the Kirk Burn inlet.
Jim was first to enjoy some action, netting a sprightly and bright wild brown trout that would have comfortably made the measure at Carron Valley. Better was to come. Jim was getting some action to a pearly cormorant. I had the first rainbow, which fell to the infamous sunburst blob; quality fish, as usual. Thereafter, we repeated drifts along the road shore and all the way around to the wall adjacent to the island. We were both regularly reaching for our nets. No single fly stood out for us, but black/green boobies and cormorants were doing the heavy lifting.
The weather was increasingly challenging, with heavy, sleety showers and driving wind. Thank goodness for modern waterproofs. It was like groundhog day, as Jim and I continued to repeat the same drift, keeping fingers crossed that our battery would not run out of steam. Most of our boats by now had retreated to the relative comforts of the main basin, in front of the dam. We were getting the impression from most that this was turning out to be a tough old shift.
Jim had our boat’s best fish – a cracking brown trout that we estimated to be 5lb+. It gave him a good run for his money. We noted a few boats had given up the ghost by early afternoon but there was no way we were stopping for an early bath.
The club still enjoyed a decent day with a total of 45 fish across our 14 rods.
Jim Jack with brownie
