I have managed to get out, rod in hand twice in two days. That almost feels like some sort of record.

On Wednesday with the two day holiday looming, we were “excused duties” at work and told if you have nothing much on, “disappear”. That doesn’t happen often and it has been a particularly busy period of late so I wasn’t arguing. I disappeared into my garage, got the river gear into the car and headed out down to the River Carron for a few hours, on an afternoon that genuinely felt like summer for the first time this year. I know 1st of June is statistically speaking the first day of Meteorological Summer but for me summer is still a few weeks away, but to be able to get into short sleeves felt like some sort of achievement after the recent cold windy weather.

I went along to Horsemill Inn, as much to stretch the legs as to fish, as you can get a wee walk along the bank and see how its changed. This has to be one of the most changeable sections of the river and it never fails to surprise me how the river has been reshaped each year after winter. It is almost unrecognisable from when I started fishing the river. On balance I would have to say for the better, the main channel seems to hold more water now and has a bit more movement, whereas before it was a little canal-like in places.

Almost as soon as I crossed the fence into the field heading upstream I spotted a fish rise, I could actually see it sitting in the flow by a rock picking the odd morsel off the top, it wasn’t a big fish and wasn’t really in a position that made casting amenable so I carried on up past the pylons. The wee stoney beach makes a nice wee spot to park the tackle bag and I had a fish right through here for the next couple of hours. There was no rush and I spent a lot of time just watching and enjoying a bit of heat on my back. Fish were rising now and then and for the most part, I reckoned on them all being small. What they were taking was anyone’s guess really. There was a lot of fly life about but nothing you could pick out as being an obvious target. Millions of Midgies ( not the bitey variety), quite a few that looked to be of the Iron Blue variety judging by the colours and small yellow and olive upwings. None in any numbers that made them obvious targets. I tried a few small generic patterns, I tried the CDC Greenwell’s initially as it’s fairly non-descript but it got zero attention, then went onto a small olive F fly and almost right away had a small brown trout and rose maybe three more to it up the run. Nothing of any size but good fun on the run-up to tea time and a pleasant way to kill a few hours. It is nice to see the river with a reasonable flow at this time of year and with little “rock snot” to mess up your flies. The recent rains have given it a good flush through.

An Evening Sojourn to the Lake

I haven’t fished the evening sessions at the Lake of Menteith for a few years. I used to fish it at least once most seasons when it was the Scottish Clubs heats at the Lake and it made for a pleasant if somewhat competitive and at times, frustrating outing.

The Lake is one of those rare places in Scotland that gets “proper” Mayfly and this is peak time, though I have spotted them on the water as late as September, though not in any numbers. I was quite keen to give it a go though am fully cognizant of the fact that it can be a very difficult time of year to fish. When the Trout have copious numbers of Danica to pick off why should they consider an artificial. I recall a friend fishing one of the late May heats one year and out of over 20 boats out on the Lake with some ‘very’ good anglers, only one fish was caught…..it can be “that” hard.

Getting tackled up in the car park the two chaps at the car beside me had just come off after a full day session. They bemoaned the fact it was incredibly difficult, they had managed 6 fish between the two anglers in the boat. There are fish everywhere but they really don’t want to play one said. As I was about to head to the boat another chap came up to me, he was an English holidaymaker I think and visiting for the day. He said it had been really hard but had found fish would take a Grey Wulff or a Double Decker when Mayfly came off in small batches through the afternoon. My plan had been to fish a Double Decker ( I had tied some new ones that very morning) if the occasion arose. He said he was getting most interest up by the area I know as Plantation beyond Sandy Bay. Sandy Bay is perfect Mayfly habitat as, well, it’s sandy and Mayfly lay their eggs where there is sand. So I planned to head there anyhow.

……….Played on an old fiddle

I had set up my usually 9foot 6 Daiwa New Era 6# rod for fishing a midge tip and buzzers though had prepped my Cortland floating line with a tapered leader for fishing a single dry fly should the circumstances arise ( as I hoped they would) and had brought an old rod along for a change too. Menteith is a place you can be easily outgunned by the fish. So you can’t really fish too heavy with rods there. When I was out on Coulter a few weeks back I was using my Snowbee Exceed line which is a manufactured shooting head and a lot of help in windy conditions and for distance work. While extreme distance isn’t always a required criteria in a drifting boat, it did occur to me that the Snowbee line might be a good match for my old Scierra HM3 10foot #7/8 rod. I was given this rod by the man himself that the rod was named after- Hywel Morgan, many years ago, when I was blethering with him and saying I could do with a longer heavier rod…he sent me his old one. It’s not in perfect condition but it being an HM3 ( I loved my old 6/7# HM3 until I broke it years ago) it’s a powerful fast rod. But then the arthritis came and I found it a bit of a struggle to cast, a bit heavy for me and having a full Wells handle, hard to grip. I will say though over the years I do feel my casting has improved and I am much better able to let the rod do the work. Maybe it would be worth taking it along for fishing longer leaders from the boat. Therefore I had that set up initially with a three fly cast of a small lure on point and a couple of Cormorants on the droppers.

Taking this rod along proved to be exceedingly fortuitous and probably saved me a blank in the end.

Spooky Fish

I motored up to the Plantation and right away spotted fish rising not super close in, in fairly flat looking water. The wind was blowing from the west so I motored up past where I spotted fish and then let the boat drift ( very slowly) back towards the area. Just like that though the rises stopped and I had nothing to target. I then noticed more activity a little closer in towards Sandy Bay and moved the boat. Same again though, the rises just stopped. The fish clearly still had to be in the area and fishing my buzzers was getting zero interest. It was about half six at this point and I was needing to eat something so I sat and ate some food I had brought and observed what was happening.

While I was eating the wind suddenly , and just like that, swung round 180 degrees and where the very slow drift was taking me down towards Sandy Bay now it was going back towards Plantation. Once back fishing I notice another few fish rise up there so again motored over, slowly and tried again. I had also swapped my line to the floater on the dry fly rod, and had tied on a double decker as the few flies I was seeing were definitely Mayfly. It was very odd, you would see a fish rise but never anywhere near where I was fishing, by the time I reached that spot it was dead.

After a good hour and a half of fishing from Plantation and around Sandy Bay ( where it was flat calm) I was having no luck at all. I had tried a couple of Mayfly Patterns on the dry fly rod, singly, and also a Yellow owl and Black emerger with a buzzer suspended between with the HM3 rod. All I had really learned was that the fish were incredibly spooky. Anywhere I motored even moderately near, the rises seemed to stop, and then if you cast anywhere near a fish and it spotted the line, it bolted. While you should always be careful not to “line” fish, I have rarely seen such a reaction. One case in point, a fish rose in Sandy bay and I was about to cast so was getting my distance when it rose a second time maybe 2 metres closer than the first rise. I adjusted my cast and landed the fly almost exactly on the spot….except the fish had evidently moved ( pretty quickly it must be said) a few more metres towards me. My fly landed where I wanted but as it did the fish rose about 2 feet to the right of where the tip of my line landed ( not heavily either). There was a colossal splash and a wake as the fish bolted from the disturbance of the line. This was not going to be easy!

I was getting a tad frustrated but at least a small interlude when a couple of Ospreys appeared made for a welcome distraction. I never saw them with anything resembling a fish and it appeared it was getting to them as well as the two birds appeared to be involved in some sort of aerial quarrel.

While fish did continue to show here and there, they never seemed to be anywhere near where I was and I decided it was time to move elsewhere. It is a very difficult thing to do I find, when you “know” fish are right there, and the Lake is one of those places that this happens frequently.

A move to the dark side

I decided to motor around the “peninsula” of the Arnmach and have a go in at the Butts. This area is rarely devoid of fish though as the sun was now getting lower it was very much in the shade and cooler. So I pulled on my under jacket to stop the late evening chill from getting to me. Initially, there was little evidence of fish as the boat drifted in towards the weedy margins. There was only one other boat right up in the corner. As I got within 20 metres of the margins though, a fish rose to my far right and while I never covered it, it was a bit far and slightly windward to be accurate I took careful note of where it was.

I had swapped back to the HM3 and had put a small lure again on the point with a nymph and a Diawl Bach on the droppers. But then I noticed that though there were no fish actually rising that I could see, right in the margins the water was very “restless”. If you have ever visited a trout hatchery and watch the stock ponds as they throw pellets into the pond of trout, Initially you get a few splashes on the surface but then the feeding all takes place below but the water’s surface gets very disturbed…..well, the water in the reeds was exactly like this…I reckoned there were a LOT of fish in there. As if to “wake” me from my train of thought I felt a knock and pulled in line to find a wee spiney Perch had taken the buzzer….. Not now mate…off you go…

I motored back out, the breeze was pushing me in a wee bit faster than was ideal but this was definitely where the distance line could pay dividends. I removed the buzzer from the point…and purists look away now, but tied on a Cats Whiskers Booby to the point. Suitably armed and drifting back in to the edge I was able to cast out pretty much the entire line then was basically ripping the Booby pack “popper style” creating a bit of disturbance above the fish and right away there was a bow wave as a fish followed the fly. I think it was second or third go the fish lunged at the fly and I was hooked into my first Trout for the night. A shorter cast would not have been as productive, I am certain of it.

It led me a merry dance circulating around the boat a full twice before I was able to get it anywhere near the net. I was glad I had not deployed the drogue as that would have been a tangle fest! A Rainbow Trout of about 3 to 3and a half pounds…how do they get them fighting so hard at Menteith, don’t think I have been anywhere like this though I am told the big Reservoirs in Englandshire have some powerful fish too.

I had drifted in right to the edge during the fight so had to motor back out and on the next drift in, I did the exact same again, once again a fish followed lunged, the water bulged and it eventually took the booby. Basically two fish in little more than two casts. Oh how fortunes change.

I spent the next hour and a half fishing up and down the margins here. There were spells when the odd fish was taking something off the top, the air was thick with Caenis at times, but nearly every cast had some sort of reaction and having the ability to cast into the fish from a long distance and get some movement going on the fly was a definite advantage. However the hook ups became harder. I hooked one more that seemed to be on for a good minute but then the line just went slack, flies and leader all intact.

And I had literally dozens of follows chases, a few nips, it really was a lot of fun and good sport even if they didn’t all result in netted fish. You don’t have to be catching to have fun fishing.

I was a bit late motoring back in and was the last but one boat to return to the beach. The lad who was tending the boats was saying everyone had been reporting what a difficult night it had been, I suspect there had been a few blanks ( unsurprisingly). One other boat, a chap with his son came in behind me. Clearly a regular at the Lake and practicing for some competition at the weekend I think ( judging by the small talk). He asked me if I was the boat fishing in near the Butts…. I was, …”did you see it?” he said, “it was packed with fish”….that was certainly my experience too. But he said, it was too hard to hook any so he had moved out to the main basin and had caught 17—-yes that’s SEVENTEEN…. on dries, mainly Yellow Owls he said…. those hadn’t worked for me! Funny old game fishing.