All last week I had been hoping to get out to start my season, and despite pretty much horizon-to-horizon blue skies and lots of sun, there was one stumbling block. It’s been freezing.
To quote Charles Dickens “It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light and winter in the shade.”
So I kept procrastinating… I had hoped to head up to Loch Coulter but if it was this cold in the relative shelter of my garden, it would be unbearable upon the hill by the loch. It is a good few hundred feet higher and very exposed.
I got as far as getting my gear out and ready on Thursday but even in the early afternoon I had to stop what I was doing and come inside for a hot cup of tea to warm me and my nippy fingers. Friday was forecast to be unseasonably warm.
Haha!
That didn’t happen either. It was cloudy, dare I say misty as the day began and while it definitely lacked the icy frost of recent mornings, you wouldn’t call it mild.
By 12 there was a hint of sunshine but I still wasn’t convinced it would be warm enough to justify a trip to Coulter but I really wanted out, so Swanswater it was to be…but I would walk there and back. That’s a round trip of about 7 miles on foot.
Off I headed and it started off quite pleasant and I was quite warm by the time I reached the top of the Gillies Hill road, to descend to the Bannock Burn. But by the time I reached Swanswater it was grey and cold.
A cold “eat into you” Easterly was very apparent and I didn’t fancy my chances. It wasn’t putting off the anglers though, it was very busy. I wondered if there would be space for me. ( Being unable to find a space would have been a bummer after an hours walk!)
However, I was OK and found a spot by the dam wall with the wind coming over my right shoulder. That wind would saw you in half, it was properly cold. I was seeing very few fish being caught, one chap on the opposite bank appeared to hook into something but I saw it landed and a few passing anglers, and the guy beside me said, they hadn’t had a touch all day. There were though fish cruising close in, very visible “Goldies” and they appeared to be a couple of feet down in the water. So realising pretty quickly that a floating line really was not going to present my flies in front of the fish’s face, it came right off and was replaced by a full Intermediate.
I tried a few lures and managed to get a couple of fish to follow it for a spell before losing interest but that was it. After about three quarters of an hour of this, a few anglers started to head off having had their fill from the “morning shift” and a few gaps on the banks appeared. There was nothing really moving. Some of the departing anglers had fish but I suspect they had been caught earlier in the day before fish had been pressured off the banks and out into the middle. Indeed the very few fish that were visibly rising or at least moving were out near the mooring buoys. Well beyond my casting range.
Except in one place.
The tree. If you know Swanswater you will know the Tree. It’s a big tree that splits the east bank down the middle and the water beneath its roots is apparently 12 feet deep. Here lie big fish….but it can be a bit of a fly graveyard….just look at the branches of the tree festooned with snarled-up leaders and flies to see how it often ends here. I stationed myself at the platform by the tree and carried on fishing out to the loch. However now and then there was movement under the tree. There was little to no fly life generally, understandable really given the temperature. But there was a fish moving for something. Initially I thought it might be a small wild fish ( though they seem less frequently caught these days from years back) but once or twice the swirl was altogether bigger and there had to be a better fish there. I changed my flies to a traditional winged fly on the point, a winged Pennel variant, small and mostly black, and had a couple of small black Snatchers in size 16 on the droppers. I stayed with the Intermediate line but the flies would cling to the top for a moment or two after landing until the weight of the line caught up with them. Ideal really.
Very carefully, as I lack a little practice, I concentrated on where I wanted to land the flies and took a lot of car over the sweep of my rod tip as I cast. Where the rod tip goes the flies follow.
My first cast was a little timid and delivered a little wide of where they needed to be firmly under the branches.
I applied a little more determination to the second cast and they landed perfectly, within a few seconds there was a swirl at one of the Snatchers on the dropper clinging to the surface, I lifted but the fish had shied away from the take.
It gave me hope though I was disappointed as it’s so hard a spot to reach. Could I do it again? Another cast and the flies landed perfectly under the branches once more…. This time I saw a bar of gold come from deep all the way tot he surface and take the fly. Brilliant! I had good wee tussle and managed to successfully net a stunningly coloured Golden Trout, a Cock fish, somewhere between 3 and 4 lbs in weight. I have caught many Goldies but this one definitely took the prize for colouration as the bright red stripe up its flanks and Orange tail were very, very deeply coloured. While these fish are sterile I am told these are breeding colours.
I was exceptionally pleased with myself getting that fish as it was otherwise pretty quiet and I felt my angling was about as good as I could hope for to hook then net that fish.
I fished on out towards the loch and did get a few follows on the snatchers, but was watching the area under the branches for any further signs of movement, there may still be more fish there. Nothing happened for about 15 minutes. The fight with the first fish would likely upset any others down there for a period. But my patience paid off and after about 15 minutes there was another swirl beneath the branches. The lad fishing to my right seen it as well and passed comment that it was shouting at me to have another go. It would be remiss of me not to try…
With my full concentration once again, really watching where the rod tip was going in the side cast I delivered my flies right under the branches once again…perfectly where the fish had swirled a few moments before.
I barely tightened the line to the flies when there was a swish and I was hooked into something much bigger! Sometimes though you can’t see what is on the end you can just feel the mass of the fish taking your line. The fish headed out to the loch and I was very conscious I was only using 6lb tippet, this would be easily snapped by any bigger fish so I was quite keen to get the slack line on the reel and play the fish off the very fine drag on my Hardy cassette reel.
When the fish paused about 15 years out I took the opportunity to reel in the remaining line and then set the drag, not too tight but enough to apply constant force to any runs the fish made.
It swam around to the bank right of me then to the left back towards the tree then went deep and I could feel it head shaking but I simply maintained pressure and let the rod do the work. Then as it came closer I caught a look at it and realised that it wasn’t a big Brown as I first thought but a big Tiger trout. It made a few more runs off the reel but I just kept calm and was able to ease it to my net. In the net it rolled and twisted and made a right tangle of my leader so I had to spend a bit of time snipping away at it to get the fish free. The fly, a red butt snatcher had already fallen out but you risk getting hooked yourself until you have them all out the net and clear.
A passing angler stopped for a look and I asked if he would give me 7lbs for the fish…he reckoned more, probably 8 to 9? I think personally 7 to 8lb. A great fish with a full big tail and it went back in no bother at all.
After about another hour with little happening and it getting increasingly cold, I decided to go get a cup of tea at the lodge and warm up a bit before having a final wee hour on the wee ponds where I caught another two fish, a rainbow and a blue. So almost the full set, just the Brown missing to get them all.
A great day to get back into the fishing for 2025 and likely that will be the biggest fish I will net all year but that’s Ok with me!
