Can anyone find my MoJo?

After a crappy on-call week ( not that it was especially bad other than in the way that any on-call week is crap as you are apt to be dragged out your bed at some god-forsaken hour and asked to look at something thats broke , knowing that probably 2-3 others have tried and failed so far) I wanted to go catch the evening rise somewhere, wher  I know there are fish in front of me. Never having done Orchill in an evening, and having a score to settle from my lost monster and other near misses escapade a few weeks back I headed there.

It was a lovely evening but the fishery was pretty busy and it looked like there were a few holiday makers there. Space was limited and the sun still quite bright though the heat was on the downside. I fished halfway up the road side of the loch as it was one of the few spaces and opted for some bloodworm patterns suspended under a Shuttlecock buzzer- covering all bases. A few fish were moving on the surface but not many and not frequently, and despite a few fly swaps, I never had a touch. A youngster beside me had one while I was there but on a lure and I was really not wanting to go down that road, hoping the turn of dries would come soon.

I moved round the other side as the sun dipped to tree level and the fishery got quieter. I still had no interest on the buzzer type fishing or the few dries I had tried and there were very few fish topping after another hour so I reluctantly tied on a rather lure type “bog chain” damsel. First cast there was a sharp tug but it never seemed to connect- I kept the retrieve going and it seemed to tug again but still failed to connect. I went to recast and thought my leader looked odd. The Damsel was gone and the 7lb leader was snapped  ( or bitten) above where the damsel had been, it could’nt have been a wind knot ( I had just checked the leader ) and the knot had not slipped through, a definite break.

I only had one pattern like this so on went a black Nomad with a green “head”. After a few more casts I connected and this time the fish was hooked, it made one of those nasty straight out in front of you head shake type runs away from me, and then a second time despite me keeping tension on best I could it slipped the hook.

I fished  here a while longer and though I had the odd knock and pull nothing took. I decided on a move up the top corner beyond the burn. I stopped to chat to another angler who I had met there before, he had had a few pulls but nothing taking, and was on lures too by now. Out in the boat a couple of guys were catching consistently in the deeper water on a black lure of some sort- they had 6 in an hour. Having swapped the boat with their mates they failed to catch anything on the same tactics in the same place on the same flies (as far as I could tell)!

I had cast a couple of times with my Nomad and nymph 3 fly cast when I got a very subtle pull that was clearly a fish, I lifted and the fish seemed hooked but then it did another one of these “boring runs” as if drilling to the bottom and the line went slack. Broken again! This time below the middle dropper but while I suspect a knot, there was no tell tale twist or curl in the leader.

I had no more flies like this and the fish were by now starting to rise, in fact there were tons of insects hatching off. I swapped to a tapered leader and a dry fly- a Yellow Owl Shuttlecock. It took a while but I had a rise to the fly from a fish but it was right out a good 25 yards away and though I lifted I never connected, whether it was a miss or the fish never took its hard to say. I tried a fresh one of these flies and a good half dozen further dries and never had a look, despite fish rising all over. As it got darker I went (very reluctantly) back to the black lures. The guys in the boat had swapped over again and the original pair were back catching again on black lures.

On went a Black Humungous ( as it was all I had in black left) and after 3 -4 casts I connected and this time the fish felt well hooked. I was playing it and it seemed like this time I was going to get a result as it was right in front of me. Taking care to get some line back on the reel and not step on it like last time at Orchill I stepped back to get the net, the fish was under the rod tip, then suddenly it all stopped. It was off! WTF!?

I dunno whats wrong just now but I simply can’t land a fish….. as Austin powers said “its not you Babe, I’ve lost my MoJo………”