When Alasdair McKechnie and I were driving up to Butterstone, we were looking forward to a good days fishing. The weather was perhaps a bit bright but some cloud cover was promised. At the water’s edge, it was still promising – even though no fish were showing. Happiness when fishing is a matter of expectation: catch three when you expect to catch one and you are thrilled; catch four when you expect to catch eight, and you are disappointed. The thermometer showed that the water was 17°C and the air when we started was 11°C. The trout were obviously going to be down. My boat partner, Adrian Coats did the sensible thing and tackled up with a DI3 and mini lures – I on the other hand, being a one-horse pony, put on a floater and dries. Starting at the south end of the loch, close in to the reeds, we were quickly surrounded by a bunch of other boats reminding me of Lochend on a weegie day out. However Adrian quickly landed a good fish of about three pounds. Things were looking up. As the crowd of boats got bigger, we upped sticks and moved about for a bit, trying all of the likely spots and got nothing. Then we tried along the north shore and I had a swirl and a fish on – but not for long. We had some interest to our flies along this drift but no hook ups. Then, as we drifted close to the reeds west of the harbour, I had a fish that took a mayfly that I had on the dropper (we had seen three mayflies on the water and on the strength of that, I had put on a mayfly that had worked for me in Caithness). Now I think that getting this fish was luck as it was the last offer we had all day. So, for me it was a disappointing day, but Adrian’s company made it an enjoyable day after all.
John Levy was fishing with Alasdair McKechnie – John had one fish at 1½ pounds.
John Miller had two on a floater and a dry daddy while fishing along the road shore. His boat partner David Bertram had three on a floater and dries – he got two on the south shore, close to the reeds and one at the north end just out from the cottage. This on the day was our best boat.
Trevor Gibson was fishing with Davis Tyrie – Trevor had one fish at 2 pounds caught on a blob.
Now for what I think is startling news – David Tyrie, at the moment our club championship contender, did not connect with a single fish. I would have thought that on a difficult day he would have done very well.
I checked all of the days returns with the boatman – two fishers had five fish each, they both were using floating lines with a booby on the point and three nymphs above it – these were allowed to fish static and all of the fish were caught while anchored on the left had side of the south shore. Everyone else (and twenty boats were out), had nothing, one or two (most had nothing) on a day that looked to be a good fishing day.
One bit of news that may or may not be relevant – the estate is up for sale.
