A game of two halves

After the disappointment of the river conditions on Saturday I was keen to head out for a couple of hours in the relatively bright weather of Sunday, albeit a little blustery at times. I wandered round to Swanswater where it was very quiet due to the main loch being partially drained while silt removal works take place. However the water in the two smaller ponds was very coloured and I did not fancy my chances, so opted for a two-hour stint. There were two other anglers out just before me and hadn’t had anything. As it transpired other than what might have been one very tentative knock I had nothing and left empty handed …… again! What a dire start to the year I am having!

Looking Up

On Monday I had the day off and while it was very windy down where I live, I called Orchill to see what it was like up there and was told it was still but frosty. So packed up I headed off to be on the water by 10:00. What a stunning day it was up there, apart from the frost on the road on the way up, it was like Summer!

An Orchill Rainbow and Buzzers

The loch was still and there were fish rising. I opted to start on the bank with the sun in my face and being told that fish were being taken 3 to 5 feet down opted for a sink tip and three imitative patterns on a 15 foot leader. An Apps Bloodworm on top dropper, a beaded Hares Ear and a beaded Black buzzer on point. I wasn’t fishing long before I had a steady tug and my first “proper” fish of 2012 was on and landed, a Rainbow of about 2 lbs on the Apps. Bloodworm. After untangling my leader which got in a right mess as I netted the fish, I recast and it wasn’t too long before number 2 came to the same tactic and fly.

I decided to modify my set up to fish more of my flies at roughly the same depth so leaving the Apps on, replaced the point with a very small beaded bloodworm/buzzer and a crimson Epoxy Buzzer on middle dropper. I allowed this team to sink a little longer before the retrieve and was soon into number 3 on the point fly this time. In each take the trigger (apart from the colour) was to change the retrieve as I felt the fish near the fly, either a small speed up to dead stop seemed to do the trick, constant retrieving led to no hook ups.

A Rainbow on the line at a stunning Orchill on a winters day.

The chap next to me was employing a broadly similar tactic using a Viva Lure on a sink tip and was getting nearly a fish a cast for a while. He had 5 for my 3.

Bathing in the heady glow of success I decided to change things round and have a go for one of the rising fish with a small black Klinkhammer dry-fly on a floating line. As promising as this looked it didn’t work! The fish refused to rise in front of me while I had a dry on! After a wee while and a few fly changes I went for a bushy Shuttlecock Buzzer with the Apps Bloodworm 5 feet below. Still nothing, so as it was getting noticeably colder I put a Gold bodied black Humungous on still with the floating line. Almost right away I had a fish! So 4 in the bag and on to catch and release. I caught a further 2 with the debarbed fly.

A rainbow is netted in the bright winter sunshine

I decided that successful as I was being a move would be good, so packed my gear and made my way further up the bank to the corner where I set up again. This time I changed things around, replacing the Humungous with a Montana Nymph and the Apps Bloodworm on top dropper back on the sink tip line. Allowing the flies to sink I varied the retrieve and soon had a few knocks then hook ups. Three more fish caught and released all on the Montana.

Time again for a move so further up the bank I went. There were a few people blanking and I think Iw as being looked at suspiciously like I was using Maggots or Power bait!

Again keeping the same set up I had my tenth and final fish!

If only all trips were like this one. Today I feel was all about the depth and varying the retrieve, get this right and you would catch fish, I felt on pretty well anything. With the depth correct either speeding up or stopping when fish were near seemed to get a take.

A picture paints a thousand words- here’s a video

I had with me my new GoPro HD Hero 2 Camera and caught over 2 hours of footage, now condensed into 11 minutes. Its not perfect but if you have eleven minutes to spare have a watch and see what you think!