Wild South West
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, 17 November 2009 20:43
- Written by Stuart Harper
There is an episode of the Simpson’s where Homer, to avoid the flirtatious temptations of an attractive new work colleague, has to “think un sexy thoughts”. To do this he pictures in his mind his sisters-in-law wearing swimsuits. During a recent summer holiday with the family to Stranraer my wife suggested we take the baby swimming with her mum. Now I don’t know about you but mothers-in-law wearing swimsuits are a sight I can live without and I don’t need any more un-sexy images to call on if needed.
Anyway this blanket refusal to join the extended family down at the Pool, gave me a day to myself with all of Stranraer’s surrounding lochs to explore……or after a trip to the tackle shop I discovered that they are mostly stocked waters. If I wanted a bag of Blue Trout & “naturalised” Brook trout, seems like I’d come to the right place, except for one place the guy told me about - “Penwhirn reservoir” he said, “it’s no that good though coz it’s never been stocked”. But it has trout in I replied, “Oh aye but just smaw wans”….excellent, venue decided then. In the interests of the local economy I purchased the £12.00 day ticket, pricey but does also cover two other Brown Trout 
only stocked waters Soulseat Loch & Knockquhassen reservoir so not bad value but pricey for me as I knew I would end up bank fishing Penwhirn for the day.
Penwhirn Reservoir sits in the Hills behind Stranraer & Cairnryan and was made by the damming of the Penwhirn burn in the 1950’s; it provides the freshwater drinking supply for the Stranraer and Wigtownshire area. For a reservoir Penwhirn is a picturesque place with the small dam wall on the east bank, the North shore has some bays and further round a large fishy looking inlet where the Penwhirn burn flows into the Reservoir. There is not much of a path round the south shore, which I find encouraging as there are few signs of this being a heavily fished location, local anglers obviously prefer the closer stocked waters. The walking round the water was difficult in places however with peat hags, the classic “babies heads” grassy tussocks and numerous inlet burns that after recent rain where very full.
The day started drizzly with very low cloud, I parked at the dam wall and walked over to the North shore (as advised in Bruce Sandison’s Bible). Whilst sitting in the heather I enjoyed the 1st coffee of the day and enjoyed the natural sounds of the meadow pipits, nesting gulls, skylarks and oh the horn from the 10.30 Cairnryan to Larne ferry!!, I was after all only 3 miles from the sea at Loch Ryan. There are some lovely bays and skerries on the North shore which are not apparent from the car park, a light wind in my face and an inviting ripple on the water, so I set up the #5 rod and decided to fish a dry. As there was nothing rising/hatching and only bushy brown things buzzing about on the heather, I obviously selected the bushy brown leggy fly from my box, ginked the bad boy up, waded/stumbled into the water, and began casting. Usually I start doubting fly choice after four casts so it was most fortuitous that a ¼ pound brownie attacked the fly on the third cast and the first of the day came to hand and more importantly the blank was off. Penwhirn is peaty water and after a lot of recent rain the water was coloured to the point that you could not see the bottom even when only knee deep in the water, this mean that some very careful wading was required on a steep rocky bottom.
The fishing however was great. I waded across the bays casting back in towards the shore. The fish loved my wee bushy brown friend and takes would often come when I started to retrieve the ginked up fly through the light ripple, takes were savage with the fish often leaping clear of the water with the fly in my mouths, I then waited for them to land to set the hook. 
I haven’t fished lochs (successfully) for a while and I forgot how hard and doggedly the wild brownies fight, it was great fun. The most enjoyable casts were the ones where I knew/suspected I would catch, working up to Reed beds, submerged rocks etc, landing my fly in the right place would end up with another spirited brownie, the size of these fish was in the level above “Bandy” with nearly all being ¼ - ¾ lb.
Stopping for lunch after six fish in the hand, all safely released, the weather had really broken by now, the sky was close to cloudless and the temperature was hotting up. Rooting through my bag I realised that whilst being equipped for a ditch landing in the North Sea in winter I had indeed left any form of sun protection in the car which was now a long walk away. Never mind I though it’s no that strong. Lunch was duly devoured as I changed over to a 3 fly cast for no other reason than it gave me something to do; I did however keep my wee friend on the Bob. Walking round towards the main Penwhirn burn I came across a smaller feeder burn and rather than jump over it, I jumped into it. Well turns out that said feeder burn was about 4.5 feet deep and I had an enormous shock as I disappeared into the peaty depths, after managing to climb out I began the Ministry Of Defence’s approved post accident checklist:-
• Fags dry and undamaged – check
• Contingency fags dry and undamaged - check
• Lighter dry and undamaged – check
• Contingency lighter dry and undamaged - check
• Fly rod undamaged – check
• Ankles, knees and body in same order as before – check.
I commenced fishing a new bay and very quickly I was getting savage takes on nearly every cast, however nothing would stick and I never landed a fish out of that small bay. Whilst winding in to move to the next bay I made a horrendous discovery, a poorly tied knot or extremely heavy fish had clean removed my “bushy brown leggy” fly from the top dropper, this was a disaster as I knew it was the last one in my box. 
I sat on a peat hag and stared into my fly boxes, nothing looked right until I remembered a cast holder that I had at the bottom of my bag, I opened it and there shining in the afternoon sun another wee “bushy brown leggy” thing, yippee. I tied it back on the bob dropper extremely carefully and began confidently fishing my way through the bays and skerries back towards the car. The afternoon was better than the morning I caught another 10 hard fighting ½ - 1 lb brownies, all apart from 2 on the wee bushy brown fly. It was great fishing I would of happily have fished on into the gloaming, evening, night, next morning however a family dinner was at 6.00 and I knew that I could not be late for that. Sometimes you just know these things.
I ponder why the fishing was so good, it’s like that every day (doubtful), or something more complicated like barometric pressure, I have had one day similar before where the day starts gloomy and wet and clears to blue skies and sun and the fishing has been very good.
I made the 15 minute drive home and got back just as the family were sitting down for dinner, the fact that they all pointed and laughed at me when I walked in was a worry. What had I missed, I checked the mirror and it was very evident that it was sun cream. Oh dear a sunburnt face with the clear out line where my sun glasses had been.
Lastly it turns out I missed a shocker at the swimming as the mother-in-law’s aunty also turned up and she had brought her swim suit too….yikes!