Opening Loch Report March 2026

Welcome to a new season! We opened the new season on 14^th March and it’s hard to  believe that we are already into April.

Our opening day got off to it’s usual great start with Hugh Gordon, doing a fantastic job of piping in the new season. As always it brings a lump to the throat to hear Hugh’s piping across the loch, and is a fitting start to the season as we pour in a wee dram into the water, watched by the many members keen to get out and feel their rods bending.

Of course it wasn’t long (less than 10 minutes) before the first rod was bent and we are delighted to say it was by the youngest angler on the loch that day…10 year old Ashok Churm fishing from the bank. As is usual for Opening day, it proved a productive one for everyone with a mixture of new fish and some over-wintered fish were caught with people commenting on the quality of the fish that they caught.

A good proportion of the weekend’s catch were brownies, all safely released alongside some stocked and over wintered rainbows. The reports in from members over the weekend were that fish were hard fighting and in great condition and a variety of sizes.

With Maggie and Pip once again on hand to help out, the bacon rolls at lunch time were a great success. Maggie and Pip, as always, were here in the week leading up to Opening weekend and as always we are very grateful to them – without their help it would be hard to see how we could prepare as well as we do. A big thanks also to James Gardiner who came and helped with turning and launching the boats.

The weather, as always has been affecting the fishing over the first few weeks of the season. We had to pinch ourselves for Opening Saturday as it was probably one of the best weather days we have had for Opening Day – a decent breeze, not too cold & dry – none of the horizontal snow in sight that Opening Day is renowned for…climate change may sometimes be positive?  The rest of the weekend saw stronger winds but the loch still fished well and then we had a few days of quiet settled weather followed by a good dose of strong windy days, which has meant members having to pick their days with a careful eye on the forecasts.

Generally, since opening, the fishing has been what can be best described as inconsistent. There has been a stretch of some good days in terms of number of fish caught followed by a few leaner days. This has of course been in line with the shifting weather patterns and of course the strong winds have meant we have had a number of days when there has been no-one on the loch as it has simply been too windy to make fishing pleasant.

The best tactics seemed to have been along the following lines:

• On overcast days, dries have been working well. Yellow owl and daddy patterns have been amongst the pick of the best.
• On the more sunny days, sink tip lines or intermediates have been very effective when pulling lures such as, damsel, humungous, black badger. A range of cormorants have also been very successful.
• Just recently, i.e. in the last few days, the washing line has been quite successful again fished on a tipped line and tweaked back slowly,

Without doubt, the most productive area in general has been boat house bay and when conditions have been right, the top end of the loch around the reed bed area. There’s a sense now though, that the fish are more evenly spread out across the loch and so keeping on the move increases your chances of finding them.

**Our usual request goes out to all anglers to help with our loch reports by sending in a small summary of your days fishing. This only needs to be a few lines but we know how much other anglers appreciate this as it gives them first-hand information from other anglers. So please start sending in your reports.

Club Outings:

In April we have the following Visiting Club days are:

• Saturday 4^th April: Ashington Kingfishers
• Saturday 11^th April: Ladhope AC
• Monday 13^th April: Edinburgh Waltons & Edinburgh Breadalbane AC
• Thursday 23rd April: North Berwick AC

We look forward to seeing these clubs here and hope for good weather for all outings.

Event Days in the next few months:

• Members Bank Competition: Sunday 12^th April is our annual Bank Competition which is open to all Members, a chance to win prizes and for the winner to get their name carved into the winners board in the fishing lodge.
• Youth Competition: A date for the Youth Competition has now been set for Saturday 7^th  In the first instance this will be offered to members with youngsters 16 and under and places are limited to 12 in total. Members will hear more about this through the members web site.

Other news:

• As always at this time of year it’s great to see, feel & hear the arrival of Spring. The chiff-chaffs are back, and we’ve heard and seen linnets and also hearing the skylarks again in the fields at the north end of the loch and on the top above the southern shore. We came down to the loch one morning with the dogs and they both brought us a bird – Spud brought a dead, but still warm, blackbird and Hilda a song thrush, very dazed but still alive (see photo) which came to and flew off after 15 minutes or so in a bob hat on the window. We think both birds had been chased by a sparrow hawk and hit one of the fishing hut windows in a bid to escape it…it was good that one of them at least survived.
• As always there are plenty of roe deer about and we have seen some toads on damp nights heading down to the loch along the drive, though not yet in big numbers which can be quite a sight to see around this time of year. Mallards are pairing up on the water and we hope to see some ducklings about that survive the otters, herons, foxes and badgers. We have had two swans put in an appearance in recent weeks but unsure if they will nest this time. And a few nights ago we saw the first bats of the season flitting around the house at dusk…things are awakening!