I was very kindly invited back up to Loch Coulter on Monday by Tommy. When I arrived (late having misplaced my house keys and polaroids) Tommy had the boat ready to go. There was a nice ripple on the water and a few fish showing here and there. The catch return book suggested that it was fishing well and hoppers and daddies were again the fly to be on. Fortunate as I had tied on a detached body Daddy and Tommy had a black and red hopper ( aka the Heather Fly) and a Diawl Bach. We started out in the middle and drifted towards the bay with the burn.
Conditions were near perfect, warm, slightly cloudy, with a ripple on the water, what could go wrong?
A few fish showed but beyond casting range. Then the sun came out and it got pretty hot.
A fish rose about three rod lengths from my side of the boat. My first cast covered it but never got a look. I tried again and there was a swirl at the fly but it never took. But promising. We covered all the water up to the bank and nothing much else showed itself and we noticed some dark looking clouds coming our way and the wind got up a bit. Tommy was moving the boat so we quickly returned to the mooring boom to grab a jacket in case it rained.
Having relocated up near the shallow end the sun came out again and a few fish showed close in to the far bank. We moved to cover but again not a sniff.
I decided to change flies and added a second fly to my cast. A UV purple Snatcher on point and a green daddy on dropper. The snatcher was on a heavy hook so sunk quickly. Tommy had changed his flies for a team of Snatchers. The wind was changeable and we were soon drifting back towards the moorings. I then had a decent pull on the snatcher but again it never took. We fished on and it went rather dour.
By now it was cooler and windy and we headed to the bay down from the moorings. In here Tommy got a good pull but it wasn’t until a little later that he spotted the fly was gone. Think it was his middle dropper. By now I had a daddy Muddler on top dropper but left the Snatched on.
Finally we moved over near the stone ‘tower’ and drifted that bank. Another change I had a beaded wet Daddy on point and a small damsel nymph ( not a big lure, a small natural looking fly ) and with this cast I had another long hard pull that I reckon was on the deeper fished daddy but again it never hooked up. By now I reckon I had over done it, the shoulders, hip and hands were all hurting so I said to Tommy it was time I called it a day.
I have to say its a lovely wee spot and a nice set up they have but so far its not been the most productive water for me, but then it wouldn’t be fishing if it was a trout a cast.
I am having a rather lean spell just now in actually getting a fish in.
I know the feeling regarding lean spells Kenny. My last three outings have resulted in one Brown Trout and a few lost but it doesn’t bother me as the fresh air and just getting out for a few hours peace and quiet is fine with me. It helps though when you see that other anglers are blanking too.
It’s not for the want of being able to rise or turn fish, just getting them to stick. I do have to say that when you are forced to fish short sessions like I am due to my ‘issues’ and i know you are maybe in a slightly similar boat, that it definitely stacks the odds against you. If you were out all day you can hit a hot spell when you get 2-3 fish in a 30 minute spell and it makes your day look better. But like you say it’s not all about catching though for blog purposes it’s sort of useful!