Being kind of restricted with travelling as I am just now, not having a car of my own, I borrowed the wife’s wee motor and went round to Swanswater for a few hours on a pleasant afternoon, yesterday. It was only moderately busy, with I would reckon, more anglers on the two small ponds than the main water. I opted for a 4 hour ticket up on Swanswater itself and as I was tackling up I bumped into Jim Craig who was also just arriving. He hung about while I tackled up and we ventured up to the loch. As we decided where to fish I then also bumped into Will Gregory from SCAC who had been fishing for about 30 minutes already. He was “On Fire” as he had had two fish in his first 30 mins, we seen him release his second as we walked up the side to fish.

There were plenty fish moving and he said he had had both to red holo Diawl Bachs just sub surface. Both Jim and myself had opted for dries as openers, he was on a wee CDC loop wing sedge, I was on a Quill Emerger.

After about 20 minutes I hadn’t had so much as a look casting from beside the bridge to the island. Jim was over by the boat house and Will was between us. His takes had dried up too. I switched onto a single flashback Diawl Bach, then various holo coloured ones, a variety of smaller nymph patterns and weights, from flies that would fish sub surface to those that were touching bottom. I couldn’t use the excuse that there were no fish, sometimes  you could clearly see them as they cruised in front, and  they would occasionally have a look at your flies but no more. It wasn’t like any where else was catching either, you would get the odd flurry of activity as maybe someone in a boat got a fish followed by someone up the bank, then it would go quiet again but for loads of rises. After a couple of hours I was a bit sore and realised probably a 4 hour ticket was too much and decided to take a break. I realised I had left my phone in the car so went back to get it.