Yesterday was the second outing to Carron Valley this season, I have been on with SCAC. Beforehand the weather forecast looked grim. I was prepared to be sat in torrential rain all day and even the drive over there didn’t inspire optimism as the clouds were sat hard on the hill at Loch Coulter.
There was only a small turn out for this outing, partly I think because of the forecast conditions which has been broadcast well in advance of the weekend by the ever-reliable BBC ( !!) but I think quite a few members/regulars were away on holiday too. Faces were grim as we tackled up in the rain in the Carron Valley car park- we were all steeling ourselves for a day in the rain. It wasn’t torrential but how many hours of this most of us would have been willing to tolerate was going to be a tricky question?
Once out on the boat, I was partnered with Jim Nisbet, who I was out with the same time last year, in similar conditions at Frandy, we motored over to the far side of the basin above the main east dam wall. Apparently, fish were holding here and by all accounts, on top. We saw little move but I had taken Jimmy Feeney at his word that dries might be the way to go and had two on, the Orange foam bodied Deer Hair Daddy ( a laughable name really as it’s more like a fat-bodied sedge pattern with legs) and a black shuttlecock emerger. Both worked well at Faughlin a few weeks back in wet conditions. I cast out and almost right away rose a fish.
I cast again and there was a beautiful take as a Rainbow “porpoised” right onto the fly. No hesitation, no subtle take, just bam! Suddenly, the day didn’t seem so miserable. Actually, it wasn’t anyway, as the rain had stopped, there was a perfect light east/Southeasterly breeze, a perfect ripple or light wave and fish willing to take a look at flies presented on top. I wil spare you photos of netted Rainbow Trout, we know what they look like I think, by now!
Jim my boat partner is pretty much a hardcore wet fly angler, he has only fished dries once ever, and the wets were doing nothing, even when just inches subsurface, OK, I tell a lie he did snare a small brown on one just after I netted my first Rainbow, but that was it all day, other than when he tied on a bright Orange Blob which had the fish going mad chasing and slashing at it, though never actually taking it.
He did eventually take one of my spare “Daddies” and did as a result snare two fish in the latter part of the day.
For my part, I stuck with the Daddy but though it continually rose fish all day long, they were less keen to take it than I was hoping. If I hooked everything that came for it I would have been into the 20’s over the day easily. One of the club members, Bill Ramage, winner of the Lake of Menteith Boat League managed 15 fish on a similar but I would have to say slimmer but still Orange Daddy. The fish clearly were more inclined to take a smaller mouthful.
For my part, I did try a variety of other dry patterns, from Emergers of various types to other daddy patterns. One or two seemed to get the interest of the fish but they seemed even less likely to take them, then when I did eventually return to the Orange foam daddy, interest ramped up once more.
Over the day I hooked 5 fish, three rainbows that I got to the net, though one I was lucky to get netted when my dropper got tangled in the net, my boat partner Jim was able to assist. I was able to pay him back in kind when he had exactly the same issue himself later on!
Lost Fish
One small Brown came off literally as I was about to get it to hand, so saved me the bother, and one rainbow I hooked right by the boat mooring pier late in the day in front of a couple of spectators, (one, Jimmy who runs the fishery), went off like a train directly away from me and managed to slip the hook. When they go off directly straight out like that it is so hard to keep the hook hold.
The weather was never worse than mild and grey with a gentle breeze and it was easily the most perfect conditions for fishing on a loch I have experienced all year. Only around 4 pm after an hour of very warm sunshine did the sky darken over and we decided to head for the mooring just as the heavens opened above us.
Even for the anglers that blanked, and there were a couple I believe, it was a fun day as there were so many fish looking up in the east basin area, go too far down the loch and the offers dried up but within 100-150 metres of the dam wall, you wouldn’t be short of interest. Great fun.
On a side note
I did actually venture out for a few hours on Friday evening heading down the River Carron. I decided in my infinite wisdom to visit the very bottom section of the river where I went right at the start of the year by the Swing Bridge. It was warm and the river looked OK if a bit coloured. There wasn’t a soul about, until I was tackled up and as I headed to the river, two dogwalkers arrived right ahead of me and put their dog in right where I was going to fish, but that wasn’t the worst of it as two other folk arrived from somewhere and put 8, yes EIGHT dogs in as well. I ended up exploring some water that I wasn’t sure was accessible and did get two small fish on dries and rose a few more but it wasn’t the sort of water I was keen to fish, slow and sluggish. Rather than pack in early I went up to Larbert Viaduct where I was going to fish a run, got distracted by a rising fish that didn’t come for my dry and by the time I was going to move on, could see other anglers in the spot I had planned…..game over- I headed home.
