Perfect Timing

Last night was the night I had booked for the outing to Glensherup for myself and winner of the 100,000 visits draw I had a few months back to celebrate 100,000 page views on the unfamousfly.co.uk. I had booked an evening session and you hope you get reasonable weather for the outing, especially booking a wee while in advance. As Friday progressed it grew warmer and brighter and by mid afternoon it was clear, that in weather terms at least, we had nailed it! Perfect Timing.

We arrived at Glensherup around 16:00 and as we drove into the car park, I noticed a couple of cars that seemed like ones that had been there the last time I fished here. To cut a long story short two of the three boats that were out, were the same anglers that were there last time. One of the guys was kindly taking the permit money for the fishery as a favour,having been there fishing all day.

He told us it had been fishing quite well, there were plenty fish but that the bright sun had switched them off a bit as it had cleared over the afternoon and he thought it might be a little tricky to catch , at least while the sun was out. Not to worry we had until whenever we liked really so the sun wouldn’t be around all night!

With my excessive quantity of gear on the boat ( boat box, boat seta, Outboard, battery, rod, spare rod ( in its tube) and jacket, and Ron’s stuff on too, we were finally ready to go and decided to head over to the far bank as we had seen a few fish moving there about 10 yards out from the side. I set up with a washing line of  Yellow Booby on point, a Coulter midge and a yellow and red cruncher ( that had worked last time I was here) and Ron was I think on something similar with a FAB on point.

Ron got a couple of knocks but I had nothing. I decided I wasn’t happy with the washing line on a floating line, so swapped to a sink tip, this would let the flies fish at slightly different levels with the booby holding everything up.

Guest of the day, Ron at Glensherup

I had not long cast out when I noticed the boat was drifting in to the bank a little making Ron’s casting a bit restricted so I quickly moved to reverse the boat a little out from the bank. In the moment of inattentiveness there was a hard bang on my line and I lifted to find I had a Rainbow hooked. The fight was pretty hard for a fish of about 2lbs but it was eventually netted but had made a total rats nest of my leader. It had taken the top dropper cruncher

I was planning on taking a few fish as we have our friend Boston the Boxer to stay this weekend so the fish was despatched and then I realised I didn’t have anything to put it in, as I don’t bother with a bass bag not usually taking fish. I rigged up a loop of 15lb fluorocarbon and hung the fish over the side of the boat from one of the rowlocks.

The boat drifted on to the dam and I sorted out my line while Ron fished. We moved a wee bit further up the loch and drifted down again, again Ron and I both had a few cautious taps but nothing solid. After a wee stop in the pleasant sunshine for a bite to eat and observing it had gone quite quiet we decided to motor up and drift another section where there was a visible crease between flat and rippled water. Right enough a few fish moved here but we couldn’t tempt them onto our flies.

Ron fights a fish at Glensherup

We moved right up to the top and anchored the boat near the reeds and a few fish started to rise around us. It was all the encouragement I needed to swap to the dry flies but Ron stuck with a different team of flies fishing deeper, nymphs seemed a good idea here in the weeds as long as you weren’t snagging. My first dries on were a detached body Daddy Longlegs along with a Claret hopper but they never got any interest despite covering a few fish. Ron soon was into a fish on one of his flies while I was sorting out my set up and he too like me was taken in a moment of inattentiveness but it  stayed on and was soon netted after another hard fight. This 2lb fish too was taken and strung over the Rowloack with the first at the front side of the boat. We were both equal in the jammy stakes now!

I decided to swap to a black Bobs Bits and a tapered leader for better presentation.  I was oon fishing again and covered a rising fish and was soon met with a rise to my ‘Bits and had a very hard fight with what turned out to be a very, very nice Brown Trout. It was a bonnie fish and I really couldn’t say if it was wild or stocked, but it was about 2-2 and a half pounds. Certainly one of the bigger Browns I have caught. It had a  big head, a long slender body and tail like a shovel. During the fight it had nearly got under the fish hanging from the boat so I decided to move them to hanging over the rear rowlock where we also had the anchor looped.

A nice 2lb Brown trout taken on a Dry fly at Glensherup. Fish was returned.

With the Brownie unhooked and a quick pic it was returned, I don’t like taking Browns ( I am not a fan of taking any fish but if I have a use for them I will take rainbows but only take Browns where they can’t go back for whatever reason). Unfortunately it wasn’t the best return, it kicked from my hand as I wentt o support it then looked to loll a bit into the deeper water. We could see it under the boat and Ron was able to reach it with the net, we thought if we could net it maybe we could recover it, but it was having none of it and eventually swum off fairly strongly, so was probably OK, just needing to get its breath back after the epic fight.

More fish were rising and very soon, with the sun behind the hills now and it getting cooler, I was into another fish on the ‘Bits. This one was ridiculously strong and took about 10 yards of line as it shot out into the loch,. all I could really do was apply some pressure and turn up the drag on my reel, The fight went on for ages, and it became a battle of wills over who was going to tire first, me or the fish. Two or three times as it got near the boat it turned tail and run. We had seen glimpses and it looked a deeper fish than the others and we both reckoned it had to be around 3lbs. However when it was eventually netted and weighed it was actually only 2lb 4oz which surprised us both, it looked bigger. ( Even when I gutted it it was considerably bigger than the others as I maaged to get three  steaks out it rather than two from the rest!). It was around here I discovered Ron had never fished with dries before and I managed to get him to overcome his slight reluctance and give it a go. I don’t know if it was a good move or not but he had said he was spending more time watching my fly than his own fishing, so it seemed like a good idea to give it a go. I think he had one offer that maybe didn’t connect, and  by then we noticed there were loads of fish rising further down the loch so decided to head down to cover them. This was when disaster struck, we went to move the boat and lifted the anchor line to release it forgetting about the three fish strung from loops of nylon over the same Rowlock, they all fell into the water adrift! Lucky it wasnt to deep and I had a long handled net, we were able to scoop up two of the fish and nearly got the third but it got a bit lost in the silt we dragged up recovering the first two. So unfortunately we lost one of our fish. I lost a fish here when my fish net bag burst last time I fished here too! How weird is that, it’s the only place its ever happened to me.

There were fish rising everywhere, but it soon became evident that they looked to be taking something very small, there were lots of very small midges on the water, and it was by now glassy flat calm as the wind had dropped.

Ron made the wise decision to swap to a small Klinkhammer and he managed to rise a fish, but I think was looking away as it took him. How do the fish know when you aren’t watching!?

I too gave the black klink a go and managed to miss a fish too in a moment of inattentiveness blethering to Ron! We were covering fish all around and getting little interest. I tried very small flies and a few others but had nothing take me. As light faded it was on with my last go, a shipmans buzzer. These can be very effective but are a nightmare to see on the water. There was by now a bit of a ripple again, and I noticed the ripple increase in tempo near my fly , I lifted and felt a fish, the rod bent and it was on for a second, then it came free, maybe I was a second slow, maybe it was the barbless hook. Lets blame the hook as a bad workman always blames his tools!

By now it was pretty dim and the rises slowed, we decided to call it a night. I love this fishery it really is a great location to fish and we had it to ourselves. I even managed a fairly long session without feeling overly sore , the first time in a very long time, altogether it was perfect! Thanks to Ron for an enjoyable nights fishing and putting the world to rights.  Great fun!