I went up to Pendriech tonight for a very short but as it turned out productive session. It was a beautiful evening and the loch was flat calm with one angler out on the glassy surface on a float tube. The odd fish was rising but what was apparent from the second I got out the car was the amount of sedge around. I tied on a wee F Fly (only because it was the first sedge like pattern that came to hand out the box).
Second fish was quite a long fish
First fish of the night going back, first cast
As I made my way up the North bank a fish rose literally right beside the moored boat. I was readying to cast to it when another ( or maybe the same fish) rose between me and the barrels that float out from the boat mooring. It was an easier cast as I was able to get a wee bit line out so I made this further fish my first target. The fly landed right where the fish had risen and I waited. There was the merest pucker in the surface film at the fly, I lifted and was in. The fish felt like a decent one and was soon taking line which made getting it on the reel easy and after a minute or so fight, I had it in the net, a nice Brownie of probably a pound and a quarter to a pound and a half.
With the fly removed and the fish well rested, it swam off and I set to tidying up the wee F Fly and de-slimeing it. A fish rose beyond the boats towards the nearby weed bed. , and again, so I decided to target this one now. With the fly clean I cast and again the fly landed on target and I waited. Once again the merest pucker of the water at the surface and the fish simply swum off with the fly. I lifted and the fish continued to swim away , I don’t think it even knew it was hooked , it was swimming with its tail and dorsal fins exposed on the surface and a good-sized fish, maybe a 2lb’er. Only when I really started tightening in to bring it in did it suddenly wake up. It was off… heading towards the barrels. At this stage I am not sure what happened, my suspicion was it headed round the chain that holds the barrels to the bottom, I couldn’t hold it back so had to let it run but then the line simply came loose and the fly was gone with the last 100mm of tippet slightly abraded and stretched looking. On with another F Fly, I cast a few more times before a fish rose again in casting range and again I covered it landing the fly close by.
Second fish netted fish fifth cast- lit by the setting sun
Again in the way I was becoming accustomed to the surface rippled under the fly and number 3 was on. Another great fight, this was a long fish that I suspect if fully fed would have been a 2lb’er but was fairly lean and I reckon was not more than 1 and a 1/2 but a nice Brown Trout all the same.
After this despite waiting I never seen a fish rise anywhere near me, though a few moved near the dam wall. The sun was already setting- aren’t nights drawing in now? I moved there but then it went almost utterly quiet, and but for a couple of very speculative casts in the vicinity of fish that rose well out from the wall, I was pretty sure that with the midges starting to bite, I might as well call it a night. Only about 80 minutes but lots of sport.
