The weather was pleasantly unseasonal for our first outing in July. The weather on departure from Gifford was more spring-like at 10.5°C, which slowly approached around 12°C by the time we arrived at the Lake. It was a quieter than usual outing for the club, due to various holidays and fishing trips to Orkney so we only had 4 boats out.
It was nice to hear reports that the fishing has been a bit more democratic, with some good fishing spread out across the Lake, rather than the usual summer concentration of boats in Gateside. No requirement to seek shelter in the cooler, deeper water so far this year.
The start of the session looked promising and, although there was the threat of thunderstorms forecast for later in the day, it was a pleasant start with a gentle NW breeze. Even more encouraging was the number of fish showing in hotel bay, suggesting the fish were still in the upper layers. There were a few small sedges (that should have been a clear pointer) and even early in the morning Mayflies were still in evidence – which was the case for the rest of the day. No booby bashing or DI-7s were to be seen.
I had the company of Jimmy McBride for the day. Jimmy had just returned from his annual trip up to Orkney. He started on dries and never deviated for the whole day. His cast of Tinkerbell, Poly-yarn sedge and CDC emerger worked a treat. I’d had a few recent outings fishing dries so stuck with my own patterns that included a yellow owl, fiery brown sedge and dry Bibio.
As we headed out we could already see Stevie Kilpatrick and Jimmy Anderson getting a bit action in hotel bay. Brian Spence and Fraser head up towards the Malling Shore and Darrel Young and Adrian disappeared up towards Gateside.
Jimmy and I also headed into Gateside. By the time we arrived the wind had picked up slightly and there was not much to see in terms of rising fish. There were already quite a few boats drifting along the rope from Kiddies’ Corner, right down to the burn mouth. On our first drift we moved a few fish, but it was fairly quiet, so we moved fairly quickly to the reeds in from of Sam’s Point. Jimmy immediately started to get a bit interest, casting his flies right into the reeds at the fish holding close in. There were a few fresh air shots but he managed to get a few to the net.
We continued through the shallow marker buoys without any further success so we headed back to Hotel Bay with the intention of getting a few drifts heading across Shear Point. Jimmy was certainly enjoying some steady activity and picked up more fish, again very close in to the shoreline in shallow water. My dries were proving ineffectual, so I started chopping and changing. Although sticking with the floating line, I had gone with small brown foam daddy on the point, Diawl Bach and a small peach blob. My first two fish came to the peach blob.
One of our best spells of the day was fishing the approach to International Bay, where there were some real quality fish on the go. They seemed to have a particular liking for Jimmy’s Tinker Bell and even the small brown foam daddy picked up a few. There were no other boats in the vicinity, so we repeated that drift a few times. But the fish had moved on.
Back to the Gap, but we did not add to our tally – so right across to the Plantation/Silage Pit. Here we managed to get some long drifts along the shoreline, right into the Heronry. There was the odd fish showing, which Jimmy was managing to cover. He had an impressive hit rate, which was in sharp contrast to his boat partner. (I was back on my original cast by now). In this area it seemed the fish preferred the flies to have the odd bit of movement to induce a take. They were definitely picking out sedge-like profiles.
From there we bounced back and forth and ended back in Hotel Bay, where Jimmy picked up our last fish of the day to his Tinker Bell. We saw the dark clouds descending and thought better of it and headed to shore to keep our kit dry. We finished with 25 to the boat. Jimmy had the lion’s share with 15. The club had a total of 44 fish between our 8 rods, so a good day enjoyed by all. A general shout out to the Lake for the quality of the fish, which were in great condition. Now the question is where can I get myself some cinnamon poly-yarn for those small sedges?