In recent seasons we have not had a lot of luck with our outings to Linlithgow. Issues with the quality of the water due to severe algal blooms and on other occasions big winds that prompted the fishery to cancel. This particular outing was wisely re-arranged due to the strength of the wind prevailing at the weekend, which would have made our outing very uncomfortable.
I cut my teeth trying to learn how to fish for rainbows at Linlithgow and being introduced to flies like boobies, blobs and buzzers, as opposed to wee traditional patterns. In those days it was not unusual to anchor close to the deep hole in front of the castle, fire out a Hi-D line, give it a slow figure-of-eight retrieve and wait for the line to tighten. My boat partner at the time was partial to casting out a fast sinker with a 3ft leader and a single booby, pour himself a coffee and grab a sandwich, put his feet up and wait. It was incredible just how often that seemed to tempt trout, even on a difficult day. This would be very much frowned upon these days. This was not for me, but I was amazed by the quality and size of trout and how this approach seemed to work for him. At that time there was never the same issues with water quality, so much so that availability of boats at weekends was at a premium. Changed days indeed.
I was delighted, to be honest, that the fishing had been cancelled on the Saturday, having spent two consecutive days at Harelaw: torrential rain one day and 30 mph gusts the next! So, I was feeling a bit weather-beaten. I had the chance to quiz John McGonagle, a Linlithgow regular, the previous weekend, and he was suggesting the fishing had been pretty good in recent weeks. Buzzers and muskins, with various boobies on a midge-tip line, had been working well. He did mention that the water quality was also reasonable, although weed growth is widespread. He added that the locals still seem to be able to navigate their way through the weed to get to the fish.
Monday saw us reducing the number of boats to 4 for the day; some people apparently have to work! My expectations were quite low, to be honest, but I know how good this venue can be on its day.
Without any real conviction, on went the booby, in my case a gold-arsed cat with two size 10 buzzers: Dennis the Menace and a natural quill variation. My recollection is that the buzzers here are more like Loch Leven than Lake of Menteith. I was fishing with Fraser Gault, our Club President. We enjoyed a very good day together a few years ago, and the outstanding fly on the day was Jimmy McBride’s olive nemesis – a great pattern.
Events took an interesting turn when arriving to load the boat. John suggested a quick word with Tom the fishery manager to get the latest. This turned out to be well worth the effort, as he suggested that overall the fishing has been mixed but the best bags have come to dries. Was this some sort of April fool? Linlithgow is not well known as a dry fly venue. However, for once I actually listened, took on board his advice, and thought why not? We were not even aboard and I was already changing. So, off came the washing line and on went dries. Olives and sedges apparently had been working. I had a Harelaw cast pre-tied sitting in my pocket that included a golden olive grunter on the point, small brown flat daddy in the middle and olive shuttlecock on the top dropper. This raised a few eyebrows from people who really do know better. That also weighed on my confidence levels… and we hadn’t even left the harbour.
Once we managed to navigate through the blanket weed into open water we headed across to the Whin Bank and drifted towards West Point. Conditions were good: nice steady, warmish breeze, with occasional cloud cover. Fraser set-up much as I would have done without speaking to Tom. We could see Dougie Skedd immediately into a fish, first cast. Very good, and he with the raised eyebrows was most certainly not fishing dries.
Nothing obvious moving. An occasional splash, but not persistent feeders. Well, I got a surprise when I least expected. A rainbow turned over the grunter, but some bad angling again and I completely failed to connect. Was this a one off? Was I sure that really happened? Fraser confirmed. Shortly after, another fish erupted from the depths of the weeds and had another go at the dries. It missed, or I missed. Not sure, but it came back looking and I still never hooked it! The weed along here was becoming a big problem, so we thought of heading back to Rickle Island and just drifting across the open water.
Another rainbow had a go at the dries almost immediately but I lost him in play. I thought I had better get my act together and concentrate. This was now getting serious. Not long after, I got my first to the net. It was a superb fish that led me a merry dance, and this set the scene for the day ahead. Fraser then switched to the dries and put on a couple of hoppers and a CDC. The outstanding pattern for him turned out to be a claret (often a good colour when fish are on olives) hopper.
We ended with 16 to the boat, all on dries. We had many fish in the 3.5-5 lb range and all gave a tremendous account of themselves. Fraser had to jump on the oars on a few occasions, as the fish raced to the cover of the weed and our electric engine clogged-up with green blanket weed. We managed to get them to the net despite our best efforts. I’m certainly due him a couple of pints after some great work.
In total our 8 rods returned 28 splendid trout. Who would have thought Linlithgow on dries? Not me for one, but be good to give them another try.
