or

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The….Net

The Summer Doldrums

July is never the best month for fishing, and the current humid, close conditions don’t add to the enthusiasm to get out much. You look out the window and it’s dull and grey, threatening (heavy) rain yet the temperature is around 20 degrees. Even with a light fishing shell jacket on you soon feel like you are wrapped and polythene and it gets sweaty.

I decided to take a run up to the water at Bridge of Allan yesterday to fill my afternoon not having been up there for a while. I wasn’t sure what it would be like. As it was so still and humid at home I was expecting it to be flat calm and maybe threatening thunderstorms. I don’t suppose being at the top of a hill is ideal if thunder arrives. Anyway, who dares wins they say.

A Spot of Maintenance

I wasn’t in a huge rush and the access track looks to be getting a bit overgrown, so having brought some hand croppers with me I set about cutting back the brambles and over-growing tree branches to cut a path to the loch again that a car could reasonably pass without ripping half its paintwork off. By the time I reached the gate, it had taken me the better part of three-quarters of an hour of hacking and stamping back the bushes.

I looked over the dam wall and was surprised to see that far from flat-calm, there was quite a wave. I seemed to be alone so got the 5 weight out and got tackled up. Though I had my old waders with me and put them on in case I needed to get my feet wet around the margins, I had forgotten some of the lads had put the old boat back on the water a few weeks back and it was moored at the side. I thought it might be worth taking it, as fish can be hard to find this time of year and it opens up the water a bit. So I got the oars and anchor, and all my tackle to the boat. It was then I realised there was another angler fishing up at the east end, the wind was coming in from the south-east so it was reasonable conditions for fishing up there.

As I was getting anchored up and ready to cast out my three fly team, the other angler moved round near to where I was with the boat.
My fly team was the same as my starting set up last weekend at Faughlin. The Foam Daddy on point, a Diawl Bach, and buzzer on the droppers. However, in the time I had been there I had not seen so much as a fish splash or move and the clouds were now clearing leaving it bright and sunny, with the loch itself noticeably brown and dark looking.

The other angler spoke to me from the bank, his name was Mark Anthony, no signs of Caesar or Cleopatra), and he told me that but for a couple of very hesitant pulls he hadn’t had any fish in three hours fishing. Though I gave my flies a fish for 5 minutes I was already resolved to fish a bit deeper. I only had a floater and a full intermediate with me and decided to put a beaded fly on point, a small variant of the Christmas Tree Decoration.

Immediate Success

Within a couple of casts I had a fairly gentle pull and after a fight with the fish which stayed deep the whole time, was able to net probably the biggest fish I have had up there this season so far. A brownie of comfortably 2 lb’s. After it swam off I cast out again and almost immediately had a much firmer pull that did not stick.

Then a Funny Thing Happened…

Another cast and this time a fairly hesitant pull that I wasn’t really sure was connected to a fish, though I tightened in all the same and yes, a fish was on. This was where things were very odd- certainly, I haven’t seen anything like this before. So the fish was out on quite a long line and I was pulling it in by hand, it was not as big a Brown Trout as the first.

Maybe about six metres from the boat with no particular reason the hook came free, I think the fly must have literally nipped the fish in the tip of the mouth. It was mouth hooked as I could see it, being head up as I retrieved, but wasn’t well gripped obviously- it was a very gentle take.

Usually, a fish comes free and that is the last you see of it, there is a splash or swirl and that’s game over. But not this time….

The fish came free but immediately went belly up and was floating pectoral and pelvic fins pointing at the sky, and it appeared to be coming towards me, slowly, but definitely getting closer. Do fish do the Back-stroke?

It was totally bizarre. Had it come another 2 metres closer I could have reached out with my net and scooped it out, but suddenly it appeared to snap out whatever catatonic state it was in and there was, finally a splash and swirl and it dived for the depths.

I had a few more plucks and decided to put on the Intermediate line and see if holding the flies at the fishes depth would help but it was much the same. I did hook one more fish I would guess on the bottom as it struck after I let the fly and line sink right down but again on the way in it simply went slack.

A Last Move

Moving the boat to another area and covering a couple of very scarce moving fish I had one rather lackadaisical follow and one slight pull but it really went very quiet, not sure whether the bright sunshine, the humidity/ pressure, the wind changing ( swinging round from South East to North East, or the fish just switched off). But basically all activity stopped so I decided to call it a day, I was only out a few hours but it was a very pleasant say to be on the water.