A visit to a new place for me today, Linlithgow Loch– you can read more about the actual place on my fishery reviews page which will be up about the same time as this post.
It was reported on the radio as I buzzed over to Linlithgow that the weather was to dry up mid-morning for a settled afternoon, in the usually reliable Met Office fashion it rained all morning and right through to about three in the afternoon. Not torrential or driving rain, just that all-encompassing drizzly rain that seems to saturate everything.
No not grass clippings, algae in the loch- the entire loch is like this just now.
It wasn’t cold at all though and the morning breeze gave way to a very still afternoon. The water however in the loch was green! When I went to get my rowing boat I could see what looked like grass cuttings in the water, and in my naievity thats what I thought it was, that someone had been strimming the banks and the clippings were just around the dock. WRONG, it was some sort of filamentious algae that was throughout the Loch and got onto everything it touched. The lines and flies were coming out the water green and sticky and my hands were stained green by the end of the day- quite unpleasant.
The boat keeper told me all the fish were in a band roughly straight out from the lodge and mostly inthe middle of this area though some had been picked up about 30 yards off the north shore. There were a lot of boats in this middle section all at anchor so I headed right accross to start near the North bank. I used a sink tip line with a Cats whiskers Booby on point and a Cruncher and PTN on droppers.
The first hour was totally uneventful, never seen, touched or came near a fish. The guys ina nearby boat cheered me up no end as they passed- they had five all to blobs on a midge tip. It seemed like my method was Ok maybe it was colour, so I swapped to a blob- I hate these things almost as much as Boobies, and tried this : still nothing. I decided to try get my flies down a bit deeper, the sinktip maybe wasn’t getting quite down to the fish inthe time I had to retreive soI swapped to a clear intermediate line. After a further half an hour I felt a slow but solid drag on the line and I lifted fairly slowly as a Blue Trout of about 2lbs grabbed the Cruncher, quite near the surface. It put up a spirited fight- especially as the net hove into view but it was my first fish in the bag. This made me feel better….. and still it rained.
Some boats had bagged up and were heading to the shore by back of twelve so a bit space was opening up in the middle. After a short drift along the line of the shore but no further interest, I headed out to the middle but to an area a little further east of where th eother boats had been. In my mind I was thinking maybe any fish spooked by the main fleet had moved over. After a stop for a cup of warming tea and a sandwich it was back to the fishing. The Blob wasn’t doing it for me so it never took long for me to change to a Yellow Dancer on point, a fluo green tailed copper nymph on dropper and a red Diawl Bach.
Second cast I had a solid thump and a cracking Rainbow was on. What a fight- it went round the boat at least twice and kept going on long lunging runs. Fantastic sport! I managed to get it onto the reel and used the drag to slow it down for only about the second time I ever had to. After much tooing and froing a Rainbow of around two and a half pounds was in the net. The fight was way more than you could expect from such a fish! One to the Yellow Dancer this time.
The blue and two Rainbows- the visual size is deceptive the lower fish was three pounds, the middle gave the strongest fight I have ever had!
It only took about two more cast for more action to come my way, on the first cast I thought I was getting a fish following, though it was by no means definite, so I cast over the same spot a second time and yes indeed another fish was on. Again a huge fight and this time a bigger fish again, about three pounds this time, and another terrific battle to net the fish. Number two to the Yellow Dancer! The retreive that was working was a steady paced short six inch pull, the fish were pretty well hooking themselves witht his, anything else I was awaeof them chasing and following but the steady six inch pull, was what landed all these fish.
All the fish seemed to be here in the late afternoon
The sky was lightening by now and a few fish were rising in odd places so I started contemplating coming shallower with a floating line. I decided to drift a bit and went east for about 45 minutes but other than the odd fish moving I never had a touch. As I neared the final hour or so I seen fish move over near the North shore whereI had fished on the drift earlier. All the other boats seemed to be further east so I rowed over for a wee go here.
I put the floating line on – the Airflo 40+ and let rip! Almost immediately I was into a fish, a solid drag onthe fly and this fish, another Rainbow put on a hugely acrobatic displayy- I was aware of other anglers watching from a distance, again this fish was rounfd the boat under it away again, it took about 10 minutes to bring to the net, taking a leap out the first time I thought I had him! This fish was about two and a half pounds again. A third to the Yellow Dancer.
Next cast I was immediately taken yet again, the fish was on for a few minutes at quite a distance then suddenly the line went slack- I thought maybe I was broken but no it simply came off- or maybe the hook pulled out the fishes mouth.
After this I got tug after tug, and eventually had a take which was so sharp I thought I had broken off. I pulled the line in and the Dancer was still there but after a few casts I realised something was odd. On recovering the leader I discovered the red Diawl Back and the dropper it was on were missing. Look slike a fish had robbed the fly and snapped the dropper. I retied my leader and fished on. I had countless tugs and pulls but failed to connect with any more fish. However the other boats were clearly jealous of my new found success as a few congregated round mine and quite a few were getting fish.
By four I was fair knackered with the wet, the long casting and the fights from these amazing fish so was almost glad it was time to call it a day! A great days sport if a bit wet and messy!
