My top catching patterns this month were Damsel Flashback Green, Pink Centre Bead Bloodworm and a Bibio Hopper Popper. These Hopper Poppers I know have been catching around the country but this Bibio version is regional to the North East and into Scotland. The first 2 patterns mentioned though have proved to be great patterns all over the place over the last few years and are certainly ones I highly recommend.
Other NJAF patterns doing well in August has been a Red Midge Pupea which produced some good evening sport and also a Mini Minky Special which was nice to see doing well again as well as being in the catch returns book and both of these are featured in Whinney Lochs fishing report
All these flies can be found on my flies.

I had a couple of really good fishing sessions in August at Watch Reservoir and Caistron Lake and this was down both to the great fishing as much as the style and method of fishing which was a way which I really enjoyed. This was probably more so because last month was part taken up by fishing a pair’s boat final where both in the previous heat and in the final to qualify and have any success pulling lures and Blobs on a sinking line was needed. This as I am sure most anglers who fish these boat competitions will confirm is the main way fishing is done.

As with July August can be a tricky month and even if hot conditions do not make things difficult fish have plenty of food choice and can be selective in their feeding. In fact although I saw a good few fish caught on my first trip I did not know of any caught to Lures and I certainly had no interest to any Lures I tried. At Watch Reservoir in particular a spot where we found plenty of fish rising saw them very difficult to catch and after a lot of experimenting the 2 methods which I found a lot of success with were firstly with a floating pattern on the point with a new fly I have started using which is a Bibio Hopper Popper then a Whickhams fancy on the dropper with fish taking both of these when static. Then later in the day it was with a slightly weighted fly a Pink Centre Bead Bloodworm with a fly I have done especially well with this year on the dropper which was a Flashback Damsel Green and fishing these really slow gave fantastic results mainly to the Damsel. Caistron was quite similar with fish selective and a lot of experimenting again to find the right pattern and this time it was surprisingly enough for the second month in a row here a small Yellow lure and again the Bibio Hopper popper and as with Watch all takes were simple a tightening of the fly line.

Please read on for full fishery reports:-

Fishing has been difficult in August due to the build up of weed but the middle lake has almost been cleared of weed towards the end of the month and this is where the fish have been caught with the best patterns being Pheasant Tail Nymphs, Hares Ear, Black Buzzer and Sedgehoggs.

The bait lake here is the one which has seen the majority of the fishing here this month as is often the case during the school holidays. Best fishing on the fly lake has often been with dries and CDC patterns have done really well. Under the surface a Green Ribbed Diawl Bach and also buzzers have been the best.

I fished here towards the end of the month both from a boat and then finishing off from the bank on the strip in front of the lodge. With only the odd fish rising on the big lake we found fish on an intermediate line but they were really selective and as with last month it was a plain small yellow lure of all things which took our fish and in fact we caught on nothing else on the big lake. Takes were generally soft tentative pulls and we both lost a good few fish. The first fish I lost was a Brown of 3lb 8 to 4lb which unusually for a Brown came straight out of the water, the rest of the fish we caught were all Rainbows between 2lb and 3lb. Best spot on the big lake was definitely towards the far side drifting up from the wooded island towards the nature reserve. The only weed on the big lake this time was around the boat jetty area where you would not fish anyway and it has been great to see the fishery has had no weed problems right through the year.

We finished off fishing on the strip in front of the lodge basically for a break from the torrential rain and lots of fish were in here with lots of fish rising and between us we had a few fish on straight away again on Yellow but with fish rising in here I put on a Bibio Hopper Popper and caught on this which was the only other fly I caught on. I am sure anyone fishing the bank at this spot would have done really well here on the day as it really did have a lot of fish in it.

Although it did not work on the day we were there a Montana Nymph has been catching a lot of fish in August and friends who were there this month caught on dries and also saw an angler catch a 15lb Rainbow on a Daddy.

The new managers at Clerklands have a cash prize for a tagged fish going and although it has been caught the angler concerned did not enter the pound for the prize so the fish is still in and the prize is now around £260.

A couple of double figure fish of around 12lb were caught this month and the best patterns have been a Black and Red Buzzer and also a Black or Orange lure.