We’re always happy to welcome groups of workmates or friends to the fishery and on Sunday we were joined by some folk from the Roysth Civil Service.

It was a beautiful day as you can tell by the photo, with lots of squinting going on!

Possibly the best dressed group of fishermen we've seen in a while!

The chaps netted a total of 26 fish for a massive combined weight of 72 lb 8oz!

Which was impressive as most of the fellas here…

well let’s be honest…

look more like golfers!

The biggest of the day went to P Mogford (below right), a nice rainbow of 7lbs 8oz. Well done to him.

P. Mogford, which I'm sure is an anagram for santa claus in some language or other?

A new supply of fish has been added to the fishery and you’ll know from previous posts that I’ve been pretty complimentary….but let me prove it!

Here are just a few names and catches (please forgive me if I’ve missed anyone out):
Sam Morden 6lb 6oz (fly), Mr Chow 6lb 20z (yellow dancer), William Aitken 8lb (yellow dancer), Steven Lauder 5lb 6oz (orange fritz) and a special mention to Tam Robertson who had a fabulous couple of days who had 3 over 7lbs in 2 days – well done mate.

These fish are great, and I’ll tell you why.

Just look at the tail on this one:

 I took the photograph with the reel in to give you an idea of scale.

Most fisherman would agree that the best indication of health and condition in a good fish is indeed the tail.

Nice reel that…too.

I’ll maybe tell you who’s reel it was in a mo!

It was pretty tough conditions today (21st April) when my mate Drew and I arrived around midday.

 There had been plenty of fish caught in the morning, and one of the sucessful anglers tipped us the wink with “a wee red bodied cormorant”.

Having plenty of cormorants, but none of the red-bodied variety I whipped out my mobile fly tying kit and got busy.

Did it work?  Not really. Well, not at all if I’m honest.

It rained heavily around lunchtime and the wind really picked up through the afternoon causing periods of bright sunshine as the clouds moved off.

It’s amazing what a change of conditions can do within such a short period of time and the action dried up.

People still perservered though. Drew and I met a couple of good blokes as we shared our theories and mumbles as to what the fish were doing.

Eddie, who has only been fly fishing since Christmas,  was throwing all sorts, so it wasn’t for the lack of trying.

Some days it’s just like that I guess.

That’s why it’s called ‘fishing’ not ‘catching’!

There were two really nice fish caught though.

This gentleman, Charles MacKinnon, on the left has been fishing for over 70 years, and caught this 5lb 4oz rainbow on a holo-back damsel that he tied himself.

There was that other fish right enough.

You know, the one with the big tail and the nice reel.

Who did it belong to?

Now you know who to pelt for cheeky comments on the site

ME!

It fell to, not a ‘wee red bodied cormorant’  but my favourite gold head blood worm.

I hope to see you on Sunday for the Carbeth Fluff-Chuckers competition.

Just you’re normal ticket price of £15 for three fish then catch & release and we get going at 9am.

It’s just  friendly competition for ALL and at all levels of ability so please do join us.

Paul