The weather feels like one big hot steamy rollercoaster just now. I took a wee run up to Pendreich on Thursday evening, to be honest, I was a bit late, so was going to struggle to eke out much more than an hour and a half’s fishing at best. When I got there, there was a fair wind blowing across the loch from a South-easterly direction. Initially, it wasn’t unmanageable but did gradually get stronger as I fished over 15 minutes, and I ended up moving to the east end to try get some shelter. That, and nothing was moving.
The water is pretty high and there is quite a lot of weed fringing the water now so unless you can fish a single dry ( and nothing was showing on top) it’s hard going. I did move one more time but the last stop had the wind coming over my right shoulder which in most cases wouldn’t be a problem but for the angle that had me fishing the only bit of fishable water and my backcast was obstructed. By now it was almost a howling gale and there was a big wave. I thought better of it and headed back home. Bit of a waste of time but it was a wee bit fresh air after a long day at work. I could barely say I had gone fishing. Was more of a slow walk around the loch waving a rod around in the wind now and again.
The Rains arrive
Friday and that wind had brought a bit of a monsoon and we had very heavy rain for much of the day though it settled down a bit by later afternoon. The forecast was for a settled morning Saturday ( today ) as the eye of this storm slowly passes over central Scotland, while England supposedly gets battered by gales. When I got up this morning the weather looked grey and less windy than I anticipated, and with Thunderstorms forecast for around half one in the afternoon I reckoned I could seek out a few hours locally. I didn’t fancy Pendreich, the top of a hill holding a carbon lightning conductor when there is thunder in the air doesn’t seem wise, so I decided to head just along the road to Swanswater. I haven’t been to Swannies for a fair wee while, so it made a bit of a change. I expected it to be busy with this forecast break in the weather, and it being a Saturday so was a little shocked that there was only one camper van in the car park.
Coloured up but not unexpected
I did expect it to be coloured up, with all the rain, it is bound to sweep a lot of muck down the burn into the main lochan, but maybe the added rainwater would freshen things up? Swanswater can be tricky in a warm spell so I wasn’t expecting it to be easy. Ideally, I would have liked to fish dry fly but I could see a little movement that gave me encouragement to fish on top, though fish did show here and there. With the Polaroids on I could make out fish out from the bridge and in the “top bay” but my efforts to catch one were at best met with the merest of pulls, no real takers.
I wandered onto the bridge to the island and looking into the pond behind the bridge I could see quite a few fish sat by the lily-pads. I was using a floating line and by now had one of my Fish4Flies wet daddies on point with a bloodworm pattern on the dropper. I was getting nips and pulls from the odd Rainbow Trout and Golden Trout but the only fish I managed to get to the net initially were a small Brown Trout and three Perch.
Win some flies!
By the way- I have a wee selection of Sample terrestrial patterns from Fish4Flies and you can win some on my facebook page. Have a look here. ( closes 12th August 2019)
Living Dangerously
I knew I was taking a chance fishing from the bridge as if I got into a decent fish, where to go to net it might be an issue. I wasn’t bothering anyone though as the only other anglers were a couple fishing on the far side of the island. On one cast I noted the interest of two fish to my flies and then suddenly something lunged at the point ( it is always good to get fish competing for the fly, you have a much better chance of a take I find) and suddenly I was into a powerful, though average-sized Rainbow trout. It went like a train taking me into the narrow channel around behind the island then under the Lilly pads before I was able to start gaining line on it. I was starting to consider how I was going to net it, when it made a dart under the bridge, under my feet.
Snagged!
There was little I could do to stop it and it knew exactly what it was doing, my dropper got snagged on a bridge support and the fish was off. Exciting though!
I moved round to the peg on the island that faces this pond but it’s not an easy place to cast from for a right-hander. I had to cast backwards quite a bit to cover the water and again was getting a lot of nips and tugs. A fish swirled under a tree to my right and it was easy to flick my flies in there hard against the far bank on the smaller island. Nothing appeared to happen at first then bang! I was into a fish and it tore off like a torpedo right up the channel right out of sight. It was taking line at a frightening rate. I stopped it and started to get line back, only for it to go off again under the island where I hooked it. It seems like this is deeply undercut and the fish must have went a good 6-10 feet under what looks like the bank before I again was able to stop it and get it back out. How it never snagged me I will never know. Again it still wasn’t happy and it darted off under the big raft of lily-pads. I was sure I would lose it in the tangle here now. But no, by some miracle I got its head up and did net it.
In size it was a pretty standard Rainbow of about 2 and a half pounds or so but I can honestly say it was the brightest coloured Rainbow I have caught for a very long time- the blush cheeks and stripe up its side were vibrant. It really was a pristine fish, and it went back with real power. Great fun.
Heating up
By now the sun was blazing down and it was getting uncomfortably hot in my waders which I donned to allow me to withstand any torrential downpours that might erupt over the course of the morning. They never appeared and it just got hotter and hotter. Where fish had been visible earlier I could see nothing now and reckoned they had maybe moved deeper so I tried fishing with an intermediate for a while as I moved around.
It really was uncomfortably hot and yet strangely damp- my fly box lying out by my bag was soaking wet, with what could only have been the humidity. My sunglasses too kept steaming up! Another observation was my floating fly line was sticking in the guides in the way it did when I was in Florida last year when having a go for the Largemouth Bass. I was reading that a conventional fly line for northern climes is no good in tropical latitudes as the coating becomes sticky and you need to get a Tropical line for these conditions. Clearly, I am not going to get one for the one day in five years with conditions like this but I could have done with it today!
With an hour or so left of my fishing time and only follows and nips to show for my efforts, I headed back round the loch and had a wee go by the dam wall with nothing at all showing here. Then went back to the car to get out the waders before I melted. Into something a bit cooler, I fished the wee Meadow Pond for a while. The water was much clearer here and the fish higher in the water. I ended up back on the floating line and every time clouds covered the sun the fish were right up on top.
One off the top
It took me a few changes to find something they would take but a wee Snowshoe Emerger finally did the trick to fool a stunningly coloured Blue trout and I had my second to the net at last. With only a wee while left I did rise a few more but they didn’t take and as spits of rain started right on time I decided to head for home. Good use made of the eye of the storm.
