I really thought ( who me? Naive?) that with a reasonable amount of rainfall later on, on Sunday and a very distinct cooling of the air behind it, that I might just stand a chance of picking off a few fish up at Loch Coulter if I got out early enough. I usually try for at least one early start in the height of summer up there, though admittedly usually a bit nearer the Solstice. So, getting up before 6am and with my electric outboard and battery ready to go, bundled everything in the car and headed up there. It was a distinctly cool and still morning with a bit of a grey blanket of cloud, but dry.
Up at the loch there was a little bit more of a breeze (unsurprisingly) and wet-looking clouds hung on the surrounding hills looking towards Carron Valley and Earls Hill. I was the only angler out and took my time getting my gear loaded onto one fo the two boats moored on the pier. As I signed in I noticed that there had been an inter-club competition up the loch on Sunday and that not a lot had been caught. It looked like 7 anglers had caught 12 fish over the entire day. That strikes me as hard-going.
With the boat set up, I motored out just it seemed as the wind got up a bit and the slight ripple that had existed as I was loading turned into a bit more of a moderate wave. Not “rough” as such and the drift with the wind was not overly fast, the need for a drogue was at best marginal. The water was exceptionally low though so I spurned my initial thought of heading across to Burn Bay- that was probably going to be near unfishable from a boat given the depth, and headed to the eastern side to drift into the big bay at the northeast side of the loch.
The drift went fine but not a fish did I see so once nearer the north bank I gradually worked the boat along parallel to the bank and tried fishing back in towards it down the very distinct wind lanes. Nothing. As I motored back up the opposite side of the bay I passed what always look to me like a grassy patch and could not help notice it was quite settled in the lee of a small outcrop here so give it a few casts. I had my first pull. If I was asked to put money on it I would have to speculate it was “probably” a trout but about two casts later I hooked up a small Perch that came off the hook as I lifted it clear of the water. It saved me having to handle it…spiky wee devils.
Nothing else showed interest and so I motored back round in front of the boat house as a bit of a squall blew through bringing some light rain. I fished around the area of the pier, nothing then motored parallel with the dam wall into the bay and was shocked when about 15 metres out from the bank I grounded the prop on the outboard! It was that shallow!?
Fortunately no hard done- shear pins at the ready! I stopped as far up the bay as I dare go and changed my set-up to a team of buzzers as absolutely nothing had shown on the surface ( nor had I heard anything). I have to say, buzzers have never been particularly effective for my Brown Trout fishing, I know and hear of them working in places but for me I could count on less than the fingers of one hand how many Brownies I have snagged on a buzzer.
I decided to anchor my boat and fish an area statically with the buzzers as I felt I could fish them in a more controlled fashion rather than in a drifting boat. I was getting the odd small tug clearly Perch and managed to hook several more that again I was able to get off without handling. I would fish around the boat a couple of times then move about 20 metres all the way down to Poachers Point. It was much calmer now- the wind had dropped on the back of that rain passing through and there was the odd chink of sunlight managing to creep through though it had no real heat in it yet.
When all else fails I like to try some traditional wet flies, well, they have worked for dozens of years no reason why they should not work now. Manys a blank I have saved when fishing for Brown trout, using Trad Wets. I had a Wet Wickhams, a Butcher and a Pennel on. I also swapped to an intermediate line. I plumbed the depth and it seemed to be about 7 feet deep where I was sitting, so that was fine. I had one more good pull that may have been a Brown but given what else was happening was more probably an angry Perch and pulled a few more of these wee fish to the boat, to be unhooked. By 11 I had had enough and with my battery showing as flat ( I think its getting to be near the end of its usable life) I motored gingerly back to the pier, ready to take over with the oars if necessary, but I made it OK.
The early bird sometimes catches the worm…but not this time.
