The wish list
Ever since I returned to Fly-fishing in earnest, there are a couple of things I have wanted to do. Actually there are lots of things I want to do but here I am talking about easily achievable without the expenditure of copious amounts of money!
One is to fish through the night, it doesn’t need to be anything terribly adventurous, I always hoped a local fly fishery might put on an all-nighter maybe with a wee BBQ or something, to benefit from the shorter nights, and the other is be out around dawn, again taking advantage of our short mid-summer nights.
There have always been obstacles. One, is this damned arthritis which makes getting up a bit of a chore due to extreme stiffness- it takes me a bit time to get moving in the morning- I am no Early Bird. Work commitments- I always seem to have night shifts on in summer, or on-call, and finally but not least, weather. Yes, the days may be long and the nights barely recognisable as such, but how many times have mid-summers days passed by and barely noticing due to some blanket of cloud enveloping Scotland from Mid June to late August. Too often!
Early Risers
I had noticed last year Lake of Menteith was putting on some early start boats for mid-summer. They had a few sessions that run something like 04:00-09:00 and I thought this might be fun but I couldn’t get the time during the week last year. I hadn’t noticed it advertised nor on their website this year, but did see a post on Facebook during the week mentioning the last early morning session had been run, so I suspect it was all kept a bit quiet for those regular anglers or insiders.
Other Options
Of course, I have other options open to me with the waters run by my two clubs, and having finished my on-call yesterday, the weather looking like it might hold another 24 hours and still having a little benefit from my recent steroid injection limiting the morning stiffness, it seemed like my stars had aligned somewhat, and today might be the day.
I also cannot hide the fact that my get up and go has slightly got up and gone recently around fishing, I think it’s just I am in a bit of a rut and need to do some different stuff. Seeing in the dawn on the water would be something to rekindle that enthusiasm, hopefully. Also being quite keen on photography I was hoping maybe to catch a nice sunrise being out in the morning Golden hour with maybe a bit mist about to add atmosphere.
I had all my gear ready to go in the car- including having my rods set up and I turned in sharp so I had a fighting chance of actually getting up at 03:30. Sunrise was around 04:30 so this gave me enough time to get up, dressed, and out to be up at Loch Coulter ahead of the sun appearing.
It is quite amazing how light it is overnight at this time of year and I drove to the loch in partial twilight with clear signs the eastern sky was brightening. It was also remarkably warm and humid. Lots of the local wildlife was caught a little by surprise as I drove, encountering deer on the road and more birds that were forced to take flight from the tarmac. It is also weird how it kind of feels “wrong” making any noise even in the middle of nowhere, while you open or close a gate or door. I found myself creeping around trying to maintain the quiet for no obvious reason.
With everything offloaded and having signed in, before I stepped on the jetty I wanted to get a photo as the water was literally mirror-flat, with not even a breath of a breeze.
Then it was get everything in the boat. As I was doing this, I heard someone coming round the side of the boathouse ( though I had not heard a car approach). It was my old pal Tommy. He knew I was thinking of coming up and as he is a regular early bird up at Coulter he had been giving me some fly tips from recent outings. I tied a few flies similar to his suggestions though did not have the precise feathers and he said he might pop up with “some” I though he meant feathers and he might come along later in the morning ( maybe even join me for an hour or so) but no, he came out about half four on a Saturday morning to give me a wee box of flies he had tied.
What a guy!
We had a blether for probably the best part of 20 minutes and the dawn had come and gone obscured by what I imagine is the east coast harr sitting in the Forth Estuary. As a result, there was little colour in the sky to discern the event though it was much lighter by now. Tommy declined the temptation to wet a line ( I had a spare rod set up with me) and I headed off out to fish.
A Snag then a Bit of Luck
There were lots of signs of fish movement but it soon became apparent these rise forms were mostly being made by Perch. I must have had four or five ( including two at once) in 20 minutes. Keeping moving, looking for signs of something that could be a trout, I had noticed movement over by the mouth of Burn Bay and was sure this wasn’t Perch so headed there.
As the boat drifted to a halt in the very still and noticeably cooler conditions now, a fish rose to displace a fair amount of water and I was sure it had to be a trout. I covered it twice with my three fly cast, a Butcher on point and one of Tommy’s flies and one I had tied myself to his “spec” the night before. On the second cast, I detected a bit of dragging on the line heavier though that the small Perch I had had, so far. Alas, it was just a bigger Perch! While the “honours” were about even on all the flies, I decided to change things around and put a Green-Tailed Kate on point, and some different flies on Tommy’s on the droppers.
A Little Flukey?
After covering this area fairly well with my floating line and moving the boat across the mouth of the bay a little I was contemplating changing the fly line to an intermediate. The light was starting to really intensify now and while there was still movement out here, it was definitely decreasing. Ironically the fly life was getting more intense and there was a big buzzer hatch underway. Just little interest on top that I could see.
I cast the line right out and left the flies to sink a bit, while I looked out my intermediate line spool. Returning to the rod I was retrieving this in when it locked totally solid. It felt like I was snagged hard on something and I put a fair bit pressure to try release it. Then I thought I could discern some head shaking- was there a fish there and I was snagged. I put the boat into reverse for a second and the slight change of angle suddenly seemed to free off the line and it went slack. But then it suddenly went kiting round towards the front of the boat- there was a fish on and if it had not realised it was hooked before, it had now.
A Surprise “By-Catch”
It was a nice Brown Trout of about a pound to a pound an a half with a very full tail. As I played it I noticed something white in its dorsal fin and thought maybe one of my dropper flies had foul hooked it. However, as I finally got its head up and brought it to the net it was clear it was cleanly mouth hooked on the Green Tailed Kate and the white flash on the dorsal was a tag of some sort.
I was going to photograph it in-situ thinking maybe it was either something used by the fishery that supplies the loch’s fish or for tracking purposes, ie so the club perhaps had an idea of how long certain fish were living in the loch. As I was taking the photo, it literally fell out in my hand so I decided to keep it and was going to let the club know when I got back.
The Sun Rose, I Fished Deeper
With the fish away back I fished on but had decided I was better fishing deeper and so fitted the Intermediate line. Another 30 minutes or so still got me no more than a few more Perch and one tentative pull that may have been a trout but equally might have been another Perch.
Another fly change this time I put one of my Golden Damsel/Christmas Tree decorations on. Tommy had used these earlier in the season here with huge success and I still tie it on if I am struggling (or even if I am not!) because frankly it just works. I wasn’t sure if it might be a bit of a Perch magnet but was worth a go. Initially, it didn’t attract anything.
Another move
With still nothing happening and the obvious rises from Trout now totally abated I decided to move the boat again heading out the bay. About 50 yards further up the loch a fish, clearly a Brown Trout rose near the boat. I stopped the motor and let things drift to a halt, and covered the fish but nothing. I then put out a really long cast behind the boat and giving things time to sink started to fish it back with a bit pace when it went tight and there was a big splash near the surface.
With so much line out it was quite hard keeping the line tight as I pulled in the trout but a second fish was netted, probably in length, only a little longer than the first but much thicker and I would guess nearer two and a half pounds, it was pretty heavy. And on the goldie once again! What a fly this is.
Objective Acheived
By now the sun was high enough to be making itself felt, I could feel my neck burning and with the time now just after 8 I felt I had achieved what I had set out to do and it was time to head back in.
There were a couple of anglers setting up to go out and one already bank fishing and finishing up. I mentioned the tag on the fish to the guy who wanted to use the boat I brought in and he told me it was part of a wee competition for club members and there was a prize for each tagged fish caught. Right enough, I hadn’t noticed the sign on the wall by the signing in book ( I nearly put the fish back with the tag!). Bonus.
