I had my first afternoon at Loch Coulter today, and while catching fish is always the desired outcome of any fishing trip, today it wasn’t my primary objective. Today it was about fly lines and what works with my two main Stillwater rods, my Daiwa New Era 9ft 6″ 6# and 9ft 5#.
Since I got the 5# rod reel and line selection has been a bit of a fiddle. I was using my very old Sierra HMT 5# line with the rod ( and it worked well), but was getting a bit tatty, with nicks and cuts and needed replacing- it must be 8 years old. The problem was I had this line fitted to a spare cassette spool of my Hardy Ultralite CLS5000 reel. This is the reel that I use with my 6# rod. Now it kind of worked because some of my 6 weight lines, like my Slow intermediate, worked acceptably with my 5# rod, but it did mean compromises. I really had to use one rod or the other fitted with the reel. If I cared to take both with me, say one for fishing wets or small lures, and one for dries, I only had the one reel to split between them. I did have other old reels but then that meant the lines on my CLS5000 were no longer accessible to the 5#.
Quite a conundrum and I decided some time ago that the solution would be to get hold of another Hardy Ultralite CLS5000…. but they are no longer made! So I have been watching Ebay for one for a while. The prices vary quite a bit but it did become quite apparent there is a lot of demand for these reels. Sometimes as many as 20 odd bidders for one. I have also observed them being listed as Buy It now Offers for more than a New reel cost when I got mine!
Having been pipped at the post on a few I wasn’t prepared to over pay for one, but did need to get this sorted, one came up as “mint” used a couple of times with two RIO lines fitted. The info on the lines was scant but if they were as unused as the reel suggested, those alone had to be worth over £100 new. This kind of made the Buy it Now price for the reel, palatable as overall it was a bit of a bargain.
The reel is as described, like new, and the lines, I had no info how old they were, lets assume they were bought new with the reel a few years ago, looked literally like they had never been used. One was stated to be a Rio Perception floater WF7 and the other a Rio Gold. I guess the next risk is they had been stored on the reel so long they were all coiled and had a memory. Only one way to find out…
So this covers off getting a reel, I still needed a new 5# line for the lighter rod. I had a gift card to spend so went and bought an Air Flo Super Dri 5# presentation line and fitted that to the spare cassette yesterday. Time to go try them, and the trip to the Cooter.
When I left home it was dull, grey and a bit damp, arriving at Loch Coulter it was actually bright, moderately warm and fairly still. It lasted though, no longer than it took me to set up the two rods.
I opted to fish from the bank as I thought I might try walking all the way around the loch and fish as I go. I started off with the Perception line on the reel with my 6# rod. Yeah slightly overlined but the line did not over-tax the rod at all. In fact, it cast straight as a die and punched well into the already cold and head-on wind. I don’t know a lot about this line but I believe it’s a low stretch core so if you hit a fish you are supposed to really feel it. Unfortunately the only fish I hooked while using it was quite a decent sized Perch….I am something of a Perch Magnet at Loch Coulter it seems. So it wasn’t much of an indication of this aspect of its performance. It does feel like a distance line a bit with quite a short fat head section and the line appears to have a slightly rough coating that you are aware of as it runs through the guides- you are aware of the noise. While it doesn’t feel overly heavy to cast, it oddly did feel like it added a bit weight to my set up, which is kind of counter-intuitive. But right from the off, I found I could put out most of the line and considering this was across/into the wind, not wind assisted in any way thats pretty good. I will say though after a while I was very aware of the strain on my shoulder after fishing with it and that’s a first for me. I do have a lot of aches and pains but I rarely feel much kick back from casting.
I fished right down the shore from the bothy and never saw a fish move or touched anything but one perch. Round the corner I thought my luck might change. While still open to the wind it was a little more sheltered and there were weeds providing marginal cover. I had noticed a lot of Hawthorne flies at the bothy earlier and mentioned to the couple sitting ther eenjoying the then pleasant conditions, that it might be cool should some of them end up on the water.
Well here there were loads of Hawthorne flies sat in the surface…surely the trout would be onto them?
I had had a bit of a fly swap and had a small black Sedge-hog and a hopper pattern along with a beaded point fly. Halfway down this bank I saw nothing. Yet the Hawthorns continued to land on the surface. Finally about half way down I decided to stop and go back and have a line change, let’s fish a little deeper and try a slow intermediate. Any heavier would be a waste of time in the depth ahead of me. No sooner had I returned to the water than a fish rose right in front of me, not two-rod lengths away.
I covered it next cast landing my flies just beyond the still receding rings of the splash. Nothing happened, and I brought the flies right back and let them dangle by me for a few seconds….nothing, went to recast and there was a huge splash, the fish evidently decided to had a go at the fly a second too late, it totally missed but the splash gave me a right surprise!
No further offers came except more Perch, think I had three more, all fairly sizeable before I carried on down the loch. The wind did drop for a while and I decided to give the 5# a cast with the new Airflo line. It felt like a feather after the 6# and I like the way the new line casts, it isn’t a distance line but does go out straight and the lift off, the water is very good. Still, no offers to the dries.
I eventually came to a small bay, I am not sure if this is the outflow of the burn that heads down ultimately to Swanswater. I decided to have a cast here with the 6# again and right away I though I maybe had snagged bottom, the line stopped but without any “grab”. As I pulled it it became apparent there was actually a fish on….but I had left my net out of reach. A long lean very buttery gold Brownie, I wouldn’t think it was one of this years stockies as it was too lean looking probably no more than 3/4lb despite its length. Sorry, no photo as I couldn’t get it to hand for long enough to take a snap.
I then hit more Perch and decided to move on. I had not fished the bank from here before and after a bit of an explore couldn’t find an easy way onwards round the water. I am sure there is one but in the conditions ( cold and blustery) I couldn’t be bothered trying to work out a way through the gorse bushes, so I opted to walk back to the bothy.
NO fish showed the whole way back and I was about to pack up but noticing the wind was a little less intense from the boathouse towards the dam, I decided to fit the final “new” line, apparently a RIO gold WF7 floater.
This line too went out very straight and floated nice and high and seems near enough as new. It also had the exact same feel as my own older RIO Gold Midge Tip line, so I am pretty confident that it is in fact a RIO line- no markings to confirm. It is more of a presentation line and again felt a lot lighter than the Perception line.
As I cast I took a few steps and kept covering water. There was a very strange bump and then the rod hopped right over and it was clear there was something of significant size on the end. It started to move of at a reasonable pace but was actually heading across me not away and I had to take a few steps back to keep things tight.
It was staying deep then turned to head away, it felt heavy.
Then suddenly it went oddly slack but yet I could still feel a fish. I pulled in and on the end was another small Perch but this one had clearly been ambushed by something, likely a Pike, judging by the puncturing of its side.
The trout simply were not showing up for me, I think the anglers fishing from boats had a bit more success, I am told if they could stay out the wind fish were readily rising to dry flies, but it all stopped if the wind rose.
Not to worry, I now know what the new lines perform like and have a better set up for the future.
