A week off…..and what to do? Well, I want to get out fishing, hopefully on some moving water if at all possible (the weather is going to matter quite a bit with the recent warmer dry spell) but definitely will make it onto still water a few times. Originally my Saturday plans involved the big V Twin and the open road but my arrangements changed and I was kind of left at a loose end. Radek messaged quite early on to say he was on the Tummel. Had I known he was going I would have gone too but I was still at this point in time lying in bed and all my gear needed sorting out, It would easily be another 2 hours to get there myself and by then it is nearly midday. Nah, I have all week so might as well chill.
It was warm but looked like rain was imminent and for once this encouraged me to get some gear in the car and head out, if it rained maybe it would freshen up some of the local fisheries. I have not been to Swanswater for quite a while, and it can be a difficult place both in the middle of the day AND during warm spells in summer, BUT if the rain appeared as it seemed it would it might get the fish moving.
When I arrived, Alastair said it had fished well the day before early on, on dries before buzzers seemed to do the trick as the day wore on, fished at about three feet down. But less had been caught on this ( Saturday) morning. Looking out the lodge door there was already a fine mist like rain appearing and I was optimistic this might help. He said it wasn’t busy up on the main loch but actually all the most likely fishing spots in the conditions, were taken and it was hard to decide where to go. When it is warm fish move to the deeper more stable temperatures near the dam wall. I had considered actually getting a boat as I reckoned this was probably the best chance for getting fish…. you are directly over deeper water and away from the disturbance of bank anglers. If nothing else a line cast out and allowed to sink to the bottom will usually move a few fish sulking in the depths. But in the event I decided to take my chances from the bank. Maybe I would regret this?
I had an intermediate line already fitted to my reel so, set it up with a lure and a Black Pennel variant to start off with up by the big tree on the east bank. The backcast room was a little restricted as the trees are in full leaf. However, in the second cast I had a follow, not by one fish but I reckoned three. Three “wakes” followed my retrieve in alongside my fly but none showed any inclination to take. The odd fish was rising but the activity for me ended right there. On with a floating line and right away, while trying to cover a fish under the branches of the big tree, I got snagged in it and that was two flies away.
I fished a straight line buzzer set up for half an hour with no more success than I had had with the lure and was getting a bit irritated with the casting limitations when the guys fishing by the dam wall upped and left, presumably to get some shelter from the rain which was by now coming down quite hard. I had the area by the dam wall to myself and this offers a lot more casting room. I was just tying on my third team of buzzers when a guy I recognise I think, and his mate appeared. They said they had been fishing there the evening before and had struggled a bit as well though the boat had caught fish for a while. There was as it happens a boat out while I was fishing but it stayed up the shallow end of the main basin which I found slightly perplexing unless they knew something I didn’t know. The angler who stopped to talk actually said that the boat had got three fish with a local angler, Frank in, the night before up in the shallower end….so what did I know!?
I never saw the boat anglers catch anything up there and they seemed to give up with that and came back in to fish from the bank. In the meantime, another boat appeared and this angler moved down nearer the dam wall and almost right away he hooked a fish! Someone on the bank shouted to him what he was using and he replied a Green Fritz…. so nothing fancy. I by this time had a red buzzer on point and an orange and an olive one on droppers. I cast out and almost right away, more or less “on the drop” as I spotted a fish near my flies when the line was snatched away. I lifted and bullied a nice Blue Trout to the net and that red buzzer dropped out with no problem of its own accord. The fish untouched and still in the water was able to simply swim off right away.
A new “trick”
I cast out again, the same spot and right away another pull but this one didn’t connect. You will forgive me if at this point I thought I had cracked it…..I hadn’t. I did get several pulls over maybe the next half hour, meanwhile, the chap in the boat was dropping several fish but netted a second. He was having no difficulty getting the attention of the fish and I was intrigued by what he was doing. I think it was the way he was striking into the fish that initially caught my attention as it was more of a rod slash to the side than a lift- he was clearly pulling the flies with the rod. He was it looked, on an Intermediate line and using quite a fast figure of eight retrieves. But not only that the end of his rod appeared to be jigging the line as he pulled the flies back as well. Initially, I thought this was deliberate but over time I became undecided, it may just have been a side effect of his hand position controlling the line and rod. Whatever, it appeared to have a bearing- a straight figure of eight retrieve had not worked for me earlier…well, beyond that one follow. I will add- I have jigged flies both using a short line and heavy stalking bugs and on full sinking lines, it’s not entirely new to me, but just this particular fashion on this day seemed significant enough to make me try it.
A longer line needed
I stopped again and put the Intermediate on with a small lure on point once again, the wee Goldie. I cast out and tried to impart a similar jigging motion into the retrieve as the chap on the boat but it was hard to maintain tension to get the effect I found. I cast a second time, this time with a much longer line and this with the added weight of the long line it did allow a jigging motion of sorts to be imparted, and bam! right away a fish took! Looks like this might be the answer?
I wasn’t getting a reaction to every single cast, but for the next hour or so, I had several pulls, hooked a third fish which I never actually saw as it stayed deep but had it under the rod tip and was about to get the net when suddenly it was off. It was pretty good fun. No two fish were hooked on the same fly so it looked like how you retrieved was as important as what you retrieved. The chap on the boat netted three that I spotted and dropped at least twice as many more, even the fish I caught were all just nicked so they maybe were not taking as confidently as you would like. The Jigging action was definitely effective but you did need a longer line out for it to work, too short and it just loops up under the rod tip.
With about three-quarters of an hour left I decided to wander down to the smaller fly pond as it was quiet and have a cast there. I changed back to a floating line as the first casts with the intermediate as I thought, were sinking a bit too quick in the shallow pond and picking up weed. First cast with the floater and I netted a wee 2lb Rainbow and then had several tugs and nips right up to when I decided to call it a day, literally dropping a fish on my very last cast. It had rained most of the afternoon and I don’t think that hurt things at all. But another wee string to the bow as a method to catch fish at least on a longer line.
