Having went up to the Loch on Thursday evening for what was no more than an hour of damp misery, with nothing moving, I wasn’t sure whether to head up there today. The weather looked OK though rain was threatening.
The conditions seemed very similar to last Saturday but that nothing seemed to be moving. Undeterred, I put on the fly that did so well last weekend, a deer hair Comparadun and gave it a few casts up the North bank. One chap coming in on the boat had had a decent session and had caught on small black wets, one like a Butcher, the other something home-made he said. So there were fish about it seemed.
A big Brown that felt to be about two and a half pounds, certainly the heaviest fish I have had to date from Pendreich.
I moved up the North East corner but still had not seen a fish move and decided to change to something subsurface. As I pulled in the line I noticed an odd loop in the tippet at my leader ring so decided I better sort this out. Having done so (quite fiddly when up to your waist in water) I wondered what to fish. I had spotted a lot of fairly substantial Daddy Long legs come off the grass as I walked, and though not seeing anything rise for one, decided a wet Daddy with a gold bead might be worth a try. As I tied it on, a fish flew out the water not 20 feet from me then a fish rose further out; typical! Not to be put off, I decided to cast the wet daddy over the area where the fish leapt. Four or five casts then the line stopped and a fish took. It was a good fish too and put up an excellent fight on my 4 weight rod. It took me two attempts to net it;I was reluctant to bully it too much as I only had 1.8kg Stroft on the point. But it came to the net and it was a good 2 and a half pound Brown Trout, the biggest I have caught by a fair margin up at the Loch. It was a bit tricky to unhook as it was bigger than I could grip easily in one hand and it had a bit of a raggy mouth anyway, it wasn’t the first time this fish had at least been hooked, but I managed to get it free and it swam off OK.
My Black Gnat variant
As I sorted out the line spaghetti I seen a commotion again very close in and I could see loads of small black midges hatching off, followed up by the unmistakable back of a trout feeding on the emergent insects just subsurface. I decided to hold fire for few more casts and in fact managed to get a reaction from a fish further out which splashed at my Daddy and then nipped it again as I retrieved, but it never took. I went back to dries and put on one of my recently tied small Black Gnat’s. Nothing. Despite covering this and one other rise, I never had a touch. There were some other anglers there by now; a chap and two youngsters- one his son I think, all fairly new to the sport. I decided there were fish here, and I could fish other spots in my waders they couldn’t so it was only fair to move and let them cover the fish here and I would try somewhere else and maybe experiment.
I went up the very weedy East end and waded out a little in the thick tangle of weeds. I have learned my lessons here, you need to fish a single fly and use a net that will allow you to reach as far as possible over the weeds or you risk snagging and being broken. starting with the Black Gnat nearest I got was a fish rise about 6 inches away, but it never wanted to come for my fly. I decided to try a dry daddy, there were odd fish rising here even though the rain was starting to stay on more now. On went a rather unkempt looking deer hair detached body Daddy long legs. A bit of an early fly tying effort so it wasn’t likely to win any awards as a Davie McPhail lookalike. A couple of casts and a fish came streaking in from nowhere and skiffed past the fly- I don’t know if it was spooked or what, but it never connected. I then had one rise to the fly but again it never took and I lifted into thin air , rewarded with the usual “recover the fly from the reeds” situation. As I did another fish rose very close in to my right and as soon as I was free, I flicked the fly out over the decaying swirls of the first rise. I waited, then success! It took and I was able to fairly quickly lead it to the net, over the shallow tangle of weeds in front of me. A fish of about one and a half pounds this time and another amputee, a pectoral fin was missing like the fish I had a few weeks back, maybe the same one? Anyway it recovered well in the net and I was able to release it. The rain then came on “properly” and it was time to head back to the car, a satisfying outing after all.
Well Done!!! It’s been a hard water to fish,I’ve started to go up in the morning around 7-30 not much better.It has tailed off a bit for me in the last view visits only a couple of fish in about 4 trips.
I’m contemplating a season ticket for the Allan water next season.It’s to frustrating you go up in seemingly perfect conditions and nothing is happening.
Yes there is no doubt its been hard though I have seen signs of improvement recently and some quite large fish being caught. I looked at Allan Water but I thought it looked quite expensive what is it £135 or thereabouts? ( I only want to fish for trout and grayling) and it seemed geared towards sea trout and salmon. I use rivers like the Clyde and Tweed by way of comparison ( approx £20 and £50 per season for huge sections). The River Devon is cheap though not been able to get out on it much this year.