Down Lochter way last week there were many stories of the “one that got away” with many a tale of casts and favourite flies being lost to the depths. This is totally our fault and we have recently re-stocked with our own home grown Lochter trout of between 6lb – 18lb in all 3 lochs.
Our ethos at Lochter is less of ‘stockie bashing’ preferring quality over quantity.
Graham Davidson was a case in point while fishing the Muckle Troot, one of our larger specimens took a hold of his beaded hares ear and started heading for the middle island. Unfortunately, Graham was standing on some loose line so the inevitable “ping” happened but he did see the funny side and his day was not in vain as he did land an 8lb fish and seven other smaller ones using black buzzers.
A man renowned for not losing big fish is Colin MacDonald and on a trip out on Saturday he came good by landing one of the biggest fish of the season weighing in his net at 15lb 03oz. He followed it up with two blues about 4lb each which fought very strongly, so well done Colin. Steve Prince had two sessions during the week and he had 11 and 10 fish respectively on a wide variety of flies ranging from drys to wets to lures for his success – so it shows that adaptability can be the key.
Keith West from Fraserburgh had 14 for his session, his biggest rainbow being 9lb but he did also land one of our big 6lb brownies which was returned to fight another day.
A cold north wind blew for most of the week which somewhat scuppered the use of the dry fly so deeper in the water was more effective.
Graeme Smith fished the washing line method with a fab and diawl bachs and he obviously found the right depth as he had 11 fish to the net for his day. Small buzzers were also working with Dave Reynolds getting 10 fish, Paul Forsyth with 9 fish and James Rhind with 8 fish.
With a milder week ahead we can only hope there is a return to some action nearer the top of the water.
Tight Lines
SP
1/9/20
