Angling: Plenty cover at Beecraigs

Set in Beecraigs Country Park, Beecraigs Loch is well sheltered from the elements that can often spoil a day's fishing.

However, after our recent club outing, conditions were almost perfect and the fish were up and feeding off the surface. The loch is not particularly big but there is ample room to move around. I decided to start out with a midge tip line with two Cormorants on the droppers and a Fab on the point. Despite my efforts, nothing would take till I changed to a two fly cast of a White Cat on the point and an Orange Blob on the dropper. Within 20 minutes or so I had three fish to the boat. Putting out a full line and pulling it back fairly quickly the bow waves that followed were astonishing. Until that point, the fish were like peas in a pod around the 3lb mark but well finned.

With two fish to complete my bag limit the next was to be the best in the bunch at nearly 4lb. It put up a good fight burying deep below the boat and shooting into the reed beds but it was a blue in perfect condition and it swallowed the Cat whole. There is no catch and release and when you take your bag limit you must stop, which is a slight frustration, but if that's the only down side then I suppose at some time in the future I will be returning.