Dougie Skedd reports…
At last! We finally got out fishing as a club. What with the summer break and two weather-related cancellations, it’s been a while. Word was that fish were being caught at Malling and Gateside. That meant two places to avoid, at least early on. I can’t stand crowded water these days. The weather was being kind to us, after days of unseasonably high winds. Maybe too kind, as a flat calm can be quite frustrating. Mel Mitchell and I were partnered, so off we went.
Arnmach was our first stopping point. Always been a lucky area for me and this time was no different. Almost immediately a fish rolled lazily over my point fly. Bingo! On the scoreboard. Shortly after that Mel got one on a damsel. Looking good? Well, not quite. We could see other fish rising a bit beyond our casting range but, remember that flat calm? We weren’t drifting towards them. Any attempt to move closer only resulted in the fish moving away and maintaining the same distance. Aye, we’ve all been there.
We took a move to the furthest part of the loch, up beyond the plantation. A couple of fish were cruising along, a couple of feet from the shore. I made a mess of one and fresh-aired another. Black mark on the report card there. We moved across into Gateside. The armada were further up, off the Malling burn, and the bay wasn’t too crowded. A good fish came up OTB and ate the point fly once again, rapidly followed by a fish on Mel’s intermediate. Then a load more nothing. Again, we could see fish, but again they were always just that bit distant.
We tried the Rookery. There were clearly some fish cruising very close in. I hooked one on a hedgehog but he thought he was a tarpon, jumped a half a dozen times and threw the hook. Mel switched to dries and got the fresh-air treatment. Once again, we were being frustrated by the sight of a fair number of fish rising away, but always too distant, and no amount of trying could get us close to them.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, quite a stiff breeze got up. We could drift. The breeze was so stiff it required the drogue! By the time we got properly sorted-out, we had drifted down to Sam’s point. All of a sudden we were in amongst fish. We both caught in a decent spell of action. A pink monstrosity was successful for Mel, as was an olive Klinkhamer. I caught on a hare’s ear shuttlecock, a foam beetle and an olive comparadun. We finished with a dozen between us. Pity the wind didn’t pick up its feet until quite late in the day.
