There were a lot of battles on the water this week down Lochter way, not all of them piscatorial. There was a constant skirmish between our long standing resident pair of swans with upstart rivals who had an eye for a comfortable winter berth. I can report that out resident pairs efforts paid off and they still serenely reign supreme and are currently diligently patrolling their beat.
All was not quite so plain sailing for those casting a fly on the water as the weather could change from cold to mild and sunny within a few hours so those who adapted their fly’s to suit the conditions fared best.
However for those who persevered there was good feedback that the fish were in ‘fine fettle’ and ‘fighting hard’ with many of them in the 3lb – 8lb category, the local river season now over I would suggest that a trip to Lochter for some rod testing action might be a cure for the Winter fishing blues.
Speaking of blues, Davy Smith from Newmachar caught a lovely blue trout of 8 lb from the Muckle Troot during a session where he caught 12 other fish, four of which were around the 5 lb mark. He was using a small cat’s whisker and Kingfisher cormorant combination and the big blue was returned to fish another day – it could be you next time!
The Blobby Boys (Dougie and Billy) from Aberdeen on their Saturday session stuck firmly to their blob principle and had 33 fish to the net between them for their efforts. Pete Green from Huntly had 2 great outings during the week when he caught 18 and 19 fish respectively on either the cats whisker or buzzers. Others on two outings were Peter Young who had 17 and 19 fish on a mixture of lures, which included the WSW and Fritz and Steve Prince from Oldmeldrum who fished in two very different weather conditions where daddies and hoppers secured him 10 fish and the next he used a team of buzzers and got 13 fish.
Looking through the returns book there were still some encouraging results, as the fish appear to be feeding greedily to put on weight for the long winter ahead. Ronnie Ewen from MacDuff fished all the lochs and had 21 fish on spiders and the Kate McLaren. Karen Gillies from Huntly had 13 lovely fish using a team of buzzers with the lime green one being the most effective. Mike Frost on a visit with his son Garry had 11 fish on the bloodworm and Garry had 5 on a variety of lures. Bill Wood fished the blob and chamois worm to good effect and brought 10 fish to the net, G Reid likewise had 10 fish but this time on the okay dokay. Albert Trail mopped up 9 fish on the mop fly, Martin Harper had 7 fish on lures and bloodworm. One that caught the eye was Simon Ruddiman who had 6 lovely fish on the ‘Ron Special’ fly.
Racked with interest as to what the fly entailed I tracked down the venerable Ron Reid to his hideout in Ellon to discover it was a black wotsit with a red bead that did the trick. Drab and driech appears to be the weather for the week ahead so that is a bonus!
Tight Lines
SP 07/11/17
