Every year, especially when your dealing with the fishing fraternity, its good to sit back and have a bit of a think about the past season, or even seasons, try and figure out what was good and what can be improved, also what was not so good, an example being we here at the Goldenloch encouraged youngsters, schools, Etc, free access to the loch, but changes in the law (especially in dealing with under 16 yr olds) meant that instructors and helpers must now carry certain specific certificates for working with children, responsibility carries with it police checks, notifying the insurance companies and believe it or not individual risk assessments tailored to each and every visiting organisation, sadly if I was being honest we struggled at times to meet all those criteria’s, so it was easier to pass this on to others, but please be assured that donations of old flies and even if you are emptying out fly boxes to make room for new flies, we will and still can make great use from fly donations, there are plenty of beginners that will testify that from boxes that we buy and fill (Camran Bowie, thanks for loads of work filling cases) many beginners have progressed their fishing career, with donations of flies etc, so Please if you still have excess gear we can make good use, ( another example is broken rods, don’t throw them away, I have a friend that fixes rods:- but he needs the bits: so don’t waste, recycle, This year is nearly over and the sting has been November, I keep my own records, I know that impressively one or two angler friends do as well, but the cold wind and mornings in the past month has been unbearable, a lot of anglers just don’t even think about going fishing, strangely though for those that have ventured out some have been getting some impressive catches, not huge numbers, but more in quite big fish and extremely fit clean fish, of a reasonable age, also this season 2017 the “Goldenloch” has probably had one of its best Dry Fly Fishing seasons ever, why this happened, I am not sure, but in trying to reflect, annualize, how this came about, the following was noted.
1 There was an abnormal prolonged hot spell starting in April, ending in May.
2 From May on, we had a lot of rain; most of the summer was damp and wet.
3 There was a lot more wind these past few months, a lot from the East, plus a few storms.
4 Water temperatures this year averaged just above 15 degrees, (has been much higher).
5 Weed growth, was exceptionally high, much more vigorous, much more than ever before.
6 Water borne insects, buzzers, nymphs’, beetles were much more concentrated and intense, there was more of it and they seemed to be bigger in certain areas.
7 More snails and shrimp, snails migrating, snails floating never seen that before.
8 Stoneflies and sedge, plus canis fly definitely hatching at irregular intervals and all day.
9 However definitely the worst year for rising fish, by that I mean no morning or evening rise to set your watch by.
10 An observation would be that there were that lots of fish on the surface looking for food. I would definitely say most of these fish were always nearly newly stocked and were looking for pellets.
9 For one week we had a Mayfly hatch in June, unheard of Mayfly here at the Goldenloch.
Quick conclusions would be that there is ample if not abundant feeding in the water for the fish, fish are feeding regularly for the most parts 18 hours per day, even just now in November, and we still have anglers catching with dry flies, nymphs, buzzers etc.
But things are changing fast and very dramatic, it is easy to ignore that “Global Warming” is really having a massive affect, I have been involved in running this fishery for some 30+ years and in that time there hasn’t really been any major problem with weed nor Algae, not like it is now, yes its been about, however the past two years has seen weed growing like never before and the Algae season being extended from a few weeks to just about covering the whole summer season.
Over the years I have observed especially after heavy rain in May that there has been a rise in Phosphate and Nitrogen levels, this is directly attributed to the fertiliser that is being introduced to the loch from the feeder springs / burn / rainfall, it is this nitrogen that promotes the weed growth and it is the weeds that absorb and reduce the soluble phosphate, without the weeds, the phosphate level remains high and it is this that encourages the algae to bloom, as a micro organism it relies on both nitrogen and phosphate to survive, It is my intention this coming season to try and strike a balance between what nature is doing, and what mans intervention can achieve, being very courageous it is my intention to stop trying to remove the weeds from the far side of the loch, they are massively intrusive, remove the lily banks on this side, these lily’s do not really achieve very much anyway, but by removing them it opens up a huge area of potentially a new fishing area, It is well worth a try and I can see that there will be little affect on the fishable area yet there will be a noticeable increase in nitrogen and phosphate absorbing weeds, also a side affect should be that there will be a lot less nutrients’ for the algae to survive on, this coupled with the planting of Buddleia, Hebe and knotweed and others around the perimeter of the loch to encourage butterflies, moths, etc, should bring back a lot more exciting water bourne insects, if any anglers have some plants that could be useful please feel free to bring them, they will be used, Its now Monday December 11th and we have had 2 nights of -6 degrees so the ice must be a couple of inches thick, the last fishing was on Saturday when Derrie and Ian Wallace, Kinglassie, were here both lads catching and returning 12 fish, so that may have been the last fish for 2017 we will wait and see.