Everyone has been saying we need a lot of rain, and soon. So, can’t be any complaints when it arrived for our outing to Glencorse on Saturday. It rained for most of the day. Sometimes heavy, sometimes light, sometimes chucking it down and sometimes drizzle. It even stopped for just long enough to get the camera out and take a few shots – fortunately while Jimmy was catching a fish.
But it wasn’t warm for June! Friday had been 23 C. You could knock off 10 C by the next day. We actually came back in, mid-morning, just to get an extra layer out the car. The breeze was mostly light, only getting up a bit when rain cells came over.
After last year’s surprise mayfly hatch (which it seems has been ongoing for quite a few years!) I had my mayfly boxes with me. Jimmy Millar and I both tackled up with washing line type stuff – just because of the rain. There was no sign of fly life at that time. But just as we were setting out, we were seeing fish rising in the home bay. We stopped the boat 10 yards out and I put up a second rod with a pair of dries, without ever having a cast with the pulling rod. Jimmy had a couple of casts with his pulling rod and then put up his second rod with dries.
I started with a sedgehog (to give me something I could see in the rain) and a paraloop hopper. Jimmy went straight to mayflies. It wasn’t long before I had a fish have a go at the hopper, but it was a fresh-air shot. Drifting down into the corner at the causeway, Jimmy picked up the first of the day on a comparadun mayfly. Repeating the drift, we were covering rises and getting no response from the fish. We were by now seeing the odd mayfly dun coming off. I changed my flies to a pair of mayfly patterns – a dark ‘found link‘ on the dropper, and my favourite paraloop spinner on the tail.
We tried another couple of drifts in the home bay, but the fish we covered were not playing ball with us. We tried a move round to the high bank along from the dam. Here we found fish tight to the shore. Being the inside rod gave me an advantage, and I picked up 3 in quick time. From there, we crossed over to the road shore and did a long run along to the dog-leg corner and the shore beyond it. Jimmy had the best of the action, landing another, but the conversion rate was not the best we have had… not by a long chalk. After that, we had a look up at the top end. Not much doing to our dries up there. After that, we repeated the areas we had visited, and we included a long drift along the south shore – an area not many fish. By then we had basically fished the whole water, save for the dam and out in the middle. We picked up a fish here and there, along the way, finishing with 11 to the boat, all on dry mayflies… in the pishing rain! Given the number we wad a hold of without landing, and the number of false takes, it could have been a blummin’ good total for such a crappy day, toughing it out on dries.
When I got home, it took me till 7.45 to get everything laid out to dry. First job today was to order a new dry bag. The one I have had for the past few years had about an inch of water in it when I got home. Whoever designed the drainage system of Coulam boats needs shot!
The Club’s 13 rods landed 38 fish.
