Another couple of tons of quality brown trout were stocked mainly to the south shore drifts and the Portnellan shore. There was a significant improvement in weather conditions with the wind changing from the east to south west.

Jim Milne from Alloa fishing with Sam Waddle of Falkirk had a very successful day on Wednesday taking 13 for the boat and released at least as many with the largest being just under 2lbs. Stevie O’Neill and Ronnie Robb from East Kilbride had good top of the water sport at the Green Banks.

Club outings got underway on Sunday with the Dalvennan Fly Fishers from Ayrshire being the first club out. Although very windy at times they had superb sport mainly at the sheltered south shore drifts. Ian and Marion Wallace fishing as Dalvennan guests had the best boat with 9 fish. They started on DI 3’s but moved up to Ghost Tips and reported numerous offers with brownies leaping out of the troughs.

The Scottish Youth team held a practice day on Sunday when the high wind speeds gave them great experience in handling boats in difficult conditions.

Despite the cool east wind some excellent catches have been returned still mainly from the south shore drifts and bays. The water temperature has risen to 6C at 3ft despite some early morning air temperatures of -3C. 

Featuring amongst the top individual catches last week were Linden Curtis and Vernon Alexander who had good sport mainly in Boathouse Bay on Thursday using intermediate lines and small traditional flies. Stephen O’Neill and Mark Steven had the best boat for the week on Sunday although fishing in probably the poorest conditions of the week.  They had their boat limit of 10 trout and returned at least a further 4 fish. Conditions were very sunny and hardly any wind but using DI3’s and size 14’s Kate McLarens provided great sport. The most productive drifts have been Boat House Bay, Otter Island and Grahavie Bay where patterns such as the Dunkeld, Kate McLaren, Bibio and the Clan Chief have been most productive. Other good drifts well worth visiting are Green Banks and Beetle Bay.

Despite 20mph winds and a very cold water temperature of 5c at the three feet mark, opening day at Scotland’s premier brown trout water was a big success with 130 fish being caught with an average weight of 1lb 3oz.

The best fishing drifts have been the South Shore, which was sheltered from the strong southwesterly wind but Boat House Bay gave the best sport with most fish taking just under the surface. The Invertrossachs and Otter Island drifts also performed well, as did Grahavie Bay especially on opening day. Jim Devine from Aberdour took the honour of the heaviest fish – a cracking over wintered brown of 2lbs taken on a size 12 Dunkeld. Jim Milne and John Jarvis had the best boat from the Thistle AC taking 10 fish to 1lb 12oz. Messrs. Simpson and Watson from Aberdour also had 10 good trout.The bulk of the catches were taken on intermediate or ghost tip lines teamed up with size 12 flies like the Bibio, Clan Chief, Zulu, mini Ace of Spades and the Dunkeld.

There are still available spaces for the Venachar Brown Trout League that kicks off in May.

The cost of entry is £20 with fishery rules and prices applying but as the number of competitors will be limited to 50 it is advisable for interested parties to register an interest now. Further information, click here.