Fishing is a quiet relaxing pursuit which provides opportunities to see and hear nature close up. It is one of the great joys at this time of year to see the broods of ducks ,moorhens ,swans and other water fowl being carefully guided through their early days by their attentive parents. Lochter Fishery Oldmeldrum is a positive haven of wildlife and anglers and visitors there have the additional pleasure of seeing the resident pair of ospreys Branson and Libby fishing and carrying trout to their three hungry chicks. The fishery have installed a hi tec camera which streams live ospreys pictures to two big screens in the restaurant.
While the ospreys used their amazing eyesight and their razor sharp claws to catch trout, anglers have had to ring the changes during the past week to keep the fish coming to the net. The bright conditions and the plentiful supply of natural food have made it interesting for anglers and given them a chance to vary their tactics.
Ronnie Ewen an experienced angler used diawl bachs, cormorants and naturals including that old favourite the kate mclaren to account for ten good fish including a couple of six pounders. It was nice to see Pete the Feet back at Lochter and he had a fine day with eleven all caught on crunchers. G Garoich had nine on that other old favourite the ace of spades while the much more new fangled blobs were the choice of Doug Mair who had nine. Also doing well was L Adams with nine on blobs and buzzers, C Clark who had ten on buzzers and a bunny leech. Team BT had a fine day with S Argo top scoring with six and most anglers had success with naturals being favoured. The deeper water of the Muckle Troot loch proved well worth a cast particularly in the middle of the day when the trout retreated to the cooler depths.
As the summer warms anglers will have to continue to vary their fly choice and of course the evening rise has been exceptional some nights and well worth a cast.
HH 09/06/14
