“The Goldenloch Fishery”

Loch Conditions: 100% Clear
Temperature: 12 degrees
Water Clarity: 100%
Outside Air: Is 10 degrees
Feels Like: 12 degrees
Wind is: Constant Wind

01/09/2024

Summer is officially over now and its now Autumn, with this recent cold snap the leaves will start to turn, O boy so it hasn’t been a very good year so far what with the constant winds and it’s still a tad windy, but this has been a great week for fishing, not overly busy but the catches have been good, Darin Taylor returned 7 using an olive CDC, Sandy Band had 8, Jock on 3 plus a perch, Colin Hay out in the evening had 3, with lots of fish chasing great sport, he was out again the next night getting a couple and some perch, Ed Brown on 8 returned + perch “Great sport with nonstop action”, Iain Peddie 3 with S Gunn on 4 CDCs, Pete Hayes a couple of rainbows plenty fish moving, Donald Robertson 2 using a klinkhamer, Mark Chesser 6 all returned yellow owl, and Jim Watson had 5, while Dave Gonsales had 10 on a foam emerger, Sandy Band on 4 CDCs, Rod Thaw again doing well on 18 using a daddy long legs, Geoge Duff having a good day, 10 returned, CDC and emerges, Michael Fairweather after a summer break 15, returned, popper fry, damsels and CDCs two young lads today Sunday, blanked but caught perch. I suppose with all the abnormal weather we should be expecting very heavy rains soon, so I have cleaned out the overflow and the road runoff bund which protects the loch from contaminants, the loch is at 100% capacity with gin clear water and masses of hatching flies, I noticed in the water that there is some blanket algae which is very unusual for this time of year, time for the straw bales again, also there is a fair bit of ground deep water weed, this is great for the flies to hatch in and also good for anchors to get a hold off, Pictures this week by Steve Ayemad Nomad, his attention to small stuff is amazing, plus he loves to photograph jumping fish, also he catches whats happening in and around the loch, funny how the bird photographers all die away especially at the time of year when it is most interesting.
Fly Fishing @ the “Goldenloch” for trout with a home tied Fly, is one the nicest ways to relax the body and the brain, time and time again clients say how relaxing and peaceful fishing here is, a day’s fishing is something to look forward too, many people say a bad day fishing is better than a day at work.

So its been a long time since I posted on this web page I cant remember why I stopped but I think something happened that barred me from getting on the page however a lot has happened over the time that I havent posted But I will leave that for another day Report reads
Its been another strange week with hot and cold temperatures, some days blistering sunshine and others days very windy with real a cold feel to it, how’s it fishing, OK considering the changing temperatures, now without the catches book its hard to try and remember who was here, but if the Grandad that was sat in the car that used to fish here 20 years ago, and his granddaughter who went and got the book for him to read, would you please bring the book back, if you read this all you have to do is replace it, the water is now clear and the temperature is much lower, today Saturday we had 10 lads fishing, all catching even in these hard conditions, yesterday Sandy Band had a great day of the bank and Graham Wood was here again at night Old Sandy and Eck struggled with the wind but the other two lads in single boats managed to hook into something substantial and they stayed in the same spots all day, both getting good catches, the perch have become a huge problem, so much so I am considering closing for the winter and emptying the loch, allowing the perch to escape, to do this I need to get the relevant permissions SEPA SNH etc, Stuart Penman having a great time on the trout catching 0 perch, meanwhile his buddy Leslie Mitchell and Kirsten 14 and 5 respectively, Willie Watson the day before said he really enjoyed his days fishing with approx 8 trout and goodness knows how many perch but commented he had a great day, also Scott Fraser having a belter of a day hooked into a 6lb+ rainbow plus a few more commenting that the water was amazingly clear after the green of the week before, but the most important thing this past week, absolutely everyone had enjoyed their days fishing. Pictures today mostly by our resident photographer Steve Ayemad Nomad, Steve is really good at getting that one in a million pictures.
Fly Fishing @ the “Goldenloch” for trout with a home tied Fly, is one the nicest ways to relax the body and the brain, time and time again clients say how relaxing and peaceful fishing here is, a day’s fishing is something to look forward too, many people say a bad day fishing is better than a day at work.

Goldenloch Fishing Report 2019
email:john@john-nicol.co.uk Phone; 01337840355,07968006367
Secchi- 3 feet Temperature 16 Degrees Oxygen – High

“Goldenloch”
August-25th – 2019, Week 32

Been very useful this past week, I decided to pull out weeds, and it turned out very productive, with lots of sunshine the weed’s have grown very well this year, and I am so glad that we didn’t use any weed killer, although it is illegal, lots of fisheries use it, however with weeds in the water the washed in soluble nitrogen and phosphates get absorbed by the weeds which is great in preventing green algae, green algae is only found in water that is high in Nitrogen and phosphate, a big problem with algae is that if it is a longish bloom there is a very high risk of a sudden algae crash, which usually takes out all the fish, what I fear now, is that by pulling out these fully grown weeds and they are very easy to pull, am I running a risk of getting green algae, we shall just have to wait and see, its just such a fine balance, the fishing has picked up a lot, today Sunday was very hot and flat calm yet I think everyone caught something, yesterday Saturday, started very slow but by mid morning it had picked up significantly, Rod Thaw had a good few 8 or 9 all on different flies, Grant McGregor had 9 and dropped loads, John Bashford had 2 but lost loads, and that’s how its been all week, beginners on Sunday on our Buddy system had I am pretty sure 2 each, Grant enjoying his fishing just now was back yesterday evening, and caught 14 all on a mixture of dry flies, traditional wets and buzzers amazing evening was his comments, however its not all fun and some of the fish have suffered in the recent hot weather, it I suppose was going to be inevitable that there was going to be some casualties with the water being at nearly 20.5 degrees, in the interest of good husbandry please if any fish are caught that seem to be struggling please just despatch them and leave on the boat jetty where I will pick them up, thank-you. On both Saturday and Sunday we had at least 6 or 7 young Osprey trying to catch fish.

Fly Fishing is a Pastime, it is not only relaxing, but also rewarding, come to the “Goldenloch” enjoy your Hobby to the max, no stress, only tranquil surroundings abundant wildlife, great fish, Brown, Blues and Rainbows, you will not be disappointed. Phone 01337840355 or 07968006367 ask for John or look up Postcode KY14 6HZ

Goldenloch Fishing Report 2019
email:john@john-nicol.co.uk Phone; 01337840355,07968006367
Secchi- 5 feet Temperature 14 Degrees Oxygen – High

“Goldenloch”
August-19th – 2019, Week 31

Its been a pretty good week all-round, quiet but things have changed a huge amount, what with the water temperature dropping, its now down to a safe 14.3 degrees, so much of a drop in seven days, the water clarity is pretty near 100% perfect, oxygen is at its max 10%, plus I had a long interesting chat with a couple of visiting anglers from Sussex, both up for a weeks Salmon fishing, they fish a lot of major competitions, it would seem that the problem of fish going off rising is a lot more common in the country that I first was led to believe, they recon that its the insect life that’s not happening, this is to blame, they see deep water places (reservoirs) as pretty easy place to catch fish, but not on traditional flies, and natural places such as lakes and rivers as really difficult and challenging, I explained what this summer has been like here and both said that this is not uncommon down south, also said that anglers were really disappointed at the poor catches and as such have gone to easier pickings, down south is a very similar situation, and being honest the guys that go to these easy fisheries aren’t really a big loss anyways. but things here are improving with every day that passes, catches this week have been good Eddie Henderson, Perth 3 returned, Neil Christie 2 killed, Ham Anderson 8 all great fish and Ronnie getting 5 , Steven Smart 6 and Mike Farrell 2, Brian Stewart 6 returned, the Kettle Boys 6 in the heavy rain 2 killed, however they never moved out the one spot and the fish, well they were showing at the other side of the loch, Weeds are a planned removal, however they are confined to one area and not a problem, unless of course like some guys you deliberately go into them as that’s where the fish are, we have very little in fact no weeds up the side next to the jetties and have a plan to remove the reeds up the sides that are dying back now, in all things are much better that a month ago, hopefully the ospries will give up soon as their are a few every day.

Fly Fishing is a Pastime, it is not only relaxing, but also rewarding, come to the “Goldenloch” enjoy your Hobby to the max, no stress, only tranquil surroundings abundant wildlife, great fish, Brown, Blues and Rainbows, you will not be disappointed. Phone 01337840355 or 07968006367 ask for John or look up Postcode KY14 6HZ

Goldenloch Fishing Report 2019
email:john@john-nicol.co.uk Phone; 01337840355,07968006367
Secchi- 3 feet Temperature 20 Degrees Oxygen – High

“Goldenloch”
August-12th – 2019, Week 30

Water temperature is a lot better this week; however we seemed to have missed all the rain that fell in Kirkcaldy, Glenrothes and elsewhere, we have had rain but not a overly huge amount, with the drop in temperature the fishing is now totally different, I suppose the only thing to spoil it would be another massive rise in temperature, but catches are much better two lads fishing here for the first time on Thursday had 4 each, Grant McGregor 8 all returned he was using blue Dial Bachs, Colin 3 from the bank and John Bashford showing Stuart a thing or two about fishing he had 2 fish, water clarity is good, with almost clear water now, the insect life coming back things are improving nicely, this year has pushed some boundaries’ to the absolute limit in nature, but left alone things to come back to normal, interestingly some fisheries, are just desperate to clutch as many clients as possible, stocking and advertising the stocking one day, then within a day or two at most claiming great catches on flies, I cant believe that these anglers gain much satisfaction from going catching because it certainly isn’t fishing, here it is a totally different scenario, anglers have to find the fly that’s doing the business, recently a blue Diawl Bach seems to be the favourite.

Fly Fishing is a Pastime, it is not only relaxing, but also rewarding, come to the “Goldenloch” enjoy your Hobby to the max, no stress, only tranquil surroundings abundant wildlife, great fish, Brown, Blues and Rainbows, you will not be disappointed. Phone 01337840355 or 07968006367 ask for John or look up Postcode KY14 6HZ

Goldenloch Fishing Report 2019
email:john@john-nicol.co.uk Phone; 01337840355,07968006367
Secchi- 3 feet Temperature 20 Degrees Oxygen – High

“Goldenloch”
August-05th – 2019, Week 29

Was looking forward to writing a report that was exhilarating and exciting, well
that’s not going to be this week, Westmill dropped in 140 fish on Tuesday average weight 897g that’s just a smidge under 2 lbs / fish a really not bad size, pretty perfect for today’s anglers, they took to the water like torpedoes I better add in here of course they were all as you would expect, it’s a lot of years that we have been buying fish from Cloan / Westmill, anyways the fish very quickly settled in the weeds at the far side where the temperature in the weeds is 15 degrees, but Andi Halley and I had plans to reduce that, so we spent a bit of time arranging ropes, nylon and wire, then did the biggest pull I think has ever been done at the Goldenloch, a huge amount of weed was extracted as well as the overspill which is still in the loch, awaiting a wind to blow it ashore, working with Andi is hard as he never stops, but being honest although the loch looks a bit of a mess just now after a strong wind it will look fantastic, fishing is getting much better, not good between 8am and 3pm but early morning after 4am and after 9pm at night are good Lol, but some chaps doing good like Grant McGregor, just back from his summer hols popped up on Wednesday, 4 released and a few more coming of his barbless hooks, Ralph Henderson 3 killed and 2 released on Dial Bachs, Darrin Taylor 2 on red things and a few offers but others struggle Derrie fishing during the day a blank as a few others, Dougie ex the star had 2 and so did a few others the fish, are feeding again but the water temperature is so high at 20.6 degrees in the middle, however it is 15/16 in the weeds and that is the big plus about having weed, with this weather forecast to continue it wont be long till fisheries start having loses, in 35 years being involved in running a fishery this is the first time I have seen such a constant high temperature, its been here before but never for more than a few days, but I will say that I can be happy in the fact that everyone fishing has enjoyed their visit, on the stickle back war I reckon that I am winning, now just using traps, the electro rod being too severe, had some campers here on Sat night cant believe they were so well behaved and that there was wood left over, here is the video of us pulling weed

Fly Fishing is a Pastime, it is not only relaxing, but also rewarding, come to the “Goldenloch” enjoy your Hobby to the max, no stress, only tranquil surroundings abundant wildlife, great fish, Brown, Blues and Rainbows, you will not be disappointed. Phone 01337840355 or 07968006367 ask for John or look up Postcode KY14 6HZ

Goldenloch Fishing Report 2019
email:john@john-nicol.co.uk Phone; 01337840355,07968006367
Secchi- 3 feet Temperature 20 Degrees Oxygen – High

“Goldenloch”
July-29th – 2019, Week 28

So these past few weeks the fishing has been pretty horrific, although some guys have done reasonable others have not, the reason being the massive influx of Sticklebacks which I have never seen before, where have they come from, I have no idea, but they are there, not one for sitting on my backside, I decided to try to fix this new situation, which I now believe I have done, having a lot of work on putting it all back into shape, even to the point of thinking on doing what some other fisheries have done, by putting in mega big fish and watching the acclaim as in on the next day, seeing lads catching same, but that’s not “Fly Fishing” is it, its just plain old catching, a bit like tossing balls in a bucket at a fairground, you are going win sometimes, and it doesn’t really take much skill, challenging it isn’t, in the words of anglers there is nothing better than matching the right Fly with the conditions and fish, So what’s been happening here at “The Goldenloch”, well firstly, I have been trapping thousands of adult Sticklebacks, in several traps that can be easily bought online, I must say it is very effective and satisfying to find full traps, but very quickly and distinctly noticeable the numbers start to decrease, at the same time the trout can be seem rising again, birds start feeding over the water, a sure sign here at “The Goldenloch” things are improving, today Sunday, empty traps “WOW”, what is that about, another attack to get rid of this pest has been with the destroyer, which again can be bought online and set up, it sucks up all the wee the wee fish {pinheads}, munches them and spits them out, again very effective, an area with literally millions of pinheads, now has nothing, as you will note I am sharing this info with other fisheries as I feel that this is good for the sport, if others want more info, please get in touch, the introduction of perch which is done, will see a natural solution to getting rid of these little pests as they the perch love to eat the pinheads, but by far the most effective control was the “Electro Fishing”, I bought two machines, but only used one as it is / was Brutal, in that apart from killing several trout and stunning loads more, it totally wiped out hundreds of thousands of pinheads they just turned over and sank. A few guys saw me using it and were impressed by its effectiveness, but it is pretty good at killing stuff, small stuff, so I had to limit its use, Andrew my fishing guru, has pretty much said that it will be hard to get the fish that are feeding on the snails and shrimp to start taking flies, but a I have a load of new fish going in on Tuesday 30th July of 1 kilo rainbows, which I hope will be a good start, unfortunately this for a good few means paying to fish again, as for the last 6 weeks I have not been taking any money from lads that offered to pay before fishing, instead I asked that they put in the box a £5 for every fish caught, but loads of guys insisted on paying and to them thanks for the support, a few “Golden Tickets” have been handed out, but many didn’t and they still had a good day, I will say that every person bar 1 has enjoyed there days fishing here, I have been thinking about what I said the other week and there is a fishery that I think does things petty near perfect and that is the “Newton Farm” John Callison puts in large fish, not massive pellet pigs, but fit hungry large trout and they themselves will be great predators, he also nets them into his water, a task I often thought futile, but now see it as a proper way to introduce trout to the water, in that by dumping the water onto grass, he prevents eggs and young juveniles of unwanted species getting into his fishery, well done John plus I know the hours you put into clearing weeds, here the water and weed situation is well under control, I have good water albeit 20 degrees but the oxygen level is great, the weeds are where I want them to be see the drawing, but I need to remove some, which will get done after this hot spell passes, so what is next well I think another load of fish next week and we will be up and running again, complete removal of margin weeds are important as this is where the pinheads hide, if my dumper driver turns up this will be done, Oxygen levels all over the loch are pretty near perfect with 8 > 9% o2 dissolved, being really good, when you think about it we as humans live on 11>12% o2 in air, the only down at the moment is the water temperature at 20 degrees, and the ospreys coming nearly every day.

Fly Fishing is a Pastime, it is not only relaxing, but also rewarding, come to the “Goldenloch” enjoy your Hobby to the max, no stress, only tranquil surroundings abundant wildlife, great fish, Brown, Blues and Rainbows, you will not be disappointed. Phone 01337840355 or 07968006367 ask for John or look up Postcode KY14 6HZ

Goldenloch Fishing Report 2019
email:john@john-nicol.co.uk Phone; 01337840355,07968006367
Secchi- 3 feet Temperature 20 Degrees Oxygen – High

“Goldenloch”
July-22nd- 2019, Week 27

The thing is that after 30 plus years of being involved and running a fishery, there is a way of doing things, and knowing what to do, a lot is anticipating the season, what anglers want from a fishery, for example over the past few years everyone has electric motors and they want to get their vehicles right up to the boats, more elderly lads want to get to the waters edge, so as they don’t have to walk far, however the one thing I never ever expected was an complete infestation of this disgusting pest, anglers expect to catch fish, quite rightly so, I have to do something to get back to where we were before, what I am trying to achieve, is complete annihilation of these pesky sticklebacks, therefore a bit of planning and some very interesting strategy is being applied, firstly the purchase of two industrial electro fishing machines, then the relevant probes and earths manufacture, it took two weeks to get the machines here, plus with manufacture they are now up and running, impressed “Hell Yeah”, reckon we are a couple of hundred thousand pin heads less, dead, electrocuted, its hard work though, but the fruits are being seen already, the fishing is still pretty crap, but its definitely getting better, the fish in the loch do not like, an electric stun, they can be quite clearly seen and boy are they fit, I mean not just jumping fit but they are in great physical shape, on Thursday past an amazing 10lb fish was caught using a Diawl Bach it took over 30 mins to land and its 2nd wind was just pure energy, so back to the stickle backs, my new device “The Grinder” is doing its job, good style, with the cover hopefully going on tomorrow its efficiency and effectiveness will be increased a thousand fold, traps and netting are yet to arrive, they will be deployed in the next week, so with Andi Halley who made an amazing job at weed removal, we have in the loch only one weedy area, and that is going to stay, as it is just crammed with ground feeding, snails and shrimps etc, over the weekend and last week a lot of fishing has been enjoyed, Grant McGregor 4 all returned, now on Tuesday, John Bashford was giving lessons to a 10 year old, and his Grandad, both on there own caught a 3lb trout each and John then went on to catch 4 most were on Diawl Bachs others fishing basically have all caught fish albeit just one or two, On a lighter note our local photographer John Brown took this rather interesting drone flight over the hill, this so as people who have never been can see what is up there.

Fly Fishing is a Pastime, it is not only relaxing, but also rewarding, come to the “Goldenloch” enjoy your Hobby to the max, no stress, only tranquil surroundings abundant wildlife, great fish, Brown, Blues and Rainbows, you will not be disappointed. Phone 01337840355 or 07968006367 ask for John or look up Postcode KY14 6HZ

Goldenloch Fishing Report 2019
email:john@john-nicol.co.uk Phone; 01337840355,07968006367
Secchi- 3 feet Temperature 19 Degrees Oxygen – High

“Goldenloch”
July-15th – 2019, Week 26
We have a massive problem just now with stickle backs, but we are waging an all out war on them, thank goodness they are not on the protected list, nor that the “Goldenloch” is registered as a site of interest, but this is an ecological disaster and its not just here, so we need a plan, I have come up with a 3 idea plan, starting this week, 1 and 2 are relative simple ideas but 3 is very extreme, but is the one that will work however it is a bit whacky, seriously though this problem this year is pretty much just going to get worse, next year could be a complete disaster, not wishing a repeat of a recent club visit here and their absolutely atrocious stinking attitude, all bookings for July have been cancelled by phone, on that point vouchers and gift tickets issued before 1st Jan 2019 will not have a use, recently a whole lot of photocopied vouchers were presented, so we having to do some serious changes now, and for future years, the first is to admit that we took the wrong decision in thinking that anglers wanted a top class place to come and relax, enjoying their pastime in as near to a natural fishing, using as near to natural flies that are available, what it seems like they want is big easy to catch Piggy’s, so big fish it is for next season, and starting as from now, the ban on wotsits, snakes, squiggles, and all the other horrible things is no more in force, sad, but a fact that there are just so many guys that rely on these to catch fish, as for the big fish if only anglers knew what happens to these fish to make them into Pellet Pigs, I would doubt that any Piggy’s ever get eaten, selected from large juveniles’, they are injected with stimulants at a very early age, then fed at their demand for the next two or three years, high protein, growth promoting pellets and that’s how its done, its all artificial in a controlled environment, most of the stuff is oil based and not nice, its banned in most other forms of husbandry, It is a well known fact that these fish are pretty easy to catch as several chaps that catch them easily have come here and not performed very well, but the fishing here just now isn’t that bad even with the small fish, with very few lads blanking, one really big mouthed guy who was due to pay, spouted off and I believe has done so else where, stating that he had blanked on four outings, on checking, yep he had blanked the last time he was here, but it was in a howling gale, definitely he wont be back. To-day Sunday, an early morning angler on the water at 4am had 11 fish, all returned by 8.00 am, he also lost a few, Stewart and Ewan 4 fish in 2 hours, enough, too much hot sun, that ended their day, David Wilson and David Kyle in the blistering sun had a good time, with a few lost D W 1, in the bag but hysterety levels were at an all time high, however the past week has been not that bad OK so the fishing isn’t what it should be but the relaxation and peacefulness’ is great, Brian Kemp I think had 3, Neil Christie I am sure had 2, Derek Robertson 3, Brian Stewart 10, Sandy Smith 2, Grant McGregor 4, A Drummond 3, Steven Scobie fishing with his girlfriend Tammy both had 2 each, plus lots of others not recorded in the book. It just is annoying that anglers do not appreciate the effort that goes into keeping weed free margins, a good healthy stock, clean working boats, weed free water, all they want is to complain for the fact that they cant catch fish mmm , The Golden Rule here is enjoy your day and relax in the original tranquil surroundings – Tight lines – Time for change

email:john@john-nicol.co.uk Phone; 01337840355,07968006367
Secchi- 3 feet Temperature 14 Degrees Oxygen – Medium-High

“Goldenloch”
July-01st- 2019, Week 24

Pond life, in lochs, reservoirs’, lakes is an amazing natural phenomenon, it has been studied by gazillions of people since the beginning of time, it has however in the last 20 or so years reached a level of science and a certain amount of public awareness that’s never been seen before, people want to see things in a new healthy vibrant light, not as was in days of old when pollutants and sewage were put into waterways and ponds, even a wee fishery like ours in long gone days, weed control was a granular herbicide applied in March and no then no weeds all year, it said on the bag no affect on the insects or fish????, but those days have gone, its up to nature to change or not change what is happening, recently we have had a bloom in the water, which we thought was causing fish to be slow to feed, hard fishing, fish not willing to show themselves, however we have almost clear water again, the fish are just as awkward, the fish that are jumping are eating pinhead minnows, these little blighters are in their millions, are about 2 cm long, a bright silver, its them that the fish are jumping clean out the water as they take them from underneath, every fish caught just now is absolutely crammed full of snails, pee mussels, shrimp and blood worm, however its not all lost as there are now flies hatching, not a lot but they are hatching, so its all in the bottom this year and that’s just the way it is, some people are doing very well and its just getting the right fly combination and a dull day, these last few days of bright sunshine were a killer, Saturday 29th June saw the water start to clear and by today 1st July it is flawless with perfect visibility, why and how is just daft or an unknown, the fishing has pretty much resumed as normal a few anglers over the weekend getting 4s and 5s today sees Dave Swinlay Snr and Jnr here, with both catching in the first ½ hour of being here, Grant McGregor 6 all returned and Dave Wilson fresh from his Holidays 5, so without any intervention it has come good and anglers should all be happy again.

Fly Fishing is a Pastime, it is not only relaxing but also rewarding, come to the “Goldenloch” enjoy your Hobby to the max, no stress, only tranquil surroundings abundant wildlife, great fish, Brown, Blues and Rainbows, you will not be disappointed. Phone 01337840355 or 07968006367 ask for John or look up Postcode KY14 6HZ