I was off on holiday last week, doing the tourist thing around Edinburgh and Glasgow. It is funny that while I have travelled a fair bit over seas in my immune suppressed state and presumably am exposed to foreign bugs, that it was on home shores in my home town that I caught a heavy cold.
Not Man-flu to be fair but I did feel pretty lousy on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday I had committed myself to helping a small squad of guys from the Stirling Castle AC in removing the rowing boats from the water.
Boat recovery
A wee bit more of a job this year, we have the two “new” boats ( ex Black Loch vessels that are pretty heavy), the old boat which while lighter is not “light” and the old light boat that was used as a tender at times and somehow ended up down the bottom of the loch then made its way back up by the dam wall at the end of the season!
While the forecast for Sunday was fairly grim, it turned out a fairly fine afternoon and we got the 4 boats out the water and stowed for the winter in little more than an hour.
It was so nice, and with (out of season) fish rising over the loch and the fresh air clearing my stuffy head a bit, I felt I should try get out for a few hours and wet a line before it got dark. There was not a lot of time left so I headed to my local small stillwater, Swanswater to fish until closing time.
Short session at Swannies
It was still overcast but fair when I arrived but Alastair reckoned the rain was not far away. Right enough about an hour and a half in to my session it came on very thundery rain, and once again this year I fished in very, very wet conditions. But it wasn’t cold and I was dressed well enough that it wasn’t much of a problem.
There were quite a few anglers about when I set out to find a place to fish ( though with the onste of rain they all soon vanished) and the quietest spot looked to be the channel between the island and the roadside. I headed there and set up with a floating line, a hothead damsel on point and a couple of Diawl Bachs on the droppers. No offers and I saw just the one fish cruise by but ignore my flies completely.
Fascinated with the fly
What was fascinating was what happened next. After about 15 minutes of fruitless casting and wondering were there any fish here, I took off the hothead Damsel and replaced it with a “true” Christmas Tree Decoration. I say true, because when I first found an example of this fly it looked to me to have been tied with golden Christmas tree tinsel, and very effective it was. So effective I wore it out. I then looked at tying my own and tried this material to tie a replica with. While it was “close” it was slightly broader tinsel and did not seem to flow in the water as well, and when I tried it, though it did take a few fish it was not optimal. My later flies used Gold Semperfli Extreme String and these ones have been totally deadly in about 70% of places I have used them, they are much more Damsel like overall. I have lost or used them all up or given them to a few friends and all that was left in my box was one tied with the original tinsel. I tied it on to see if it had any effect.
WOW! From nowhere, first cast, the fly was literally crowded with fish , from the instant it plopped into the water ( this one had a tungsten bead rather than bog-chain eyes) the fish were chasing it. But though they followed it all the way in to my feet, they never took. There were a lot of Golden Trout there, a variety I have found this fly to be especially effective on.
I must have cast a dozen times fanning round about 150 degrees over the water in front of me and each time fish would descend on the fly like a virus! I did get the odd pluck but despite leaving it static or varying the retrieve from slow to very fast, no takes…. not until I decided to change to an intermediate line and cast close into the bank to my left and I had a gentle pull that turned into a nice Rainbow of about two and a half pounds. It put up a solid fight, dogged if not explosive, and I got it netted and released.
I stuck with this for a while and lost a second fish and had so many fish following it became the norm. I changed the top fly for an Orange blob and this too started getting attention but again the fish weren’t committing. I think there were a fair few fish that had maybe been jagged already that were a bit more hesitant a second time.
I did move, a few pegs and got lots more interest, though there were less fish in the narrow gap between the Island and the area in front of the burn mouth. But once more fish did appear that were invisible before I showed them the fly.
I did try an Apache lure on the point too, this did get a few follows and one cautious pluck, but nothing more. I did get a few Perch though on the blob! As the rain continued to hose down and with light fading fast, I moved along again and on the very corner of the island facing the Dam got a few more follows and nips to the blob. With 5 minutes left I tied the gold lure back on and first cast I had a solid hard take and a second Rainbow, though in point of fact, it had taken the Blob.. That was enough for me, I was soaked but being out felt better than being in the house feeling choked up and miserable, so I cut off my flies and headed to the car.
