See what I did there? It was later this afternoon and I was having a wee break from an all day on line training course/Webex and noticed the sun shining. I went and sat on the doorstep in  the sun. It was actually warm.

There wasn’t much wind, I hoped it might actually be a nice night to wet a line…… maybe even get some dry flies out. As I am still on-call and I don’t like chancing commercial waters on such days in case the pager goes I went up to the club water. I knew it might not be so warm up there but  hopefully still nice enough for some good sport.

I arrived there and yes it was still sunny. But on looking over the dam wall there was a strong easterly howling down the loch. Sometimes the wind drops as the evening progresses I thought optimistically. One other angler was already there.

I started with bushy wet flies on a floating line but soon realised that this stiff breeze was not far short of a light gale and it got stronger and stronger as time progressed. In fact it was absolutely freezing too. I fished down the North bank but as I progressed it became harder and harder to control the line, not in the cast so much as the loose line as you retrieved, it got more tangled round bushes, reeds and other hazards, not just the odd snag but nasty tangles lifted by the wind.

The other angler braved the South bank after a while but had to give up trying to face down the wind.

We both packed up, when fishing no longer comes to be about trying to catch fish and becomes a battle of wills against contrary weather elements it’s no longer a pleasure.