Fishing The Fly Scotland Forum

ecoman

A slow season for 2014
« on: 12/04/2015 at 16:56 »
Here on the N.West, last year, I was seriously beginning to wonder if trout were on the decline. On most outings where conditions were favourable there was no response, then there were the days which brought bright skies and cold winds from the N. West, alleviated by the still days when hordes of midges made up for lost time and drove be in double-time back to the car before I reached the loch - which still didn't have a single dimple on it's surface.
The midges were clever - they allowed you time to almost reach the water before reaching their full, blood-sucking velocity, filling every available orifice, and wearing the midge jacket created a pot-roast heat of misted glasses and sweat.

Well I thought I might have 'cracked-it' when I asked a friend over from Skye who is a dab hand with a trout rod.  I was - and still am comfident of his ability, and this visit would prove that the trout did in fact still exist and that the onus was on me.

You know what it's like when you ask a friend to fish or shoot - you set them out to the best places and look forward to enjoying their success.
AYE !  Murphy's law says otherwise.

So I sent my friend round to the best side of the loch where there was a nice wee wave on the water, and then set myself up to keep an eye on him whilst I passed the time by throwing a line out over a shallow area on my side of the loch - the side which was never bothered-with because it is so shallow for a long way out and it peters out into reed beds a bit further along.
I had brought a new Gordon 2 ten footer rated at #5 and this was a nice opportunity to put it through it's paces as the bank I was on was fairly sheltered and the loch like a millpond.
I had experimented with lines on the grass outside our house and found that as-well-as the weight forward #5 floater, this rod enjoyed a #6 double taper.  Both lines had been bought from Mike last year and I decided to use the double taper on this occasion.
My flies were one of my versions of a cross between a Wickhams fancy and a little Red Sedge on the dropper, and a scrubby March Brown on the tail.

So, like Marty Feldman with one eye on my friend and the other on the water some thiert feet away, I was drawing the line in inches through the rings when I saw the line tip firmly move out towards the loch centre.  I lifted the rod tip and tightened and the fun began.

About quarter of an hour later I repeated this from another little point about fifty yards nearer the reeds, and then came to a halt because the time was moving on and there were snagging weeds under the surface.
My friend had caught nothing, but during the course of the afternoon we had noticed and discussed in 'quiet' calls across the water, the various points of nature which we had observed, including damsel and dragon flies, one of which had landed on his hand.

And that sums up my sole catch for last season.  Not one of those annoying six-inchers which pester the flies, and not a pluck apart from that one day.
I hope that this does not send a message fr the future or I'll be walking about looking like Ricky Fulton delivering his New Year message as the Rev I.M. Jolly.
I'll try to send another message with pictures of the trout and the fly.  The last joint effort of story and images I posted got tangled up in a server error and got lost.   :z10

 




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