It’s almost become a custom for some reason for me to fish at Orchill at or around my birthday so I saw no reason for this year to be any different and headed there this morning a for a wee 4 hour session. It was fairly mild, a little cooler up there but certainly not freezing. Though there as a bit of a blustery wind that had a bit of a bite to it occasionally. I set up with a two fly cast and started to fish at the platform right beside the lodge. Mainly because there didn’t look to be many other places to go, it was so busy. Elizabeth told me before I started that the water had been hard frozen for a week until today and there had been several inches of snow too. It had thawed over night so the water was quite coloured and very cold. However fish were moving near the top and there were fish “rising” regularly.
The red B47 variant
I soon discovered that this didn’t necessarily translate into fish taking or being caught. I think I saw one fish caught in the first hour. It was definitely slow going. After about an hour and a half the guy to my left hooked into a fish under an indicator. I was fishing buzzers and nymphs on a straight floating line and as he played his fish I detected the line gently tighten as I figure of 8 retrieved, I slowly lifted and yes there was indeed a fish on. It was an practically imperceptible take, I felt nothing at all. It had taken the point fly one of these red variant much vaunted “B47 nymphs” I tied recently. I have tried these “killer” flies quite a lot and this is my first fish- up to now I referred to it as the forty-fek-all! I guess that has to end 🙂 Maybe it’s now the “nearly forty fek all” .
Fish were rising a lot in the fashion that suggested they were chasing pin fry but they weren’t interested in my flashback Diawl Bach that usually works in those conditions and then I noticed quite a lot of wee midges coming off and swirls that suggested fish were having them too. Would it be daft to try a dry fly? Bugger it- I tied one on a wee size 18 split wing CDC. It was practically impossible to see but after maybe two casts as I watched it intently no more than 2 rod lengths out it vanished. There wasn’t even a puckering of the surface the take was so subtle. I lifted and the fish took off like a….. well, like a hooked fish! The fight lasted about 2 seconds then the line fell slack. I thought I had been broken off but no it was much more bizarre. The dressing was still on my line. Only the hook had snapped in the trout’s mouth- in fairness it was a tiny hook meant for river fishing not big daft rainbows. But great fun anyway! A take to a dry on the 23rd January in Scotland.
I tried a few other more robust dry patterns for a while but the fish were wary of them and I could see some swim off when they seen it so looked like it had to be tiny if they were to take one. It then went very quiet for ages and a few anglers drifted away so a few spaces opened up along the bank to my left- time for a move. After an initial ten minutes my leader got in a tangle and I couldn’t really be bothered tying up a full new one- I was on 3 flies by now. I decided just to tie on a Montana nymph on the point and try that, not a favourite fly but one which did the damage almost 4 years to the day. Almost right away I had a pull, then a wee while later another. Eventually – nearing the end of my 4 hours there was a pluck and my second fish came to the net after something of an acrobatic spectacular. A fish getting on for 3lb I would guess.
It got colder and more grey as the afternoon moved on
My second Rainbow of the day on a Montana I reckon about 3lb or thereabouts.
So the title…. “The sigh”, what’s that about? Well just before my second and last fish, the far bank had emptied out and a couple of new anglers came along. There were maybe 6 or 7 on my side and no one had seen a fish move or had a take for the best part of an hour. It was very slow going. One of the “new guys” pulled out his line from the reel and cast out his first fly on the water. It wasn’t there more than a few seconds when he was into a fish! You could hear the collective sigh right along my bank where no one had touched a thing in ages. It was really quite funny. So a hard session but welcome sport in a week when the rain has once again put paid to many rivers.
Can I ask how you tie your flashback dawl Bach? Kind regards Matt cairns.
Hi Matt
When you tie the bed of thread down on the hook tie in the tail fibres then the wire, then a length of pearl mylar then finally the herl. bring your thread back to near the eye of the hook wind up the herl and tie it off. Now as you bring the wire rib up the hook ( in the opposite direction to the herl ) With each wrap trap the pearl mylar under the wire all the way to the eye of the hook. Gives you a nice ribbed flashback. you can use this same technique on many other patterns- I use it on a lot of river patterns.( Arguably a Diawl Bach is a river pattern- thats just become popular on still water.) Does that make sense?