Another sunny warm day, and while I was far from feeling fit as a fiddle, I wanted to be out so much, so decided to trundle up to the club water again for an hour or so. I expected it to be busy again but on arriving there were two cars and both belonged to a couple, one of whom was a member and to be honest I don’t think they were doing much proper fishing. However there was a large group of “lads” there, not wee kids, this lot were in their late teens maybe even a few early 20’s amongst them.
They were diving into the water off the dam end boom, and had clearly been there a while. I wanders up onto the dam wall to see what was happening and realised I couldn’t see the boat at its “mooring”. Then I spotted it barely showing above the water, it was full of water and bobbing round near the boom.
The group of lads swimming at the boom
The lads clearly thought I was putting two and two together and one of them came over. He explained they had been swimming there all day, and that the boat was turned upside down when they arrived, they had turned it back upright and removed some of the water but couldn’t get the rest out. Apparently some other member had been up earlier and said he was “some sort of club security person” and that he said it was OK for them to swim. I queried the definition and said- do you mean bailiff? They replied in the affirmative. All adult club members are technically bailiffs I think, as it allows them to remove people not holding permits etc. ( I have no idea of the legalities etc but notice a member card says “Member Bailiff card” on it.)
As it was late evening and getting cooler I did not think it was likely they could swim much longer anyway and having clearly been there for hours I said to them that they weren’t actually allowed to swim, but if they cleared up their rubbish, remove the empty cans floating in the water they could carry on but stay away from where any anglers were fishing. Maybe this was wrong but me against 7-8 big lads and me in my condition wasn’t going to have much clout. The police could have been called but were they breaking any law- no idea?
While I moved someone else appeared in a wet suit and started swimming lengths of the loch- no idea where from , I don’t think he was with the youths.
I went up the north bank to fish though nothing was showing. The lads splashed around a wee while longer but predictably it cooled and they all got out and were being quite rowdy, but were just sitting round at the boom.
The fish started showing once they were out the water, but the fish that showed were somewhat scattered and irregular, and never where I was. I tried a number of dries and it wasn’t until I tried a PT Klink that a fish rose to my fly. The fish that were showing were doing splashy rises, but this fish took my fly so subtly that I really struggled to spot it and I was a bit slow to respond, I lifted but probably not fast enough, the fish was on but it wasn’t well hooked and it soon got off. It didn’t seem that big. I tried a handful of other flies but never got any more interest, and it went flat calm by now so it was going to be tough, though there were millions of flies coming off the water and caenis everywhere.
The newly refurbished boat, not sure how it casme to be here, but its full of water and appears to be held fast by the anchor which I think is jammed on the dam wall.
The lads had left and it was getting quite cool, and to be honest I was feeling it a bit sore so went back to the car. I wanted to have a look at the boat and the other angler who was there with a partner, said to me he didn’t think the boat had been moved by the lads as it was lying upside down before they arrived.
Some of the rubbish left by these yobs, more was scattered down the embankment and boxes and bottles were dumped on the track to the road. I lifted it all and disposed of it.
I went to look and it was then I seen the pile of rubbish these arseholes had left behind them, there were bottles, cans, boxes, sandwich packets etc everywhere. They even left a poly bag- why can’t they clear up and take their crap with them? I ended up clearing all the trash up but it really makes me angry, a German chap came up as I was doing it, and thanked me for clearing up. He was telling me a few weeks previous he found a tent set up on the south bank that had been abandoned, and left literally full of trash, that he too had cleared. He then went for a swim!
What is wrong with these people?
It’s widespread Kenny. I see it in some of our picnic places near me. Youngsters will happily lug heavy bags of food and drinks but can’t be bothered carrying the light empty containers away.