End of March on Glencorse was always likely to be a lottery weather-wise, but to be fair the same could be said for any our outings at any time of the year in Scotland. However, it was a decent start to the day, the fog never really disappeared and although the wind chill was obvious it was all very manageable… but could hardly be described as pleasant! The wind was also well-behaved and it was an unusual south-westerly blowing us towards the top of the L-shaped reservoir and along the road shore. Being a Friday session, we had the fishing to ourselves, apart from a couple of single anglers.
We had 5 boats booked and I was paired with Matt Wolstenholme who was venturing out for his first outing of the season. Across our fishing venues, reports this year have been all about fantastic buzzer hatches. Our own Cap’n Fishy posted some terrific photos of a sample from a spooned fish on Menteith that had clearly been gorging on the supply. Although buzzers work everywhere on all waters throughout the season this did not feel the day for giving them a swim on Glencorse.
We were not the only ones. It seemed the club was setting up for lure style approaches and lines – DI-3 sweep, DI-5 and fast glass seemed the preferred Plan A. Mini-snakes, damsels, black and green rabbits all armed and ready to go. Plan A for me was 15ft Ghost-Tip, Black humongous booby, red-headed cormorant and nemesis. Matt had elected a mini-tip line, small cat booby and a couple of Diawl Bachs. We wanted to focus on the margins and the shallower water, so set up our first drift in the very top bay. We were soon into our first fish for the day. We had a window of opportunity, since most of the boats were spread around the burn mouth and along the road shore.
We had a few nice drifts and the fishing was fairly productive, if patchy. It has to be said once again that the quality of the fish on Glencorse is really exemplary: bright and fully finned specimens. This was unfortunate for Matt, who hooked a beauty and while in play another beast locked onto his top dropper. Only one outcome! However, Matt did land the best rainbow of the day, on a small Diawl Bach. Trevor and Fraser had migrated to join us and they were both soon into the action. It looked like they were on heavier lines and were getting a few to yellow dancers and mini-snakes.
Darrel and Jimmy Anderson then arrived on the scene and once again both were soon busy with their nets. We thought better of it and headed back down the loch to try the road shore. We passed by Stevie and Bob, who were pretty enthusiastic about the number of big browns they had landed. Peter and John Miller had spent the morning drifting from the inlet and road shore but were struggling to find the answer.
Towards the end of the session, the majority of our boats were happy to drift out and along the road shore and there was plenty of action to be had. The club returned 60 fish over the session. Fraser and Trevor were the best boat of the day with a total of 21 fish. This included a tremendous brown trout of over 6lb to Fraser’s yellow dancer.
