On my ongoing quest to freshen up my fishing by getting to places I have yet to wet a line, today I decided to head to Faughlin Reservoir, a trout fishery run by Jimmy Feeney over at Carron Valley.
I know the reservoir has been there a long time and I also know it has been run as a trout fishery by Carron Valley for a few years but, was mistaken in that I thought you had to pre-arrange to fish there, not just turn up. However the day I was going over to Cloybank with my son a few weeks back, I passed Faughlin Reservoir and saw there were three or four anglers on the water and this, in turn, made me look into it again.
Making the Call
When I turned up today the gate was locked but a quick call to Jimmy at Carron Valley and I was in and he came along about ten minutes later while I tackled up and got me a ticket for the day.
It was overcast and a little breezy but I had the place to myself and decided to fish all the way around if I could and get a feel for the place. It is a water about the size of Pendreich and so can be circumnavigated in a day ( though thanks to Lawrence Stocks, a reader of this blog I was talking to ) I learned the easier way to the tree-lined bank to the south side.
High Water
It was apparent the water level must have risen as the fishing platforms near the fishery office, were separated from the bank by about 4 feet, so a big step was needed to get onto the first one. It’s not a place for inappropriate footwear.
While there was shallow weed near the platform it looked like the water was maybe reasonably deep further out. I started casting my three fly team on my right, starting fairly short on my first sweep anti-clockwise. The wind was very strong coming into my right-hand side. My flies were a Deer Hair foam daddy on point ( to be honest its more of a big deer hair sedge with an orange foam body) and a glass buzzer and hot orange buzzer on the droppers.
With no takers close in I lengthened my line and repeated the rotation left to right. I noticed a wind-lane out to my 11 o’clock left a good 20-25 yards out so cast to try reach this. Almost right away I had a savage take and after a long fight where the fish stayed very deep and did three quite lengthy runs ( which helped to get the line on the reel) I brought in the opener for the day, which was getting on for 4lbs in weight I would say. Not a long fish but very deep and broad with a full tail. It had taken the glass buzzer.
First fish netted
With it safely returned, I covered the same spot once more and almost immediately was rewarded with another hard take this time on the point fly. Another lengthy fight with a fish closer to three pounds that was jumping and cartwheeling all over the place. How my barbless hook stayed in I don’t really know. Just lucky I think. Just after returning this The weather seemed to clear and I decided to take the opportunity to get a few shots from the drone.
It was during this wee spell Lawrence appeared and introduced himself and we had a chat and he was telling me about the water.
I returned to my platform for another go and managed a third on the point fly, and once again another very nice fish was netted after more acrobatics and theatrics. With the weather getting a bit grimmer looking once more I decided I would move onto the promontory so said my fair-wells to Lawrence and headed round to the next area to fish.
Big BIG fish!
Just as I started to cast a colossal fish, more like a shark than a trout porpoised out far to my one o’clock position. While it was a good thirty five yards I thought I should be able to cover it as the wind was with me. One good double haul and the fly landed bang on target. Actually, if anything the cast was too accurate as the fish ( was it the big boy?) slashed at the fly before I was fully in contact with it after my cast and either it didn’t take, I missed it or it rejected it before I could get tight.
I tried again with another long cast and this time had a hard pull as I slowly retrieved from a smaller fish than the big chap, but still comfortably three pounds. Unfortunately, the action took it’s toll on my foam bodied fly and the foam abdomen section didn’t withstand the third fish. And as luck would have it, I didn’t have a replacement, I recall tying only a couple and I think I lost one on another outing.
With four fish netted and the sky not looking any lighter I headed round to the next fishable bank which took me 15 minutes to reach. This next area benefits from a bit flow from one of the three incoming burns. I was told I might pick up a nice Brown Trout here.
But what to replace the foam “Daddy” with. I tried a Wickhams muddler pattern and almost right away rose a fish to it but it never took and I had no more interest. So on went an Orange foam headed Olive hopper. (the same orange head as the Daddy’s abdomen. I was working my way up the bank when I eventually, from nowhere had another slamming take. Another lengthy fight ensued and another 3lb class fish was netted. I managed to lose the fly in the process of unhooking it which was a bit careless.
When two fish rise
No more offers to the replacement hopper until I reached the mouth of the next bay where another burn enters. I found there were a lot of fish here but they seemed to grow pickier as the day wore on and though I had several fish slash or rise to my flies getting one to hook up was another matter. At one point I changed my entire three fly cast, a Stimulator on point, a Diawl Bach on the top dropper and a hot-spot buzzer on the middle dropper. I cast out, and immediately TWO fish came for two flies, one to the Stimulator, one to the Diawl Bach, neither took!
I had a few half hearted offers before I opted to move round the other side of the bay. By now it was tipping down. To be honest I had not seen many fish rise all day so had largely held off fishing dries but for my last hour decided I would give them a go as it was clear the fish were not deep. With a Yellow Owl on point I rose two more fish both looked like they had to have taken but when I lifted, nothing.
After losing this fly- it was definitely a day of attrition on my fly box, not sure what happened to the Owl, think I must have clipped a bush or something on a back cast and simply snapped it off. With it being so wet I couldn’t be bothered trying to fish out another Yellow Owl from the box in my rucksack so changed to a black shuttlecock instead.
On the Dries, In the Wet
Almost right away this rose a fish….. I lifted, nothing! The angler on the far bank may have heard me shout something that sounded very like “Duck-Off“…..it really wasn’t…..!! While I had lifted and displaced the fly about 3 feet, this was all the impetus the fish needed to take the fly and it came back and slammed it!! What sport!
With the fish returned and the fly refreshed and by now feeling very soggy I decided to have one more go, this time in the corner by the dam wall. If I caught here I could say I had caught all the way round. The rain was very heavy and it seemed mad to be fishing dries but then I recall Frandy last year in similar conditions.
In the corner I cast out my dry about three times, and on the third cast a fish porpoised right onto my fly and took it sweet as a nut. Number seven netted, I was wet enough, my jacket was keeping me dry underneath but I was soggy enough to happily call it a day. What great sport.
