It is a long drive to Butterstone, but our early outing there had been a real cracker and there was a real feeling of anticipation on the way up. An absolutely flat calm was not what most of us were looking for on arrival. However, the fact that fish were popping there noses up all over the loch had us champing at the bit. As boats were not moving in the calm it was a case of sitting quiet and letting them come to you. Sudden movements or noise in the boat only succeeded in the fish giving you a wide berth. Thankfully, by mid-day a slight breeze picked up that allowed a bit of movement, and the ripple also gave casts some cover.
Someone who is always happy to fish dries in the calm is Dougie Skedd and his overall total of 8 fish with quite a few other offers was the best basket. Successful flies for him were an orange hopper and a claret half-hog and he had ranged over most of the loch by the end of the day. It was good to see “El Presidente” Richard Goddard sharing success in Dougie’s boat with 4 fish to give them top boat.
Not far behind was the pairing of John Levy and Gavin Macdonald. John had early success and fished buzzers and dries in the main basin to boat 6 fish, while Gavin had four on dries. John Miller also scored four fish with a black diawl bach and a green buzzer on the south shore.
The Club’s 12 anglers caught a total of 39 fish.
