Mel Mitchell writes…
We arrived to find a full car park, which is good to see midweek. It was almost flat calm, with warm sunny weather forecast for the day. We were allocated one of the 3 boats currently trialling the ePropulsion lithium motors on the Lake, only to find the battery had not been charged overnight! We ended-up having to switch to another boat and rely on fossil fuel to get us out on the water. Once we eventually set sail we headed out in the general direction of the Butts, but before arriving we stopped a little short out in the open water as we saw 1 or 2 fish rising. It was dead calm with an occasional swirl of wind creating a patch of gentle ripple. The water also had a scummy look to it, with lots of fluffy like debris floating about. Colin, no surprises, was straight onto the dries and I started twiddling with a 3ft midge tip washing line set up. I had a small biscuit booby on point with a vicar buzzer and a claret cruncher on the droppers. The odd fish continued to rise around us and quickly one was in range. I covered it. No sooner was the line straightened and working but I had my first fish of the day, to a size 10 vicar buzzer. No shy fish here considering the reports of the size 16 buzzers currently being the order of the day.
It remained relatively quiet in the open with Colin’s dries failing to attract any interest. Colin pushed us up into the butts and slowly started working along the reeds with his dries towards chicken leg, while I continued with the midge tip ideally just a little further out from the reeds. The sun was out and the temperature had quickly risen, such that some layers of clothing had to be removed. We continued along the reeds slowly, with little wind, if any, and little or no interest in what we were offering. However, we were fortunately in the ideal spot to capture a white tailed eagle having a bit of a tussle with a heron. It kindly gave us a close fly-by, in keeping with the recent VE day celebrations, and was caught on camera by Colin. We went on a little safari, following the eagle along the tree line in the Butts and got a few more photos before returning to the job of the day and catching trout.
We slowly drifted up into Chicken Leg, where I netted a second to the claret cruncher on the top dropper. With little happening, we set off in the direction of Lochend Bay and set up a drift just out from Tod Hole. The wind had picked up a little by now, it got decidedly colder, and the layers went back on. I had a small pike before hooking into a good fish that fought strongly and broke me, taking with it the claret cruncher. The dries continued to offer little for Colin other than a few follows and swirls. Colin switched to a washing line set up. Next was the other side of Arnmach where we drifted down the Heronry, towards Sandy Bay. Again, only an occasional rising fish and the odd tug, but nothing to the boat. We tried further up at Plantation, but still no success. We decided to give Malling a try and headed over to find just one other boat. We set up a drift along the reeds towards Stable Point and almost immediately we were both getting interest close into the shore. Colin quickly netted 1 on a red buzzer and I had another, again on the top dropper, to a small black and silver mini lure I used to replace the cruncher.
Having searched long and hard and now having found some fish we repeated this drift from Malling towards Stable point multiple times, but despite the interest and numerous dropped fish we failed to convert most of it. As we worked down the Malling shore we were joined by an Osprey hovering directly above us, continuing the fly over theme and our own VE celebration of sorts out on the water. I managed only 1 more fish to the small black and silver mini lure, unusually taking all of my fish for the day on the dropper. We set off for home, calling in at chicken leg for a last cast, still ending the day with 6 trout to the boat.
Jimmy Millar adds…
I was paired with Steve Kilpatrick for the first time for this outing; two west of Edinburgh boys together. With Steve at the helm, we ventured towards the road shore, via a brief encounter with shear point, only for Steve to realise that he had left his rod in the car park…..doh! We had a good chuckle about it and I told him of the time when I once drove all the way down to St Marys Loch without my rod. So it could have been worse!
I had seen plenty of fish rising all across the east basin in the flat calm when we first arrived, so I set up with a single dry. Stevie went for a four fly washing line rig, so we were trying a couple of different options to begin with. We spotted fish showing, tight in to the margins near to the red rock on the road shore, and Steve picked up the first fish of the day on a wee booby, I think. I managed a couple on the crippled midge before a wee whuffle got up from the south and put the risers down. I decided to set up another rod with a Cortland blue and a couple of cormorants and a damsel. This rig picked up a fish virtually first cast and I had another three in short order. Meanwhile Stevie was broken and lost another at the net.
With hindsight it would have been a good idea to go back round and repeat the drift but there were already two or three boats behind us so we decided to look elsewhere instead.
We did a tour of the east basin without touching or seeing any evidence of fishy activity. However, it was good to see decent numbers of mayfly hatching, particularly out of the butts. I was back on the dries this time, with a pair of mayflies, hoping to attract something up to the big flies if I couldn’t get across a riser. I did have a few opportunities, but the fish seemed to chop at them nervously, without getting a hold. This can often happen at the start of the mayfly, before the fish get tuned into them properly.
I suggested we could have a look up at the Plantation and the top of the heronry. There was a wee food collection zone set up at the shallow in front of the burn and there were quite a lot of fish sipping stuff off the surface. Again, I missed a couple of chances before finally getting my last fish of the day on the mayfly: a lovely lake resident around 4.5 lb. We still had time to repeat the drift, but yet again another boat had already beaten us to it and spoilt it by taking their boat right in on top of the fish – in a foot of water …..deary me! We finished up with nine for the boat but should have had quite a few more, with a bit of luck.
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