That may be a description of me, if my current physical condition is being referred to, however, it was also the state of some of my flies after a 4 hour session at Harviestoun Fishery near Alva. I have not been out much recently for one reason or another and I fancied a wee change, so decided to head up the A91 for a new location to fish.
You can read more about my impressions of the place in my review page, but when I arrived the place was fairly quiet, it looked like a club were maybe about to leave and had had a bit of a tough time of it by all accounts. The water was pretty flat and there were fish rising though mostly further out beyond casting range. After tackling up with my trusty HM3 6/7# I started at the platform nearest the lodge. I was only allowed a single fly as I wa son a C&R ticket so opted for a Beaded cats whiskers to see if it would raise any interest and give me an idea if the fish were truely takin gon top or chasing from below. No interst was shown after a dozen casts but fish were rising in range so popped an Olive F Fly on and cast out. Within a couple of cast a fish took the fly and I lifted to strike. Its stayed on for about 10 seconds then it was off. I thought I had lost the fly but no, the Hanak Barbless dry fly hook was bent at 90 degrees!
First fish caught and released
On with a new Olive F Fly tied on a heavier hook and about two casts more and another take. This one stayed on and I brought the fish in to unhook with some difficulty, it seemed hooked through the chin, but it swum off fine. The trouble with CDC is it does not last long after being greased up, so on with a fresh fly but nothing more was showing interest. I decided on a move down wind to the inlet end of the lochan. I fished there for about an hour and though there were a few fish moving and indeed I seen a few approach my dry, and then wet flies, none showed any inclination to take. In all the time there until now I had not seen a single angler catch,and by now the place was fairly busy.
After about a further 30 mins an angle ropposite me caught and landed a fish the only one I seen landed other than my own.
I moved up to opposite the bank opposite the lodge and started again on dries. A few heavy showers moved through and as soon as they stopped fish were topping. I popped on a Pheasant tail Klinkhammer and on one fairly long cast a fish, rose, I stuck and missed. I tried again and this time I am pretty sure a Tiger Trout rose under the fly, I watched as it turned rose, took the fly then stuck. This one was hooked and it barrelled out the water then started burrowing for the bottom as Tigers do, it was off on a run but then suddenly it was free! I fished in the fly for a look and I was shocked to find the klinkhammer was in bits. The hook had broken inside the body and only the wire rib was keeping it together, it fell apart in my hand. This time a Varivas BL2200 #12 was the hook!
A heavier variant went on and almost next cast again a fish rose to the Klink and turned and took it, I struck and a nice standard sized rainbow was brought in and released.
I never seen any other fish caught so was pretty pleased with my days sport, if not so impressed with these so called quality hooks!
