I had my first afternoon up at Cocksburn Reservoir this season, yesterday. I have not been up mainly because it’s been so cold and it being quite high it is fairly exposed at the best of times. That in turn can lead to a dour experience with the sulking Brown Trout.
It was a fairly pleasant afternoon when I left home to go up, but when I arrived I was surprised to find I had it to myself*. Popping my head above the dam wall I kind of realised why, there was a stiff cold South Easterly wind blowing across the loch.
*To add to the wind there was a large group of adults and kids on the south bank swimming and canoeing. No chance I was going over there!
Once in my waders I decided to face the wind from the north side and in point of fact it wasn’t that bad for casting, just desperately cold on your hands.
I fished up from the dam and past the boat moorings and it was cold, grey and uninspiring. Not a sign of a fish. As I fished, another angler arrived and we passed small talk about the Osprey that had spent the last 20 minutes circling over head but had failed to snatch a fish. That made me feel better. If it can’t catch from its lofty elevation then no reason why I should be doing better!
I had been eyeing the east bank for some time, I liked the way the wind was funnelling a crease about 20 yards out from the shore, that is usually a good place to find fish. With the option of fishing further up the North bank by the other angler I trudged round to the east. At this time of year there is still thin enough weed growth that fishing a team of flies is feasible with care and a stiff enough rod. Later on the fringing weed will limit the angler to a single fly (usually a dry) here. You can cast over the weed but you have almost no chance of getting a fish out with dropper flies snagged firmly in the weeds.
I had started with a orange foam daddy on point a diawl Bach on the dropper and a Claret Bumble on the top. Once I started fishing though the daddy seemed pointless in the conditions and I slipped it off to fish a bit deeper with a small Goldie.
I had been fishing now up the east end about 5 minutes when I detected my first hesitant and very fast pull. Just then I noticed the lad on the north side was playing a fish, the first of two I saw him get.
As he dealt with his fish in the net I too hooked into a fish and started to take line on it when it suddenly came off.
An afternoon of frustration then followed. A second came off though I was aware I was a bit rubbish in hooking it, the wet line slipped through my cold stiff fingers as it snatched at the fly near the surface. Then third fish swirled at my Claret Bumble, and I felt the slightest of pulls . I had more sharp tugs and pulls than I could keep count of and fished upmand down my bank several times repeating this story.
I changed the point for a mini cat with a copper bead and this too helped me drop another fish and had lots of pulls. I decided to heed my own advice when fishing for loch brown trout. Don’t become fixed to one spot, keep moving.
I headed round to the gap at the top of the loch. While always very fishy looking this spot has not been a happy hunting groundfor me over the years. I have had the odd fish here ( and one memorably big fish, but not consistently.
The wind had dropped a little to be replaced by showers and then some quite heavy rain. As I fished round in an arc, I received several pulls and again they were sharp and sudden. I decided to try retrieving with the line looping round my fingers. I needed to do something to limit the amount of slack these snatching fish could get from me. I was missing the line or failing to get tension on it quickly enough. Partly due to the cold and it’s effect on my fingers, the line was wet and slick, and the fish were hitting very fast and hard.
On one retrieve I was getting so many plucks at the fly that I let go of the line in my left hand and left the straight line hanging from the rod tip and you could see the pulls on the line but nothing actually fully committing.
Finally though it happened, and a much gentler pick up of my fly and I netted a Brown of about a pound to a pound and a quarter… The blank was averted!
I fished on and despite more tugs for a while it did seem to quieten off. I only had a limited selection of flies with me and while I could have changed things to see if activity resumed I opted to work back to the car as time was moving on.
The other angler had since left so I fished just above where he had been for about 20 minutes and did manage to hook a second fish that was maybe a little smaller than the first and at that I called it a day. While very cold, it had turned into an absorbing afternoon and thoroughly enjoyable..
……..and I caught more than the Osprey for once!
