Dougie Skedd reports…
Looked like a decent day when we turned up at The Lake for out June outing there. A bit of cloud, a bit of sun, a bit of breeze, nothing too much in any way. The breeze was a bit cool but it was early. Bob Whyte and I set out with the intention of fishing dries and, if possible, dry mayflies at that. We tried Arnmach, but the breeze was scouring it of any food and it was dead. We tried round the corner into Chicken Leg Bay. A single fish showed close to the boat and a quick cover with the mayfly was accepted. One on the scoreboard. Nothing more showed there. We realised the only place that there seemed to be any boats gathering was the Malling Shore. We went for a look. It became apparent that there was a very large number of fish there. It also became apparent that those fish weren’t playing. We persevered with the mayflies and managed to keep the scoreboard ticking along. The weather was causing all sorts if problems. The wind would not settle. It was blowing from all points of the compass and rising and falling randomly. It was impossible to set a decent drift. No matter where you started, in a short time the wind would be in your face. Again! The fish weren’t liking this either. Suddenly you would be surrounded by rising fish, then they would stop and the area would seem devoid of life again. By now the fish had lost interest in the big mayfly dun. A switch to small CDC type dries kept the odd fish coming. The quality of the fish was remarkable. Big, full finned and scrappy. Very good sport. A good day’s sport, if a bit frustrating at times due to the weather.
The club’s 11 rods caught 36 fish, including this cracking brownie for Mel Mitchell, caught on a size 18 dry fly…
