It’s been a tough season so far. The weather has been a long way from ideal, seemingly swinging wildly from extremes of cold, to heat and back again, though generally I would say its been colder, windier and wetter than “normal” whatever normal is these days?
The fishing at my club water Pendreich has in general been dismal most of this season and I have managed a solitary fish in something like 8 outings. There is a view that its needing stocked, however my gut feeling is there are plenty fish but the cold is keeping them down and away from the banks. Granted, on the better days they are far from suicidal even when there is plenty of fly life on the water, but I am am sure they are there and some big chaps to boot.
I managed an afternoon up there yesterday, the weather was suggesting it was too windy but it was actually not bad and not cold, though there were one or two very heavy showers.
I was a bit over gunned too, as I had packed my gear on Friday for a club outing to Carron Valley that was blown out by the weather on Saturday, but had removed my light tackle reels and lines from my box. Arriving on Sunday at Pendreich I had to fish a 7 weight, not ideal.
The long and short is that I never touched a fish in the better part of 4 hours. But it was nice to be out as its been hard getting out or motivated to be out recently. I won’t bore you with my personal issues but I am having something of a horror story with my hands and legs right now and its making things very difficult, not only for fishing but life in general. Fingers crossed ( if they are not too stiff) that normal service will resume soon.
A couple of members had a solitary fish to the boat while was up on Sunday despite covering the whole loch. I did see one funny thing- a fish, and it was not that small, a good 2lbs, leapt out the water and cork screwed landing upside down with a huge splash. It must have stunned itself as I could then see it upside down, its white/cream belly quite apparent under the surface, before it came too, swirled and was off.
There was one successful angler, an Osprey came down and bagged itself a fish, which it flew off with right round by the area I was standing on the bank. Impressive to see.
On a slight side note, while I was out, I received a call from Vid the admin of the very successful fishing forum, riverclydefishing.com inviting me along to a days salmon fishing on Mid Clyde later in the month. Salmon fishing isn’t something I have felt compelled to try off my own back I have to be honest to say, I have enough trouble catching trout and Salmon are a whole different level. But its something I do want to try. I was gutted to have to turn him down on his very kind offer, as I say above, my current” issues” do not allow me to plan that far ahead to be frank, I don’t know if I will even be able to hold a rod in a few weeks. Sunday was a struggle as my thumbs had gone, though I somehow found a grip that worked. But a massive thanks to Vid and the guys for the offer, very kind and very greatful to be asked. Hopefully I can catch up with you guys when things are a bit better.
