I thought i'd summarise my day at Alderneuk on Saturday!

For the first time this year i had managed to have a weekend up in Dumfries. I arrived at 7.45 a little keen and eager as Wullie had just started opening up. The weather was cold and foggy however fish were rising which was a promising sign.

I fished from 8am until around 10.30am using both floating and intermediates using a variety of flies with nothing except on follow on a black rabbit. I then spotted a shoal of Tigers with a Brookie in toe. Several of the fish had incredibly defined red flanks which i am postive is a sign of them going through the spawning cycle and would also explain why they were shoaling. Quickly cycling through several of my lures i had several follows. Off the back of the group wullie spotted a large Tiger cruising the shallows which i pulled by a small cats whisker and immediately it was taken. This fish was a stunning as was the scrap it gave. Wullie has pictures which hopefully he will post at some point.

I continued to fish away with the lure but spectacular rise occured just after all of the fog cleared and a slight breeze took place. Immediately changing to the dry i turned 3 to 4 fish and took a nice rainbow which i would gestimate to be around 3.5lbs. I moved to the point once the rise had finished and turned several fish hooking into another 3.5-4lb rainbow. Both fish landed were fully finned and stunning examples.

The rest of the day was spent fishing a black rabbit on a floating line. I had 5 solid takes within the space of an hour but unfortunately i lost 3 for some unappartent reason. Most we within a few seconds of the lure hitting the water before the retrieve. Every fish hooked tried its hardest to shake me off.

The heaviest fish of the day was a 4lb2oz rainbow but nothing could beat the stunning tiger!

Alderneuk has most certainly come alive in the last few weeks after the warmish dry summer. The fish are in peak condition and every one trys its best to stay out of the net. I never managed to break my record of 5 landed fish but i hooked more than any other time. If i didnt get over excited and loose 4 fish i would have had a record 9 fish in one outing. Maybe next time

Highly recommended as are the bacon rolls and victoria sponge!

Thanks Wullie & Wulma!

Simon

Cheers Simon, glad you enjoyed your day, you'll have to wangle another weekender! The Tiger was simply stunning, with a glorious red tinge on the belly, it's great when you can stalk an individual fish and watch it take the fly, superb! I'm afraid the pic will have to wait, i've left the camera with Wilma, and i'm heading of to Spain, sorry Simon, I'll post an another Tiger pic.
It's been a great few weeks of settled weather and good fishing, apart from Wed, when the 1st real hard frost of the year on Tue, night put the fish down for the day, hard day that one! Still coming out on dries, when there's a breeze, lure guy's starting to score heavily though, cat's whisker, black rabbit and our own big ugly white, all catching, buzzer's and diawl bachs been unusually slow off late, strange one that! Some corking fish out, too many 5lb plussers to mention all, quite a few nailed by stalkers, this must surely be the single most exciting way to catch a trout don't you agree? and if you can stalk one up on a dry, well, it does'nt get much better. Winter's just around the corner and the dry fly day's will probably be numbered, still buzzer time's a' coming. stroll on, thank's all and here's that Tiger Pic. All the very best Wilma and Wullie.