Sentimentality

Overall, the fishing was disappointing, largely due to the horrendous conditions for most of the trip. Fortunately, the last week was fairly stable, and I fished 4 days of it which wasn’t bad at all.  I went to a couple of hill lochs with a couple of mates  and chased lovely wild browns with traditionals before switching to dries as the sedge hatch came on.  One in particular was pretty nostalgic for me, being a place I regularly fished with 2 guys who’re no longer with us; Murdoch & Manny.  As a result, there was as much story swapping and sentimentality as actual fishing, which is probably an age thing. I actually dug out an old Murdoch’s Humpy that he tied years before and, despite my pal Alan telling me it wasn’t that effective on the loch we were fishing, fished that for most of the night. It’s a versatile fly I’ve always been confident in and isn’t like the humpy you probably know. And unsurprisingly it worked pretty well, taking a couple of fish drifted in the ripple. Then as the light started to fade, and we’d got to the downwind shore I started pulling it across the wave and caught several more as the nice silvery browns ate it with real gusto. Some of them chasing, missing and coming back. Great fishing, and given the company and location, that  session alone made up for the poor start to the trip. And was nicely topped off with a wee hauf for Murdoch and Manny.

Here's a video of how to tie Murdoch's Humpy

The pike fishing remained a bit of a slog, a few fish were caught, a few fish were lost and none of them were big.  I managed not to switch to perch fishing, which was difficult, but I was really hoping to pick up a decent pike.  The fish I did, catch were definitely keen and there was no doubt about the eats, none of those subtle takes and tail nips you sometimes get. Even smaller fish were completely inhaling my 10” dragon tailed tube. Fun, but a double figure fish would have really made things better. One thing I did do, was convince Davie to dig out all his light gear and target the perch more seriously than before. We both ended up glad he did. On the second day, he only caught one, but it  was spectacular at 50.5cm. Unfortunately we didn’t have scales to weigh it, but it was easily 2.5lb, probably more, and is going to be near impossible to beat as his fish of the season. Davie doesn’t really fly fish very much, and because I’d had so much fun on the rattlin rapala he stuck one of them on and fluttered it up an underwater hump. He said the fish hit it hard and he actually thought he was playing a small pike because the boat position meant he didn’t see it until it was out of  the water.  I was really pleased just to see the fish, even if I did cause him a bit of panic when I lipped it instead of dragging the net out of the bag.  He’s done now of course, you just can’t catch a perch like that and not want to come back for more.  Both he and my other mate Andy were right online buying ALL the rattlin rapalas and pretty much any other small lure that caught their magpie eyes.