This year, I don’t think I have had my waders on, on any of my outings ( unless you count a couple of outings for Grayling pre season). The time to get them on and the benefits v the amount of time I have been able to spend actually fishing wasn’t worth it. However I went out yesterday and I decided to get them on. The sky was fairly overcast, and it was cooler than of late, with a slightly South easterly breeze. This direction of wind is conducive to fishing the weedy east bank of the loch an area I really like when out on a boat up at Pendreich. But the situation with the boat has meant I haven’t wet a line over there this season at all.

I tackled up with the 4 weight and made my way somewhat gingerly over the rough ground and got into position. There is a wide area of fringing lily pads and tangled weed in front of the angler when over here. I sometimes fish a heavier rod so I can more easily lift the line before flies get snagged in this weed, usually resulting in a broken tippet as they are tough wiry plants that give little. Having made my way into position and not having seen a fish move as I made my way up here, I could see a couple of swirls on the edge of the weed indicating there were fish looking up here. I somewhat unthinkingly, had put two flies on my cast, a “heather fly” type hopper and an olive hopper, I had literally tied before I left the house as an experiment. A single fly set up would have been wiser really.

My first dozen or so casts went untouched. I tried casting to my right over where I seen a fish move and as the fly became waterlogged as I slowly retrieved it there was a short but unmistakable snatch at the fly. Interest. I tried again and this time there was a swirl at the fly but it didn’t take. I kept the slow twitchy retrieve going and it never came again.

A few more casts around in front of me then having rested the spot I tried on the right again. A beautiful head and tail rise and my fly was taken. I was somewhat fortunate, the fish took the olive hopper and then must have become ensnared in the tippet section to the point fly, as it was unable to put up much of a fight and I was able to get it in over the weeds very quickly. Unhooking it was a ‘mare as it had tons of energy and was well wrapped in my fluorocarbon leader. A fish around the two-pound mark with a very shovel like tail and lovely gold colouration. The Olive hopper was mangled, the hackle had been pretty well torn off by the fishes teeth, as the hook had been well taken into the mouth of the trout. After returning the fish I decided to chop off the point fly and try the dried off olive hopper, it looked more like a nymph now, there being no hackle left worthy of such a description.

A Brown Trout

A cracker of a Brown taken on a dry ( Safely returned) Look at the tail on it!

It is quite hard fishing over the weeds like this and as no more fish showed I decided to make a move to the North bank and fish the margins near the weeds. Nothing showed here at all and I decided to change flies to a wet daddy on point and an olive snatcher. This got me some attention and I was getting a lot of plucks and pulls but the fish were proving to be fairly non commital. The wind by now had slackened right off and at times the loch was glassy smooth. I tried a few beaded daddy patterns too to try get the flies down a bit more but this never got me any attention more than previously and by now the rain was on fairly steadily for periods. Up this top corner you do tend to catch on weeds and things a lot and I was getting a bit weary of this by now so decided to had down to fish around the dam wall. I had seen some fish move there. The water was by now mirror flat and trying to lose your leader  was hard I never had any more offers and with the rain starting to come down very hard I decided it was time to call it a day. Not a blank!