I don’t know about you but for me it has been a weird Brown Trout season. To the extent, I am almost glad it is over. Rivers and Lochs, certainly locally have been very low and for the most part remain so, despite some pretty heavy rain last week. ( A week I had planned on taking a week off work over but had to bump it a week due to on-call obligations). That would have been a total washout, this week has actually turned out much more pleasant.
Loch Coulter remains near its lows and given that I bumped the propellor on the bottom merely crossing the bay out from the boathouse in front of the dam wall, last time I was out, that means very low. The River Carron, looked OK-ish last time I was passing but without a wee bit more sustained rain over the Carron Valley to get the watershed working properly I suspect it’s going to be very up and down, higher immediately after rainfall then back to rock bottom a few days later. I find it hard to get enthused.
I was a wee run up to Aberfeldy on Tuesday and the upper Tay was looking good, the sort of levels you want to be fishing, but alas no fishing rod! It isn’t like we have had some sort of spectacular summer either, for quite a portion of it it was windy and cold even on sunny days and while I think it’s fair to say July was maybe drier than usual ( I always think of July as a bit of a washout most years, if I am honest) I think the “kind of dry” ( the opposite of the “kind of rain” we hear about when the trains have to stop) weather we have had has been less prominent. Only for a couple of days did my grass start to look a wee bit dry- I think I run the sprinkler once the whole summer because it’s not been that brilliant a summer. It has rained, it has been cool and it’s been pretty windy. I love summer but on a purely fishing level this one has been rubbish.
After a few fairly active days doing “stuff” I was at a loose end yesterday and decided to spend the afternoon at Swanswater, the River Carron just isn’t “calling” me and it was too late in the day to venture much further. I had the main lochan mostly to myself, but for one boat with a couple of anglers on, who were evidently out for the day. Judging by a bag hanging off the side of the boat they had met with some success and taken a few fish. But I think the afternoon maybe proved a harder prospect. I think I saw them playing one fish the whole afternoon ( that’s not to say they didn’t get more but it wasn’t evident to me).
It was a frustrating afternoon right enough. I started at the dam wall with a small lure and never had any luck so took a walk further around the loch. Up near the top where the wee wooden shelter is, I spotted a few fish mostly sub-surface and tried the lures there to no effect. Then a wee bit of a rise got going so I quickly changed to dries….well, initially a dry on the dropper with a buzzer on point, but then swapping to the dry on point and the buzzer just subsurface on the dropper.
Four times! Four times fish came and looked like they were taking the dries and four times there was nothing. The first fish to “miss” was either a decent-sized Brown or Tiger trout. I saw its head come out of the water about to swallow the dry I lifted (not too soon either) and nothing. The next time was most likely a small wild brown, it was very fast and again wasn’t hooked. Then two more offers that I would have expected a fish from and again nothing. I tried a variety of patterns, a black shuttlecock, a small Yellow Owl, a CDC Bubble wing sedge, a deer hair and foam daddy. I did notice that some of the interest seemed to come on the back of a little movement so I then swapped to a couple of bushy wet flies, one a Loch Ordie that skates on top but that never got me any interest at all.
It was hard going. Over by the wee bridge to the island I had spotted a fish rise several times near some lily pads ….it wasn’t constant but it had happened maybe three or four times over a couple of hours. I decided to move there. There was no doubt in my mind that the top end had a fair few fish about, I saw them rise occasionally, could see sub-surface flashes as they turned, and even had a few cruise by me, but they didn’t appear to be interested at all. Moving down near the bridge I was keeping with the wets for now but still had no luck. It’s a little shallower close in so you need to watch not to snag the bottom. I had considered a while earlier, changing to an intermediate line and seeing if holding the flies down at the level of the fish would aid presentation more…they appeared to be cruising about a foot to 18inches down…. but that option was soon negated when I realised I had not lifted my spare lines when putting my gear in the car- duh. A floater it had to be!
With no interest to the wets, I decided to go back to a wee lure and tied on my trusty wee gold lure. I cast it out near the lily pads maybe three times and then on the fourth go there was a very solid pick up and I knew I was into a decent fish. It immediately tried to head right under the lily pads and I knew I couldn’t hope to net it if I let it get in there. I really put on some serious side strain as I tried to get the reel drag turned up and then the line on the spool. The fish then swirled and dived in front of me but I still had not seen it before it then tried a dive into some marginal weed to my left. It was hard to keep it out of here as it was basically between me and the fish but I kept things tight and the fish eventually had to turn back out into open water, albeit there was weed tangled around the line too now. I finally got a glimpse and could see it wasn’t a Rainbow, it was a good-sized Tiger.
The first opportunity I had to net it, I managed to get it in though the fish still had a lot of fight left in it. The hook fell out as soon as it was in the net and it was mangled! The wire rib had been ripped to bits by the fish….maybe it is true that Tiger Trout have more teeth?
I would confidently claim 4lb for the fish though it was very possibly closer to 5lb but without weighing I would be loathe to argue, It was quite a long fish, with little excess fat but quite broad across the back so probably heavier than it looked As the hook came out itself there was no need for me to touch it and after a few photos in the net I let it swim off and it was away back to hide in the lily pads.
And that was the sport for the day….nothing else showed interest, even 20 min on the Meadow Pond only got me a few follows and nothing more. It will soon be time for the Grayling.
