Daer Reservoir
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, 27 September 2006 14:43
- Written by Ian Phillips
When completed, Daer Reservoir, Elvanfoot, South Lanarkshire was the largest dam of its kind in the British Isles with an embankment length of 2,600 feet, maximum width at base of 680 feet and a maximum height above stream-bed of 135 feet.
Impounding of the water commenced in May 1955 and the first supplies were given off to the councils in June 1956, some 8 years after construction had began. On the 16th October 1956 the scheme was officially opened by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.
The completed reservoir has a total capacity of a staggering 5,300,000,000 gallons. From this over 20 million gallons of pure, fresh and sweet water are supplied each day.
The Daer was first stocked with fish from Loch Leven in 1958 and had not been stocked again until one hundred were put in at the start of this season.
Sunday 16 July 2006
The forecast on "metcheck" for Sunday 16 July was good when I left the office on Friday afternoon, 90% cloud and a 9 mph southerly wind, but during the weekend the forecast changed to 0% cloud and warm. I awoke at 0300 in the morning and looked to see if there were clouds in the sky, but by 0500 it was clear that it was to be a scorcher!
We had arranged for two guests to fish the Daer otherwise I would probably not have gone! The boats were arranged: Myself and John Allan in one boat with William Menzies and Brian Shaw (the River Ayr Trusts Senior Biologist) in the other. I left the house at 0720 and picked up William and John before picking up Brian at the Borland Reservoir in Cumnock. There was a fair breeze blowing at Borland and we then proceeded to head south through the Durisdeer pass to the Daer.
We arrived at 0830 with not a cloud in the sky. We arranged the boats, petrol outboard, electric outboard, boat seats and tackled up the rods. The kettle was on so we had a cup of coffee/tea before heading out at 0915.
I decided to go to the small dog leg which was a mistake with the wind constantly changing direction. William and Brian headed up to the shallows at the top of the loch.
I was into a couple of fish early on and John had one too - so at least we had not blanked! As we were not getting decent drifts in the small dog leg, at 1100, we decided to go to the top of the loch. Our first drift in the shallows produced fish and fish were rising so we decided to do this drift again, but didn't see or touch another fish.
We could see the other boat going down the road shore near the cottage and then heading in for lunch at Scots Pine Bay, so we followed. William and Brian had had a better morning than us with Brian catching eight fish on a Pearly Muddler, Green Peter Muddler and a Peterson’s Pennell. William had caught seven fish on a Bibio and a Black Pennell. We sat and watched fish after fish rising in the bay in the sun. It was a lovely day. I tied a cast as John tried his luck with the rising trout: a couple of touches were all he got.
At 1300 William and Brian headed back to the road shore where they had had success in the morning. We headed down the long shore where we started to pick up fish immediately. The fish were still on the top of the water and we drifted the shore taking fish when the wind picked up. It took us two hours to drift just past the ‘Big Stanes’ and we ended up with twenty four fish - killing twelve for 5lb. The taking flies were: Mallard & Claret, Sooty Olive Bumble and Black Pennell Muddler. The wind had picked up by this time, so at 1515, I decided to head for the road shore to avoid the possibility of a difficult crossing via the shallows.
We went about 75 yards in front of William and Brian and after ten minutes without a touch we called it a day. William and Brian came in just after us and said that they had not touched a fish for the last hour although they had had thirty for the day with two stockies, all returned.
Everyone enjoyed their days fishing in conditions that were far from perfect except the osprey who does not fish if the boats are out: he/she is very shy!
Additional Information:
Day tickets are available from :
William Rest
Crawford
Telephone: 01864 502 590
Ian Phillips
Secretary
Kilbryde Angling Club
100 Elizabeth Crescent
Cumnock
KA18 1QN
Telephone: 01290 420859
Mobile: . 07875 879838