The season started today ( Tight-lines, by the way, hope you have a good season….though everything seems somewhat surreal just now), and as I have spent quite a lot of time up at Cocksburn Reservoir over the last couple of weeks, trying to get the boats ready for the new season and a functional mooring to tie them up on securely, I felt that I should head there for my first opportunity to wet a line this year…Time t get some recreational time there not just rubbing down, painting and doing other tasks ( I did also have a few minor tasks to take care of funnily enough anyway!). Usually, I visit the River Carron, and though frankly I never looked into how fishable it was today, I heard through the interwebs this evening, that it was up and a bit coloured anyway.
As you might expect it is kind of hard not to give the current Corona Virus situation a mention. One of the advantages of angling, at this time, you would think, is the ability to get away from everyone else. Little danger of picking up bugs from others. OK you do bump into other anglers and often chew the fat but keep you distance, don’t shake hands, share sandwiches or cough on each other and you should be fine. Cocksburn is usually quiet at the best of times, it is rare to encounter another angler there. Today I expected it to be a little busier, as a number of members had commented online they wanted to fish opening day ( it being a Sunday too) and indeed over the course of the time I was up, there must have been 5 anglers there, and there had been another two-out earlier). But that was fine.
What I was totally unprepared for was dog walkers. Now as I am sure to have mentioned in many blogs previously, the wee loch can be a bit of a magnet for dog walkers at times and they have been the subject of some heated conversations where they ignorantly put their dogs in the water without consideration for the fee-paying anglers who have a right to use the water.
Usually, at any one time you might see one or two walkers around the water especially on a nicer day. Today while not the worst by any means wasn’t that fantastic. At this time of year, you see the “odd” walker, and often they are themselves members and just having a wee look at conditions.
Not today though, I have literally never seen so many people up there. People are being advised to avoid crowds and to adopt social distancing to avoid passing on the virus. But there were so many dog walkers, and then they are bumping into other dog walkers so they stop to clap each other’s dogs and discuss what’s going on it makes a bit of a mockery of the whole situation. With a group blocking the path, another lot coming along then has to squeeze past, or they come by you fishing on the bank at close proximity.
Frankly Stirling City Centre or a supermarket full of swivel-eyed, bog roll hoarders made more sense than the grounds around Pendreich forest if you wanted to “isolate” yourself.
The fishing, how was it? As you might expect, the water is cold ( probably not as cold as it can be at this time of year) and I never witnessed a fish move, felt a knock nor saw anyone else catch. The returns book was a big fat zero when I looked at leaving time.
The fish that are still there ( if they haven’t been hoovered up by the Cormorant that seems to be in residence just now) will be hunkered down in the dark on the bottom and are probably fairly lethargic. I did see some flies come off in the shelter of the dam wall. it was though very blustery and casting was a bit wild. Had the wind dropped I suspect it might have been a reasonably pleasant day but it didn’t.
So I gave it a fairly half-hearted “fish” with initially a floating line, then an intermediate, off the dam wall- the wind was coming off that end so it was about the easiest to fish from. “Nada”, not a touch and after completing the few chores I had left myself I headed for home. Opening day done, in amongst the infected masses!
