When I arrived at Carron, a cold NNE wind was moving wee waves along the water and I saw no fish rising. I thought that a DI 2 or DI 3 might be the line to start with. However, I ended up in conversation with a bankie who had been fishing from six in the morning. He explained that he had to take his wife to the airport very early so he just made the best of it and went fishing. He did advise me that he had been getting rising fish on size 12 black hoppers.
I was fishing with Derek Kilgour and when I told him this piece of good news we both decided to start with dries and make our way to Carron Bay thinking that we would get some shelter from the strong NNE wind. However, what we got was a swirling wind that kept moving the boat from right to left and then back again. We persisted drifting Carron Bay hoping for a fish but it eventually dawned on us both that we were not going to get one. We changed to sinking lines and pulling, doing this Derek landed a nice brownie – what I got was three pulls and a tired arm – how can fish pull so hard and not get caught. However, Derek’s one fish caused us to persist with pulling in Carron bay. This turned out to be a bad idea so we moved to thirty-minute bay and Derek got another nice brownie. By this time, I had changed to a midge tip a daddy on the point and two F flies on my droppers. This got me some interest and a dropped fish. So what would an idiot do then – yes, I took my dries off and put on a DI 4. This system got no interest at all. Then the rain came on again quickly followed by hailstones and we sat waiting for the weather to pass. When it stopped raining we decided to head over to One Tree Bay and from memory we saw two rising fish. So on went my floater and dries, and at this point the heavens opened; we had rain like stair rods and no fish so in the rain we headed back to do a drift into thirty-minute bay. As we drifted into the bay, we passed quite close to Jimmy Mc Bride and his guest Mr G. Cunningham then we made the mistake of asking Jimmy how he was doing – fourteen and lots of small brownies was the answer. He then went on to tell us what he was catching them on and he said that fish were rising in Binns Bay. This information was hardly out of his mouth when I had the engine running and Derek and I headed for Binns Bay. The wind had dropped and turning around the point a Binns Bay, we saw, in the calm water, fish heading and tailing all over the place. We were both changing flies as quickly as we could – BUT by the time we had changed, the wind had got up again and the rising fish just disappeared. I did have a few swirls and a rainbow on for a few seconds… We both tried and tried again but to no avail and it was almost a pleasure when the rain and hailstones came on again to send us scurrying for the boat dock.
Brian Griffiths and Gerry Heseltine were together. Brian using a DI3 and a hot head damsel extracted a brownie and six rainbows from One Tree Bay. Garry using an intermediate line had a brownie and two rainbows to a Kate.
Trevor, who had to go out himself when we discovered that his prospective boat partner had damaged his back on Saturday whilst wrestling with a deer, Robert is a vet but why wrestle a deer? Back to Trevor who had taken advice from the boatman, he drifted from the dam wall to the first buoy. Using a floating line and snatchers, he netted eleven rainbows.
Jimmy McBride fished the three bays area using a midge tip line, an orange daddy on the tail and snatchers on his droppers. He was short lining and using slow draws; this system got him fifteen brownies and more small browns that he could count. I am wondering why I am grinding my teeth as I put this on paper. Jimmy’s boat partner also used a floater and slow draws; he netted five browns and five rainbows.
Water temperature was 13oC – Air started at 9, rose to a maximum of 11, and dropped back to 10oC (but felt colder than that).
Due to the heavy rain and hailstones, I forgot to take any snaps.
Now some good news, You may remember the problem we had at Carron on 19th April and the generous offer from Jimmy Coyne that our next outing would be free of charge – well it was suggested that as Jimmy had done everything he could to help us and the recognition of his genuine upset at the time it was suggested that instead of accepting his offer we just pay for the outing. I can report that every one of our members who attended the outing willingly agreed that the fair thing to do was pay – and this is what we did. I know that our gesture was appreciated. Jimmy C then very kindly gave the club a landing net, which was presented to our top rod on the day. Isn’t it just the thing that Jimmy McBride won the landing net?
