A bright and slightly frosty morning yesterday I was minded to throw the bugging gear in the car and head for the Clyde. But I have been having a bit of a bad time with the arthritis in my feet this last 7 days and while it seemed to be settling down again I wasn’t so sure I was quite ready to spend the day up to my waist in freezing cold water. ( much as it does actually help! ).

Staying Local

Instead, I opted to stay fairly local and headed up to Orchil for an afternoon’s fishing. The conditions reminded me of a very memorable outing a few years back and I was hoping for some similar sport. I was quite surprised when I got up there how busy it was and also how windy it was compared to home. Apparently the wind had got up only in the hour before I arrived. I was also cognizant of how similar conditions the other day had calmed down after lunchtime and I hoped today was the same…. in fact though jumping ahead a bit, it was how it went, the wind did drop.

Down deep, deeper and down

Fish were being caught I was told, but seemed to have headed down deeper with the wind. So I opted to start with a sinking line. An intermediate would have done but frankly, I am not very happy with my Airflo intermediate line and will need to get a new one. Sections of it appear to stick firmly to the surface. Some less heavy flies end up trapped in the surface not just below as they should and this ensured I wouldn’t get down with my flies. On the point I had a modestly sized “fireman” lure and on the droppers a Cormorant and a black Pennel. Within a few casts at the south end of the loch I had my first follow, all the way into my feet though the fish lost interest as soon as movement stopped ( I couldn’t retrieve further) and swum off. Interestingly it was the Pennel it appeared to follow.

rising fish
At any point in time there were rising fish visible somewhere on the loch

Active fish

I never had any more interest shown but noted that fish were “rising” consistently all over the loch, in fact, some right in tight to the margins. They showed no interest to a well-placed fly near them. I was determined to crack the code. Over the course of the day tried numerous ( dozens) of flies, colours and depths. The trout were very, very hard to tempt. One angler who was leaving, said he had had two fish all morning, one on a “black hot head Damsel” early on, the other on a Diawl Bach under a bung. He said all the fish seemed to be getting caught under indicators “but that’s no fly fishing” he said. In fact, he was right, if you were willing to lob out a Thingummy-Bobber with a couple of buzzers underneath and literally leave it for ten minutes or more, there was a likelihood that eventually something would come along and take it. Some anglers seemed content with this approach- and why not? It has the desired result of getting fish in the net. But I was keen to keep moving so persevered with straight-line nymphing.

Reward

Rainbow trout from Orchil
Rainbow caught on a size 16 B47

By now I had swapped to a floating line and moved round the loch. With a couple of heavy flies on point and middle dropper and regular changes I kept plugging away and eventually was rewarded. A decent and very strong Rainbow of about two and a half pounds. The cold water might not have made them eager to take flies but when you did you were in for some fun! Mines came to a small B47 nymph taken on the drop.

Number two?

I kept moving and did technically land a second fish. I had seen a rather poorly looking fish which looked to have some sort of fungal infection of its head. Casting a line over it I quite simply foul hooked it and got it out. I hate to see any creature suffer and this one I would guess had been returned while bleeding. It was still bleeding from the gills on one side and its head and one eye were all rotted. Borrowing another anglers priest I despatched it, handing it in later in case I was thought to be cheating on a C&R ticket!

Last Knockings

As the sun set I had worked my way right round. The fish rose continuously all day. OK sometimes there was a lull but pretty much you could see one rise somewhere. The static bung approach was working albeit slowly if you really could be bothered with what was essentially float fishing. But I kept my flies moving just varying depth and pattern. Right at the end I managed to hook into a second fish, again it was on the drop. This time it had taken a small Irish Cat, but it slipped the hook before I netted it. Nonetheless, I got some sport out of it and it made for an easy release. A gorgeous day to be out nonetheless and good fun.