I said to my wife at the start of the week “this week I am going to try get out and wet a line some evening”. Finally having near enough completed the garden makeover project I felt I could take an evening off shifting wheelbarrows of stones, earth, grass or materials, and just chill by the water. Could I have picked a worse week or month? The weather has been truly dreadful through August ( and July as well really) but this week has defied the forecasts even. While rain was predicted the assurances about when it might stop have been so far wide of the mark as to be “almost” laughable if it didn’t want to make you feel like crying!
Yesterday it rained and rained (despite it being forecast to be a “fairly decent day with some showers”). It got to half two in the afternoon and finally looked to be stopping, the sky nearly brightened for a moment and I even ventured out the back garden to check something and yes there was actually a hint of a little heat in the air, then within minutes the rain was back, not just drizzle but hammering down. It did finally relent around tea time and while the enthusiasm to venture out had kind of abated a little I decided to give it a go.
It seemed though that fate was against me or at least doing its best to oppose me. Every obstacle that might have been placed between me and getting up to Cocksburn in a timely fashion was put in the way. At the fire station, there was a red light, as a fire engine was called out….that happens at most once a year to me, then the lights at Sainsbury’s was red, then at Cornton, then there were groups on the route up the hill to the loch then there were more on the forest track to the water’s edge. It must have taken me 30 minutes to make what is usually a 15-20 minute trip. I also I guess hadn’t realised how early sunset was getting to be now either. With working until it got dark in the garden recently I was calling it a day around 9 pm and that was only because it was grey grim and the light got poor. Had it been brighter clearer skies I reckoned another 30 minutes was feasible. So I suppose I had it in my head that the sun was going down around 9 pm, when in fact it sets at half-past eight.
The only thing I suppose I was glad about was I never bothered taking my waders with me, otherwise by the time I was in them I might not have even picked up my rod until about 8pm. I wandered up the dam wall and there were a few fish showing here and there so I started out with my three fly cast of a Foam daddy on point, a wee black spider on the dropper and a Kate McLaren on the top dropper- you might say I was covering all bases! Nothing showed any interest but I stuck with this for a good 20 minutes until a couple of rain showers blew through and seemed to put the fish down. it went very quiet so I wandered up the north bank. There were angler son the south bank and the east side so I was just staying clear of them really.
Nothing showed at all in the time I was here but the sky went through some amazing hues of orange and red as the unsettled clouds caught the last of the light of the day….more red light. It was getting on for half eight by now and with nothing happening I decided to head back towards the car and if the light show continued above, thought I might send the drone up to get a few late evening pictures, however by the time I got back to the dam wall, all the colour had gone and the sky was back to a grey blandness we seem to be afflicted with this “summer”.
I decided to have a few more casts along the wall where I spotted another riser here and there. By now I had nipped off my middle dropper and only had a small black emerger on point and a small sedge pattern on dropper- I have to note I seen very little insect life at all, all evening.
A fish moved right at the crook in the dam wall beyond the boom, a couple of times so I slowly wandered up there and made a cast right at the spot, nothing, but then it rose ( or another fish rose) just behind me so I simply rolled the line 180 degrees delivering the point fly right where the fish had swirled about 2 feet out from the dam wall.
The take was quite gentle, I barely saw it but I knew something had shown interest and just lifted steadily into a fine Brown Trout. It took a minute to subdue but made no leaps or runs and I was able to get it on the reel fairly quickly, though getting it to the net down the dam wall was a bit tricky. it was a solid 2lb fish and look at the size of that tail? What a rudder it had on it. It had taken the black emerger and easily unhooked took a moment to collect its wits and swam off down the wall. A fine last cast.
