I took a wee run up to Loch Coulter today (Wednesday) though initially, I thought it may be a little bright for fishing and possibly too breezy. Still, it turned out ideal.
The wind was a little fresh initially though perfectly OK for boat fishing. The problem was, it was coming right in towards the boat moorings so bank fishing on this side wasn’t going to be easy.( I came prepared to wade but was quite happy to take a boat out using oars if the wind wasn’t severe).
I do own an electric outboard but don’t currently have a suitable battery for it so it’s very much manual effort if I want to boat-fish. Not ideal but it gets me a bit of exercise that doesn’t aggravate my ankle which is causing me lots of problems at the moment.
With my rod set up and gear in the boat I rowed out into the wind and was a little lucky that about then the wind started to drop a little. By the time I was halfway across the loch it had abated to a gentle breeze and the little waves had become little more than a corduroy ripple…perfect.
I started fishing fairly close-in to the lee shore and the boat began to drift back towards the moorings at a nice slow rate.
I never saw any signs of fish but just as I was preparing to row back for another drift and maybe change flies I had a grabby take and hooked into my first fish of the day (and season at Coulter). It was a nice Brown Trout with big black spots, of about a pound and a half. It took my middle dropper fly ( a Coulter midge) and unfortunately, you will need to take my word for this, as I didn’t get a photo. Somewhat annoyingly as I went to net the fish the top dropper got snagged in the net and I then couldn’t get the fish in the net and had to hand-line it very carefully and just shake it off the hook.
I decided to stick with these flies a while longer as I was about to have a change just before the fish took.
Not sure if that was a good decision as I had no further offers. I sat and watched the Osprey take a fish before I moved further down the loch. I changed my flies now with a small lure on point and a couple of buzzer patterns on droppers. I am not sure if I have said it before, but I was talking to my wife the other night following a TV news skit about Ospreys and how rare they are, that’s definitely not my experience. I reckon you could go to any large body of fresh water in Scotland ( certainly in the central belt at least) and see Ospreys pretty much any day of the week in summer. I see more Ospreys than Song Thrushes!
Having seen my first rising fish and deciding to target it, I managed to get a fish following the flies but didn’t detect a take despite my best efforts to swim the flies attractively. As I hung the flies I thought the fish had taken the point fly but had run out of enough room to lift the rod more and keep the line tight; in short once I got tight to the point fly there was no fish on the end of it.
It became very calm for a while and during this spell, a few fish started to show in one of the bays and I rowed the boat closer conscious I was getting further from the moorings and wary of the distance if the wind changed and I needed to row back.
At this point I was fishing a small lure on point and a fish picked it up on one random cast and put up a bit of a scrap before I was able to net it. Another Brown Trout of much the same size as before, a stretch to say 2lb, probably nearer one and a half.
Then as a thought might happen the wind got up again and you guessed it it had turned 180 and was going to be against me for the row back. I had planned on being out until about 2pm and it was about 1:15pm now so I decided to make my way back and if I saw anything nearer the moorings to have a cast there. However, the row was a bit of a slog and nothing showed in the small wave.
Getting the boat into it’s berth was a bit of a task as well with the wind but I made it in on the second go.
I was off a wee bit earlier than planned but with a couple of fish I wasn’t complaining.
Ive been following your posts now for years and years even when i didnt fly fish however i now fly fish and im even more intrigued to learn more from you nice pucs of the osprey btw
Glad you enjoy it, I need to take my proper camera out to get the Osprey sometime.
Hi Kenny, always nice to read your blogs!
Just a wee comment to the June 12 story: It appears that what you caught, shown in video and last photo was not a brown but a lake trout? I catch them here in Austria all the time.
best wishes, Manfred
Hi Manfred, great to hear from you. No, we only have Brown Trout, though in the last week or two the club has stocked a small number of Rainbows in the loch. I have never seen a Lake Trout though imagine it must be very similar to a Brownie. Brownies here can be vary variable in how they appear, especially wild fish. Loch Leven trout look very different though are just a strain of Brown Trout,…off-spring of those have been exported around the world to various places that don’t have trout natively. In Scotland we really just have three types of native trout as far as I am aware, and two are actually the same species, Brown trout and Sea trout ( Salmo trutta) … these are very hard to tell apart if they have been in a river a while. We also have Ferox Trout (Salmo ferox) , which used to be considered to be a type of Brown Trout, but I understand it is now considered to be a separate species. We do have Char which are a different species altogether and are found in very deep lochs, they look like a trout shape but have very different colouration and you really have to know where to find them and fish deep to catch them. ALl other trout we have are generally stocked and non breeding for sport fishing purposes, most commonly, Rainbow Trout, Blue Trout, Brook Trout, Tiger Trout and Golden Trout. There is another one thats been getting stocked in some places recently Spartic Trout, but I have yet to encounter one of these. Hope that helps.