July 2024

It looks like we are finally getting some more prolonged periods of hotter weather. Fine for the holiday makers but not so great for the anglers. The fish are still rising freely in all areas of the loch but as always at this time of the year, are proving much trickier to entice.

In many ways though this has been a very forgiving season as far as the loch and fishing goes. Cool evenings, frequent rain which has been heavy at times and an abundance of insect life have all meant that the condition of the loch has remained superb. As you know we launched the weed-cutter and it has been on standby for 3 or 4 weeks now but so far we have held off using it for fear of upsetting things unnecessarily. Yes, there are one or two places that are showing signs of weed but this year it is nothing like what we have experienced in previous years and therefore we don’t want to upset the status quo. Because of the conditions we have also not felt the need yet to start up the aerator which last year was just about running every day from early May right through to September. It just goes to show that no two years are alike.

So in many ways a year in which we find that we are almost pinching ourselves at the lack of intervention needed. However, there’s still time and I’m in no doubt that we will have to do something before the end of the summer.

The bird life this year has also been prolific and many of the species are on their second and third clutches already.

But perhaps that’s enough about the conditions … what about the fishing?

There’s no doubt that the numbers have slowed down from the dizzy heights of early season, however there are still days when the fish are responding well. Just yesterday when the weather was anything but settled, someone had 10 fish to the boat and 5’s and 6’s were also recorded. Fishing dries still seems to be the most successful method and of all the dries being tried, the daddy is still the fly that appears most in the returns book. Floating lines and doing very little with the fly seems to be what’s needed just now. Keep moving would also be my next piece of advice and with the winds being so light, using a drogue and covering as much of the loch as you can would be advantageous.

Fishing from the bank has also been successful and with the weed in check this year, most if not all the usual hot-spots are fishable and fishing well.

On an more general note and I hope that you’ll excuse my deviation from all things Coldingham, with catch and release being as popular as it is now it’s no wonder that the fishing magazines are focusing in what this means for fisheries and fish farms. A recent article by Andrew Flitcroft highlighted the closure of a number of fisheries down south and he believes that catch and release is a contributary feature which we must all be aware of. As you know, we have mentioned repeatedly that we must all exercise more restraint when times are particularly good in order to try to balance the returns over the season. I’m of the firm opinion that as Stillwater trout anglers, have never had it as good as it is right now both in terms of the numbers, variety, size and the quality of fish that we are likely to catch wherever we visit, but our expectations need to be managed in order to ensure that fisheries and fish farms can continue and our practices need to be such that the health of the fish is of prime importance. Here are a couple of basic things that we can all do:

• Barbless / de-barbed hooks should be a must for most of us and the safe handling and return of the fish needs to be a priority if partaking in catch and release.
• Good quality tippet of appropriate strength should be used and whilst there will always be occasions when we do get snapped, ruling out bad tippet line will surely help.
• Safe netting and release with as little handling as possible, whilst the fish is still in the water, will also help to preserve the health of the fish. For those people who find it difficult to lean over the boat to release fish, here at Coldingham we have a number of dumpie buckets that can be filled with water and laid in the boat for you to put the net with the fish in whilst it is un-hooked. Please ask for one if this is something that you feel might help you.

Over the last few of decades the upward trend in numbers and size is quite obvious when compared with earlier records of what used to be caught. This is in stark contrast to the picture on most rivers where in many cases the reverse is true and maybe there are lessons that we can learn from this that we can apply to our Stillwater practices?

I don’t know of any fishery owner or manager that does not want their anglers to have a successful days fishing. Nothing gives us more pleasure. But it’s not all down to the responsibility of the owners and managers and we all have our part to play.

Other news:

• Please see the ‘Fly to Tie and Try This Month’ from Les Lockey. Les’s flies are all tried and tested here and his photos and explanations on how to tie the flies is second to none.
• We spotted a young heron in the long grass along the western shore of the loch (see photo) which is the first time we have seen one here. It was struggling to take off so anyone walking their dogs please be aware.

Visiting Clubs:

• Sunday 4^th August – Edinburgh Amateurs
• Saturday 10^th August – Pencaitland AC

As always we extend a warm welcome to the clubs and hope that their outings are enjoyable and successful.