With such a nice weekend, I felt I was a little spoiled for choice as to where to fish when I managed to get a little time on Sunday evening. I really fancied heading down the River Carron but I cannot tell a lie, two things were putting me off. The lack of rain of late, so the river will inevitably be low, and COVID, as I understand the Denny area has been a bit of a hotspot of late and I for one don’t see the need to put myself in the path of any potentially infected people.
I have heard of more people catching Covid in the last week and a half than I have heard of the entire last year-plus of this Pandemic. Too much letting the guard down going on.
I opted to head back up to Loch Coulter. I had had my leisure battery on charge all afternoon in case I might take a boat out, but I suspect it’s not in the best of shape as it still appeared to be charging come time to leave home and I think maybe a year and a half without using it, hasn’t done it the best of favours. I opted just to leave it and threw the waders and boots in the car instead and headed out around 7pm.
There were a couple of boats out and one on the pier so I felt that I had probably made the best decision not taking all the boat gubbins with me as I would have had to spent half an hour or more setting up the boat, getting a spare in off a mooring and then tackling up. Time was too short. Ten minutes later I was in my waders, I had my rod and reel in my ruck sack and I headed off across the far side to Poachers point, which I find is a nice spot to access water that’s easily waded to where necessary. I set the rod up on the shore, and noted the midges flying around me. I would usually say “wee midges” but there was nothing wee about these beasties. They were big fat hairy looking things. Actually in the presence of the nearby Hawthorn bushes you may have been excused for thinking these were Hawthorn flies but they didn’t have the characteristic dangly legs of that species.
Fish were rising in the shadow of the bankside trees and not far out at all.
I set up a three fly cast on the point one of Paul Davidsons style variants of the Bobs Bits ( I might not be a fan of his Midas, but his Bit’s is untouchable, a brilliant fly for the Brownies in particular) and on the droppers a Diawl Bach and a Black buzzer with red cheeks.
On my third cast, fishing near to where I saw a fish rise, I noticed a bulge at the point fly but there was no take. I cast again and this time there was a hesitant bulge again, I gave the fly a small tweak and that did the trick, a hook up right off the top. A great fight ensued and a fish of about a pound was netted, just nicked through the tip of the bottom lip.
As I was letting the fish go a boat rowed round the corner and stopped maybe 30 metres off the bank. The two anglers asked how I was getting on and I was able to tell them the good news despite being there only a matter of minutes. They had been out somewhat longer and were as far as I could understand, fishless.
As if to add insult to injury I then cast out and pretty well right away was into a second fish, this time on the black buzzer. A slightly bigger fish maybe closer to a pound and a half, it came to the net very easily but then wakened up and wouldn’t stop thrashing around in the net. It swam off fine though once the hook fell out.
I cast again and number three was on the Bits again but this time it came off as I was playing it. I had a feeling that the fish weren’t really feeding off the top as such but just below, so maybe the Dry was a bit premature. Not to worry though as it was clearly attracting interest. I fished on and within another ten minutes I hooked a fourth fish and netted this as my third, and again it was nicked in the very tip of the mouth on the ‘Bit’s.
After this, I decided to leave the corner to the guys in the boat, took a walk into Burn Bay, and cast over some rising fish I had spotted in the margins. I rose a couple, but they didn’t connect and my mind was becoming more settled that I needed to be in the film rather than on it despite early success. I then noticed my leader was all snarled up ( the wind though not strong was a little swirly at times and was throwing the flies around as they landed on the water). I removed the three fly cast and went for a straight-through 15-foot leader of 4lb Fluorocarbon and a Suspender buzzer on the point). By now the sun was dipped below the ridge of Earls Hill and while it was still a nice evening a distinct chill had appeared. It wasn’t just me that noticed it, the lads in the boat had donned coats and the fish activity definitely abated along with the fly life.
The odd fish did still appear here and there and swirl just under the surface and I just needed to be patient, and pick my targets. While I was wading I never really got more than shin deep the entire night, it really wasn’t necessary.
I was getting cold as the clock ticked round to 9:30 and I decided a last few casts would do me, when a fish rose close in on my right. The Suspender Buzzer was incredibly hard to see in the gloom even in the near flat calm that had descended on the water so I was really just watching for activity where I thought the fly was….. and it came.
A circular swirl and I lifted into a fish that came to the net.. As I got it close in I spotted something on it and only realised as I netted it that it was a tagged fish, so not only a great nights fishing but a bonus prize at the end of it too! For once I made the right choice it seems!
