It hasn’t been a particularly auspicious end to my Brown Trout season, all told it must be said.
Last hours on the Carron
I did venture out last weekend. I had a couple of hours on the River Carron last Saturday afternoon after we had had a bit of rain the previous day and it was still a little high and carrying some colour, though you would not say dirty. With the uplift in water it had brought out quite a few anglers spinning or worming for Salmon and it was quite busy. I wasn’t sure where to head, but somehow ended up below the viaduct fishing the wee runs before the road bridge and while there were a few Browns about they all seemed to be small and I cannot lie when I say my attempts to catch them were somewhat half hearted. I did get one small fish but probably spent more time talking to another angler who was trotting for Browns. His assessment was the same, his baits were being snaffled by small fish. Before I went home I took a wander above the viaduct but as I say it was fairly busy and got talking to another chap who reads this blog from time to time and barely wet a line there in the end. Ho hum.
and then the loch
I decided a final go on the brownies up the at Pendreich would also be worth a go for the last time and this ended up a somewhat dour affair too. There was a bit of a wind and a wave when I arrived, and the two anglers already out had both had a fish each, one from the boat one from the bank. But as I commenced my fishing the wind dropped and it became flat calm.
There were fish moving occasionally here and there and I had a couple of bumps, one on a floater and one on an intermediate. But nothing solid and I departed for the last time this season fishless. On the whole it has fished pretty well this year in my opinion but the last couple of outings were disappointing.
Last time on the Lake
The Stirling Castle Club had their last outing booked on the Lake of Menteith for Saturday and it was fully booked. Then two anglers called off the night before and two others took ill on the morning so it ended up with just the six of us out in three boats.
Between information gleaned between us and chat around the car park, two boobies with a cormorant in-between , from Lochend up to the Butts, on a midge tip,… two boobies and a Di5 in Gateside,…. FAB’s at the Plantation or Dries at the Gap were all THE killer method.
I took from this that any area was worth trying and work it out for yourself. I did figure there might be a lot of “jagged” fish about as the Champion of Champions event had been the day before. I think I was correct in this assessment.
I was paired up with Pete Forrest and after all that was said, we headed for the top end of Hotel bay by the reeds. Right away we found fish, apparently loads of them and we had a good time getting chases follows and pulls and Pete unfortunately dropped a couple, one right at the net. For my part I had loads of swirls and wakes following my flies and eventually hooked a netted a fighting fit fully tailed rainbow on a small Cruncher about 2lbs plus. The fight these fish were putting up was simply staggering! The fly was mangled. As was my leader so needed sorting out.
It seemed to quieten and with the rain now on full pelt we moved up into Gateside Bay. Starting at the burn mouth and working along the line of the boundary rope. There did not seem to be a lot visibly happening here then on one cast Almost as it landed a fish grabbed my fly. Again the fight was just off the scale mad. The fish was like a torpedo and went straight down, I had an 18 foot leader on and the fish seemed to be vertically below me for a good while. Fortunately I got it on the reel and with loads of drag and pressure eventually worked the fish to the surface. I must have played it a good 5-6 minutes and not once did I see my leader. Pete though he got a few glimpses and that it was a good fish. Eventually it came to the net, a Rainbow that would be somewhere between 4-5lb that looked for all the world like a salmon. Trying to unhook the hologreen Diawl bach was difficult as it was so powerful it still had bags of fight in it in the net.
A quick photo and it was back. We fished on right to the lilly pads but never had any more offers and with the weather getting bleaker we noticed a fair few more boats appearing behind us in the bay looking for shelter.
We decided to head across to the Plantation and barely saw a boat on the way. The wind turned a little and the drift took us right in tot he edge here so we were constantly having to squirt the boat out on the motor or push off with an oar. But it became very evident that there were fish here in water that was barely shin deep. Pete soon hooked his first fish that came to the net- again the fight was just mad, then a second.
On a subsequent drift up here again I cast ( by now I had a foam bodied deer haired daddy on the point, with a couple of Diawl Bachs on the droppers) and a fish hammered the point in what could only be 8″ water.
It went mental and went like a missile behind me and the boat and towards the drogue. I couldn’t get up quick enough and the fish nearly pulled me over the back of the boat in my boat seat!
I regained composure and Pete kindly wound in his line, as the fish, which I managed to keep up out the drogue, went full circle round the boat, I had to lift my fully hooped over rod over Pete’s head, and eventually netted the fish. The tail on it was just like a shovel. ( no pictures of the fish as my phone took some sort of malfunction that drained the battery and I was phoneless 90% of the outing).
With the fish in such shallow water they have no where to go but into the loch when you hook them and they fight so hard.
I too had a second fish here…. to be honest I kind of forget as it all got to be a bit of a blur at times as the sport was fairly steady and we were working hard to keep the boat in fishable spots.
We later had a meander down to Lochend but though there were a few boats here- it was very calm here and we seen little evidence of fish or anything being caught. We both decided the best fun ( though we only actually netted one fish) had been at the reeds above Hotel Bay and we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon there.
Again, close in there were clearly pockets of fish and once again we were getting loads of pulls, follows, and swirls. It really was a lot of fun. If every fish we got a reaction from had hooked up we would have been well into double figures each. Pete netted one more for three ( guided onto it by me so I claim half a point here!) , I hooked one more that again went off like a missile. I could not figure why it wasn’t taking line then realised too late that a small loop of line had hooked itself round the handle on my reel and it broke me off again on the Diawl Bach. I ended up with four but that bigger fish was memorable for me.
As we tidied up at the end it became apparent that some boats had struggled and well…..
One of our boats recorded a couple of blanks though lots of pulls and nips and a couple of break offs. The same seemed to be the case round most of the car park, the same sort of story.
Paul Boyle ( a Scotland Internationalist) who was in the other club boat of ours, came over with a bit of a disappointed look on his face. “How did you fare I asked him”.
“I dropped or missed a lot he said looking a bit dejected, I just managed the twenty-five……….”
A final fishy tale.
As I manoeuvred the boat at the reeds, a fish rose not 15 feet from the boat. “Well, catch it then” I said to Pete. He cast out covering the fish, I was still on killing the engine.
His retrieve seemed about done as I was lifting my rod to fish.
“Why did you not catch that fish?” I jokingly jibed him.
“I have” he said laughing….. as he mimed the action of a fish suddenly pulling his rod away from him. We both laughed.
“Oh f*ck it has!”, just then as he was lifting his rod the fish lunged at Pete’s fly and he hooked it but in all the hilarity he wasn’t really able to get a proper hook-set and it skittered over the surface then got free.
You couldn’t make it up!
