Would you believe I have managed to make it up to Loch Coulter, not once this week, but three times?!

The weather, finally, has turned acceptably warm. I was speaking to a chap I know late last week, who is himself a keen angler, and he was saying he hadn’t been out at all this season as it was simply too cold.

So to get the chance to get out when it is actually warm is just brilliant. Tuesday for us here in Stirling was the warmest day of the week ( it peaked at 24C later in the afternoon as far as I can tell), and I was up and out fairly sharp. Not sharp enough to beat the other anglers that were already out on the loch, but I had no need to wear anything over my teeshirt, it was so warm, even at just after 10 am.

And despite the bright conditions there were plenty of fish moving. The water temperature is still pretty low….a couple of sunny days do not a summer make…. and so the fish were definitely active.

A very calm day
But for the merest ripple the loch was close to flat calm with not a breath of wind

But were they catchable….well, that is another story. At times, you could almost walk over the backs of the fish on the surface but trying to catch them was another thing. I threw all sorts at them, dries, emergers, wets and ultimately lures. Though they were obviously taking something just in or below the surface, quite what it was they were on was not obvious. There were plenty of insect shucks on the surface, but I couldn’t find a pattern they really wanted to take. Fairly early on, I managed to hook one, unconvincingly to be fair, and I was right to be unconvinced, on a shuttlecock buzzer. I saw the take and felt the fish for a few seconds, but it soon released itself, and I never had any further interest in that fly.

I tried desperately to match the hatch…whatever the hatch was, but it was to no avail. I even tried a daddie….because that was matching the hatch…has someone told this Cranefly it’s only May not September?

A cranefly resting on a strand of grass floating on the loch.
A cranefly resting on a strand of grass floating on the loch.

I thrashed the water to a foam….it was very flat calm, yet not a fish showed the blindest bit of interest. Not until just before I rowed back to the pier, having tied on a lure did I manage to get some interest from both Browns and ‘bows.

I will say, despite not catching it was great fun nonetheless, as having fish to target makes all the difference to casting with no real sign that anything is even there.

The ring of the rise
Receding rings of another fish topping.

With the lure on, first I saw slight wakes behind the fly as I retrieved it. I employed “the hang” and eventually had a snatchy grab at the fly as I went to lift off, but still no solid take. A few times, I could see the fish follow the fly close behind, sometimes Rainbows, sometimes Brown trout. Then on a longer cast I had a good grab and lifted, the fish thrashed for about 1 second and then it too was off….rubber hooks?

So I retired to the pier, having had a great three hours but nothing to show for it. And actually, I was far from alone. There were three other anglers on the pier, and they had experienced much the same. One had hooked one Rainbow, but that was it between the four of us….plenty of fish to see but hard to catch. At least I never saw the Osprey catch either!

An angler with a fish on the line
A rare hook up for another angler- he had one to the net.

On Wednesday, I was back up the loch, but not to pull fish out, instead to help put some in, some fish were delivered and safely let away into the deeps.

Thursday was forecast to be a hotter day than Tuesday, and I decided to get out sharp and get a morning’s fishing in before the heat built up after midday. However, that really wasn’t the experience. I was the only angler there, arriving just after 8 am and while initially it was sunny, there was a noticeable coolness, and once out on the water, a cold wind got up that proved to be very difficult to deal with. It was blowing me away from where I wanted to fish most of the time, and being just on oars, this meant it was a case of three or four casts, then reposition. In between rowing and casting, I was also consuming my breakfast!

Breakfast on the water- a fruit smoothie.
Breakfast on the water

Time-consuming and hard work, frankly. It was also evident that the wind was putting the fish down. I saw none move in the light wave. Anytime the wind dropped, usually as the sun appeared from behind the high cloud, the odd fish would show. Then and only then did I get any interest to my flies. I tried a wee shallow bay that had a modicum of shelter from the wind if you could stay right in by the bank…frankly, it would have been easier just getting out of the boat and fishing from the shore.

A rainbow trout
The first fish likely an overwintered ‘bow judging by the tail.
Another rainbow trout
The second fish was likely a fresh stockie.

Eventually, a suspender buzzer fooled a fish, and I finally had a trout to the net, though not until it had fought me hard for a good 5 minutes. It never took much line from me, but do you think I could get it near the net? It pulled super hard and was a struggle to net. I would say an overwintered Rainbow, judging by the tail on it and its leanness. As the morning moved on I allowed the boat to drift up the loch just using the oars to get back into the lee of the bank. The wind dropped slightly, and more fish could be spotted topping as the sun emerged but nothing like Tuesday. But eventually, I managed a second fish to the net on a lure and decided at that point that I was content with that. It was far from easy. I would take a guess that the second fish was a recent stockie, though much the same size around the 2-3 pound mark as the first.