I think it is easy to overlook at times, how much warmer things are in summer and how much heat a house absorbs and retains. While I don’t think anyone would disagree with me, its not been an especially great start to summer time, when the sun has deemed it fitting to grace us with its presence through the cloud cover, there has been some significant heat in it. Even if the seemingly perpetual gusty winds have done their best to keep the temperature down, at least as in how it feels to us.
It was something of a surprise therefore yesterday morning, when I was up very early with the intention of seeing a “near” summer solstice dawn in on the water. As I exited the door of the warm house without a jacket on to put some bits and pieces in the car, (it was only 03:55 but it was more or less daylight), I had a sharp intake of breath as it was very cold. A rapid retreat saw me back in the house to grab my thermal jacket. The car thermometer read 7Centigrade but it felt even colder as there was a breeze that would half you in two. The sky was clear though and the forecast was for a reasonable morning and that wind while cold just now wasn’t to get stronger which was a relief. At times it’s felt gale force!
I had actually toyed with going out Thursday evening and fishing the Clyde into the gloaming, but up here at least there was that wind, the rain seemed to keep threatening and the river still looks very low with the lack of significant rain. So the early morning start option won out.
Arriving at Loch Coulter and opening the gates, I had the place to myself ( or so I thought) and was donning not one but two jackets on top of the thermal anorak as it was utterly freezing on the hill. The wind was no worse, and blowing in towards the boathouse across the loch, with a nice light wave which would not hurt the fishing at all.
I had prepped my gear the night before so the rod was all set up, all I had to do was ferry the outboard, battery, boat seat and boat box to the boat, don my life preserver, grab oars and a net from the boat house, and sign in. I said, I thought I had the place to myself, so you will understand how surprised to turn the corner at the boathouse to nearly walk into a tent and a bike. Somebody decided it was to be their camping ground for the night.
I have no real idea of the rules around this up there, I suspect that SW will forbid camping and fishing ( as they do at Pendreich) but likely under the rules of open access I suspect people may be at liberty to camp there. It struck me as slightly odd as there are plenty of places you could camp a little more discretely in the area. I wasn’t going to “chap their door” to find out, but likewise, I wasn’t going to work around them being quiet, camp at a fishing loch expect to be disturbed by anglers shifting gear.
With gear loaded and camper now disturbed by my clattering around ( he thought I was stealing his bike! ). Oh dear did I wake you…..how sad, what a shame. I was out on the water heading for the Burn Bay which looked a little bit sheltered from the wind. At this time of the morning it is very quiet and all you hear are the birds, and cattle on the surrounding farmland, It really is idyllic and well worth making the effort of the early start to experience at least once a year. The rest of the world just melts away into that moment on the water. I was watching Heron’s catching their breakfast and soon was joined by an Osprey out looking to plunder an early snack, though it didn’t hang around long.
I was set up with a team of wet flies and right away casting in near the shore where I fished the bank last time I was up, I turned a fish then had a follow right into the boat. However, though for a short while there were fish rising here and there right across the bay as the sun rose above the Ochils (That’s almost directly North yet the sun rises from where it’s just dipped below the northern horizon for these few mid-year hours, nothing took my fly and as the sun gradually crept higher the surface activity fell away. I fished the entire bay and covered the odd moving fish here and there, even motoring over to try to get near enough to cast when I saw one rise a few times in one place but never elicited any response.
Persevering with the floating line I tried a heavier point fly to get down a bit, and a dry on point to see if they would move for that. Nothing. After about an hour or so with the sun now firmly above the horizon and with the wind relaxing a little, I changed to an Intermediate line to see if anything would take a little deeper down. Right away I had a pull but was not at all convinced it was a trout. Next cast proved my suspicions were right as a small Perch took one of my flies.
I changed to a couple of small lures and fished on with nothing more, maybe the slightly larger flies would put the small fish off. I decided to move round to the weedy shore on the west side directly opposite the boat house and tried there. Within maybe ten to fifteen minutes I had netted another two Perch, one was a slightly bigger one than the norm. I was starting to have my doubts that the odd swirl I was seeing here and there were actually trout now. Early on they definitely were but now I suspected the small coarse fish were outnumbering my game fish quarry. By now I had been fishing a good couple of hours probably nearer to three, and I noticed other anglers turn up and start to get a boat ready.
The sun was now pretty bright and while it was certainly less cold and the sun was starting to help keep the chill out, it wasn’t warm enough to remove any layers just yet. The fish activity had abated significantly and by now I only saw the odd fish move and usually some distance away. Eventually though, still on the Intermediate line I had a good solid pull, not a Perch this time…..but then it went slack. I pulled my line in – gone… all three flies and my entire leader. Not sure what had happened there at all, whether the knot to my main fly line had slipped through or snapped? I decided to tie on a fresh leader of slightly heavier 6lb Flurocarbon replacing the 4lb I was using previously.
By about 08:30, much as I had really enjoyed my morning on the water and it really was most pleasant out now, the lack of fish activity was making me think that heading for home and breakfast may be an idea. As there were a few anglers on the pier sorting out boats, I decided to head across to the other bay along from the boathouse and try there before I called it a morning when the others were finally afloat and out the way.
It was much more still and calm than I expected down in the corner, mirror flat is not really ideal but there were fish rising all along the edge from the corner to the Scottish Water cabins at the other end. The reason appeared to be the millions of midgies that were flitting around in clouds, and who realised breakfast had arrived as I pulled near. I spotted a fish rise several times no more than 6 feet from the edge, so in really shallow water and having tied on a Suspender Buzzer on the point, a Bobs Bits on the top dropper and a small black buzzer in the middle, I cast out landing the suspender Buzzer right on the middle of the by now receding rings of the rise.
There was a bulge near the fly and I resisted the temptation to lift…it hadn’t taken then it turned and solidly took the fly. Finally a really nice Brown trout to the net. I have to say it was a really bonnie fish of near as dammit, 2lb, if it was a stocked fish it had long lost its puppy fat, its colours were were lovely, especially the bright red spots and its fins were in perfect nick. I would have to guess it was probably a resident fish. It put up a really good fight and tried to disappear under the boat a couple of times but I successfully got it to the net.
After release I fished down the bank covering several other rising fish but got nothing. The wind was a bit changeable and affecting my fly presentation so I decided to chop off the droppers and remove the bottom section of 6lb to be replaced with a finer 4lb tippet section and tied the Suspender to this. It was quite apparent that the fish were hovering between taking emergers then taking flies off the top then back to emergers again. I stuck with the Suspender for a while until I encountered a whole “pod” of rising fish rising in bright sunshine and mirror flat water. I had just changed to a Bobs Bits and cast this right into the midst of a series of swirls, I would guess there were three maybe four fish all feeding in one spot. Putting the fly right between them I would have willingly have bet money that one would take my fly. I find if you get fish competing for a “bait” one needs to be first to take it and will throw caution to the wind. It took a few heart stopping moments and I had to stop myself from striking too early but sure enough a fish swirled and my fly disappeared, number two to the net. Not as big a fish as the first but still over a pound.
I managed to coax a few more risers but none that would take the fly and at times it would go a bit quiet, and in one of the lulls, I changed to a Black Parachute emerger, a halfway house between the Bits and the Suspender. Covering another rising fish I cast it out again and the fish almost in slow motion sucked the fly down, there was barely a sign on the surface except the fly disappearing and a tiny hole, like water disappearing down a plughole in a sink. A fish somewhere between the first and second in size, that was three netted, it was getting hot now and the jackets were now off and I could feel myself getting a scorched face off the reflections on the water- time to head home for breakfast.
