Darrel Young reports…
My boat partner, Peter and I decided to we would start at the Tank. Peter had set up two rods and started on dries, since I had decided I was going to give it a bash on dries as well. Peter got off to a good start on the second drift and caught a chunky blue around three pounds. I decided I couldn’t see my dries because of the light, so opted to straight-line two Diawl Bachs with a vicar buzzer in the middle. And that caught two fish in two casts!
We then felt the wind pick-up and it went a bit cooler. So, again, I changed. This time from a floater to my three foot midge tip. I changed my cast to a biscuit fab and two Diawl Bachs. Instantly that hooked a fish – on the fab – but it dropped-off after two runs: much to the delight of the two Davies! The banter between the two boats was funny.
I dropped another, before catching two more better fish. Peter was sticking to dries, but finally he changed to the washing line. I continued to pick up a couple more, before being snapped twice as the fish were in a mood to hit the Diawl Bachs hard. I ended the day with a further two more to the net, up by the trees at the top, having gone there to get a bit of shelter.
Nine to the boat was indeed a decent day’s fishing on water where I seldom catch much. Thanks to Peter, as he put me on several fish, having seen them before I did. Nice to have a good ghillie, ha-ha!
Davy Syme adds…
In the days leading up to our outing the word coming from the fishery was: “Dries, Dries, Dries”.
When we arrived, there was a firm breeze blowing, and the temperature was not what I was expecting. David Hanaford and I both started with floating lines and dries. After about 1.5 – 2 hrs we had only risen 1 fish each, and no hook ups.
I suggested that we might be more sheltered up at the Tank area, so we moved up there. We bumped into Darrell and Peter, who had fish. Darrell was on Diawl Bachs on a midge tip. I changed over to an old floater with a 3 ft furled nylon leader that sinks very slowly. I put on 2 Diawl Bachs: a blue-ribbed, and a red holographic, plus a pheasant tail cruncher. The black-headed gulls appeared, and were taking hatching flies from the surface. Then the trout came on.
I ended-up with 6, mostly on the blue-ribbed Diawl Bach. The best two were 4, and 5.25 lb. The quality of the fish was superb and the fight was also superb. All in all, though, it was a hard day.
The Club’s 10 rods landed 24 fish.
