Pass me the scissors

I was over at Swanswater a couple of hours last night as it seemed quite a nice (ish) evening but the hill behind Stirling looked to have a bit low cloud hanging on it and I reckoned it might be a bit wet and miserable up there. In any case the other half wanted me to bring a fish or two home, so that was the decision made. It was very quiet when I got there, only an Audi R8 ( really) was parked in the car park.

I often fish the small ponds at Swanswater in an evening, as I find a short session on the larger water often proves fruitless. First you need to locate the fish, then find what they want to take. That can be a big ask in two hours, especially if there are a few anglers about who might already have located the better spots and won’t move!

But tonight it was so quiet and Alastair said there had only been one angler out all day and he had been on the small ponds ( it had been quite wet), so the main loch hadn’t been fished. I decided to give it a go.

As I was gearing up another angler arrived who appeared to have a similar idea to me. He was ready faster and as I arrived at the side of the loch he was lifting into his first fish from the peg under the trees at the top end of the dam wall. I wasn’t sure where to start, but I stopped to ask the one other angler there at the near end of the dam, how it was going and he said he had had a couple of knocks and nothing more.

My somewhat straightened out buzzer after the encounter with a big fish and a tangled line

I set up initially with a small black ‘Bits on a tapered leader. As I passed the first big tree I spotted fish cruising and rising in the margins. Undoubtedly many were small wild fish but I seen one larger individual move from beneath the boughs of the tree.  I fan cast round in front of me and never caught anything though there was one wee flick at my fly from a small fish. I didn’t loiter and moved on round to whe e the Sauchie Burn enters. Often fish sit in the channel here and I decided to have a few speculative casts. A fish took the fly but it was a small wild Brownie about the length of your stretched out hand. I popped him back and decided to move round behind the island to “Nan’s peg”. There wasn’t much happening here though the water was clearer. I cast round in front of me and on one retreive with the fly just sub surface as I pulled it back there was a sharp tug on the fly but it didn’t stick. Encouraged I stuck at it another ten minutes here but apart from a few small fish nothing was really happening and I never touched anything else.

On the move again this time out onto the island and fishing into the channel. The little activity there was , was again just the wee wild fish. The water was distinctly murky here and I decided to change to a three fly cast of buzzer patterns, with a heavy small red buzzer on point to get the cast fishing through the different depths. The other two anglers were over the other side still near the dam wall and I never seen them catch anything while I fished. As I stopped to fix a snag in some weeds about nine o’clock, I seen my first definite indication of a bigger fish to the right of the island in the main basin. Edging round to be able to reach the spot I cast and immediately had a sharp bump. I retreived the flies to see if all was OK and it seemed so, there was no sign what got the interest.

Swanswater, looking back towards the burn entrance from Nan’s peg

I cast again and this time there was a very hard knock but it felt different. Again I recovered the flies and the leader had snapped above my middle dropper knot. I suspect a small “wind knot” or hitch in the tippet as the slightly heavy flies were continually wrapping round the leader in a bit of a strangling loop. Luckily I had a replacement hot spot buzzer and aanother red buzzer for the point and I was soon casting again. The activity had increased and a few bigger fish were now showing and all within reasonable casting range of me. hey wer emoving out between the boat moorings too in the middle.

With my flies sorted, about two cast was all it took and I had a fairly gentle take, I only lifted as I wasn’t 100% sure it was a take but gave it the benefit of the doubt, and there was a fish on. It fought well though it was only a 2lb rainbow. It had taken the point fly off the bottom, the red buzzer.

A lot more fish were showing on top so I decided to cover all bases, by replacing the top fly with a very small olive shuttlecock buzzer, replacing the middle with a very small red and black epoxy buzzer, and the point fly I changed for a slightly less heavy Apps style bloodworm. With this on I covered one of the rising fish, it came for the dry but it never connected. Whether the leader spooked it or got in the way I won’t ever know but I lifted and nothing happened!

Having checked everything was intact I cast again. After a few casts and a quick retreatment of the dry with the “dry shake” I continued to fish. The dry slowly dipped beneath the surface, was it a fish below? I lifted and it was. And what a fish. This wasn’t a 2 pounder. It took off like a speedboat across the water in front of me heading for the boat moorings. There was absolutely nothing I could do to stop it and I was happy to keep the tension on and hopefully get the fish on the reel where I could apply some steady drag to it. That was the plan, but plans rarely survive “first contact” as they say in the forces.  As I let the line slip through my fingers I became aware that the running section of my old floating line had acquired a very tight knot where it had obviously looped through itself at my feet. This line is a good few years old now and despite having despooled it a numb r of times and trying to stretch it or straighten it, it has a bad memory. It’s worst in winter when its cold however I have to say my casting has improved over the years despite my physical limitations and I have more line out when I fish now as I can often put significant lengths of running line out when I cast, it was the running section that had snarled up. If the loop went throuhg the rod rings with a fish on the end I would probably break my rod, I couldn’t let it go, nor could I spool it up onto my reel as the big loop would snag and tangle. All I could do was hope the fish didn’t go any further and hold on, hopefully playing it by hand. It slowed and stopped and I started to recover line on it, though not fast enough as it was heading back towards me, I kept the rod up and stripped in lengths of line. This was a big fish, I reckon 5-6 lbs anyway. It came in ot about 2-3 rod lengths from me and decided to run again, this time faster than before, and it was going further! No!!!!!!!

I could only try keep the rod up and stop the line going into the rod rings where the loop was, it was very tight and there was no way I could release it with one hand (in fact it took me 10 minutes of picking to get the knot out in the end). It was no good this wasn’t going to work, and the line went slack. I thought the leader had parted but on getting the flies back in they were all there just the middle buzzer was looking a bit like a pin rather than a hook, it was nearly straightened out!

Damn!

By the time I sorted the knot in the line out it was nearly finishing time and after a few casts I called it a day with my single fish. Good sport but tough luck!

The scissors are going through the old line today, no more tangles,  time for a new one, if you have any recommendations for a nice limp floater with no memory comment he e or on Facebook or Twitter, I am keen for opinions.  I have a Rio midge tip that very supple and I might go for a floating one of these but I did find they seem to be a weight “light” with my rods, the 7 weight line casts beautifully with my 6 weight rod but it was hopeless on my old 7 weight rod. Thoughts?