A Wee Loch Revisited

Last Tuesday June 1st, I decided I’d had enough of no fishing for broonies and headed up to the wee loch on a pleasant summers evening around 7 p.m.



There were a few cars in the car park but not too many and there were a couple of anglers on the water. Last season I’d fished the loch a couple of times with a couple of total blanks and a night where we were plagued by perch but hey ho undeterred I was determined to get my first broonie of the season and preferably a wildy if any were about.

I tackled up in the clubhouse which had obviously been spring cleaned and opted for three flies I’d tied up over the winter.

The top dropper or bob hosted a size 10 claret dabbler, the middle dropper had a nice wee trout nymph apparently deadly according to Fishtales from the Wild Fishing Forum and an ombudsman on the point.

The cast was about twelve feet long and the last two flies were spaced at 2ft intervals from the point. Leader material was fluorocarbon 8, 6, 4 and the chosen fly line was a no. 8 Pitsford Pirate floater.

Once tackled up I headed to the new jetty and it was a joy not to have to row out for a boat with number 6 boat being tied up and ready for use. I hadn’t brought my outboard so oars were to be the chosen method of propulsion.

I cast out with none too high expectations but you’ve got to be in it to win it so set up a drift in the north westerly breeze and began a fishin’. Drifts were across and towards the eastern shore of the loch. I was quickly but not too quickly close to shore. No luck on this drift so I set about realigning the boat for another in the light breeze.



I must have made about six drifts each time coming very close to shore for the last couple of casts without success. I spoke to a fellow shore angler who had one fish landed and he advised of luck in the shore region. A bit further along, I passed a boat angler and he said I was headed in the right direction as he’d had six fish to the boat all released and had dropped another three.

Well one thing was for sure there must be fish to be had it was just that I was not having any luck not even a touch. I persevered again with no luck and as the sun was now dropping below the hills in the background I decided to go for a slightly different tactic. Keeping my leader set up with my original three flies, I changed my main line to a Di3.

I had another few casts with no success on slow and slightly quicker retrieves but again no luck. One last change of tactics I thought and I let the flies go static for about thirty seconds and whaddye know. The line went tight and the rod started bouncing. Fish on I thought as I tightened into what I thought was probably a nice wee broonie. Then ensued a somewhat protracted fight on my 7/8 rod which had a very good bend in it by this point.

I saw a lovely broonie around 1 ¼ pounds splash lively in the water as I brought him to the boat but as soon as he saw me he was off with what seemed like the energy of a fish three times his size and a nice bend in the rod to match. I let him run, took in line and then he went off again as I tried to bring him to the boat. O.k. methinks time to get the wee chap to the net but he had other ideas.

Each time I tried to bring him to my Sharpe’s Seaforth landing net he seemed to steam off with the energy of a fish which would have been thrice his size and that’s when the penny dropped ! Each time I tried netting the fish, the line seemed to go in the other direction from what it should and therein lay the clue. I reckoned I had a 2 fish hook up but there was yet another surprise.

I eventually got the fish to the net and the two fish hook up theory was confirmed as one of his pals was two feet below him in the water. Hooking two fish on the one line single handedly is no easy task but three is even harder and I had a three fish hook up. Never when fishing for game fish have I had this happen and I was more taken aback than anything. Unluckily or luckily for fish no. 3, he managed to break from the point of the leader and I was eventually able to bring fish number 2 to the boat.

With both fish in the boat, I had time for a closer inspection and was a bit disappointed to find blue spots on each of there bellies. Yes the blue spot of the fish world which denotes stockies. Lovely wee hard fighting stockies right enough but not the wildies I’d been hoping for. I decided that as these were the first fish I had taken from this wee loch then they would be for the pot and any others would be returned.



I retied my cast and began again with quite a few fish to the boat all released bar one. The wee chap again around 1 ¼ pounds was totally gut hooked on the loch nymph I was using so my two for the pot became three. It seemed any of my three flies were fair game for the fish this evening and as the light began to fade I headed in around 10.30 p.m.



Mr. Perch made an appearance too !



The chap I’d spoken to earlier in the other boat was coming in too and we chatted about how extra ordinary the fishing had been this evening with both of us having similar success even though his was better than mine.

We helped each other sort out our boats and headed home in the fading light with a night to remember.