The chill Easterly wind that seems to have blighted our otherwise dry spell for what feels like an age, does nothing to motivate you to get out fishing. But Sunday dawned, if not as bright as forecast ( by some sources) milder than it has been of late. Tied to a pager once again, these on-call events appear to be coming around ever more frequently these days with continual headcount reductions at work, I couldn’t venture far and I wasn’t paying for a ticket just to be called away; so I decided, and not before time really, to take the short drive up to Loch Coulter for the first time this season.
While it is not far from and should be a more frequent venue for me, it does suffer from the disadvantage of being somewhat exposed to the wind and also is better fished from a boat. The boat situation while pretty well organised can be a bit of a time-consuming faff and so I can only justify taking a boat out if I know I have maybe 4 hours to fish otherwise the time getting ready and the reverse on the way back in eats too deeply into the outing. But nonetheless, I trotted off up there hopeful of an improving weather outlook as the day progressed and maybe, just maybe some top of the water sport from the bank.
I remembered ( for once) to put my Snowbee XS distance line in my tackle bag, as fishing from the bank you always seem to need that extra few feet and every little tackle aid helps. I don’t find it to be the most delicate line, so it isn’t great for dry fly, especially where you want a nice presentation, but for chucking a team of wets out into a bit of a wave from the bank, it’s generally fine.
While it was not so warm up at Coulter and it was noticeably windier than maybe I expected, it was initially at least, not unpleasant and I decided to take a walk around the loch and fish the bay that opposes the boathouse. It is a bit of a favourite spot for me as the wading is easy, as it slopes off gently on a fairly firm bottom, allowing a good reach out across the water. As the bay develops it gets weedier and isn’t so deep, and fish often loiter in the cover of the weeds. Ideal for a floating line, anything else can be a bit of a snag fest though. While there is a nice bay just along from the boathouse with the wind right behind you ( on this day) it has quite a rocky bottom and wading is a bit more problematic.
While I was getting ready to depart from the car parking area another angler came ashore having finished for the day. He told me he had had two or three fish but that it had been “hard work” and they were not for taking off the top, just subsurface. Then, as I made my way around the dam end, I spoke with another couple of anglers out in a boat near the weeds at the shallow end of the dam wall and they said that between the two of them they had netted five, but again that it had been hard work and they were getting no reaction to dries even though the odd fish was showing on top here and there.
Walking down the southern bank it was getting warmer and warmer and brighter, and there were clouds of dangly legged Hawthorne flies, so I was getting hopeful I might be on for a nice afternoon. I had the bank to myself and set up with a small beaded lure on point just to keep the flies down in the water, and a Bibio Snatcher and a Heather Fly Snatcher on the droppers. The wind though was much stronger than I had anticipated, it was quite odd, ten metres back from the water’s edge you would barely have noticed it, but over the water it was pretty fierce. Casting into it was pretty much impossible so it was across and letting the flies swing around into the bay while I retrieved, varying from the figure of 8 to full-on big fast pulls.
I had been fishing for about 15 minutes when I got my first sharp tug, it didn’t stick, but I would say was definitely a Trout judging by the speed and force. Sticking with these flies I kept going thinking that at least they had evoked a reaction. While I fished there was a fish rose out in the bay a good 20 metres beyond my maximum casting range, and one in the weedy shallows not far from the bank but deeper into the bay where I planned to make my way into over time.
The wind was snarly and quite strong though and I got my flies in a bit of a mess more than once, I used the tangles as opportunities to swap them. While I have rarely had much success fishing buzzers for Brown trout ( reasons on a postcard please?) I gave them a swim to no effect, then I tried spiders and a nymph which did get me one more pull that I have to say may have resulted in a fish had my fingers not been so cold and as a result stiff. I was just too slow getting a hold of the line as the fish pulled.
Later on deeper in the bay with a small Yellow Dancer variant on the point I had a very gentle pull that without a doubt was a fish ( it wasn’t a snag) and I initially thought it was a wee perch, they can be an occupational hazard up at Coulter, especially near the weed beds. I cast a few more times then noticed something odd about that point fly so brought it in and it was literally shredded. I now suspect it may have been a Pike though the pull was not particularly savage but the fly didn’t rip itself to bits!
An opportunity to try to get the hang of my new Camera’s focussing system with these Geese in flight pics.
By now the wind and the cold were getting to me, I had stuck it out up this side a good couple of hours and it was getting colder and windier and I could take no more. it was no longer fun. So I headed back around the loch, again noting how the wind slackened once you got away from the water’s edge, you would barely believe the difference you could get in so few steps from the bankside.
On a total side note?
Look at the photo to the side here. To me, it looks very like a Danica Mayfly ( it seems to be a meal for a wee water Beetle as well when you look closely). This wasn’t at the Loch but in my Garden Pond. So what do you think? Mayfly or just something very similar?
Nearly back at the boathouse, I spoke to an angler in a boat just off from the pier and then realised it was my old pal Tommy. He was just having a wee drift up the dam side with a boat and though he too had seen the odd fish rise wasn’t having much luck. The water was calmer here and it was reasonably pleasant in the lee of the bank and in the hazy variable sun. He was seeing small black gnats on the water which I saw myself in small clouds around the shore rooted bushes. I also saw a few wee upwings come off and almost right away the Swifts or Swallows were in to pick them up from the surface, I decided to throw a few casts out and almost right away had another pull and then saw the fish swirl over my fly line and if I was a betting man would hazard a guess it had had a wee go at one of the droppers. But that was all it was, a pull, and nothing else offered itself up. After a blether with Tommy, it was time to hit the road for Sunday dinner, a better way to spend an on-call Sunday than being sat in the house waiting on the pager to go but a little disappointing nonetheless.
