Allochie Lochan
This bonny stillwater is leased to the club by Richard Holman Baird of Rickarton Estate, our major Cowie proprietor.
It is slightly larger in area than Crossley Quarry (see below) and is dammed at one end with a boggy area at the other and heather covered banks on both sides. In fact, if you blank out the sound of occasional passing traffic on the adjacent Netherley Road, you could easily imagine you are fishing a true highland loch!
This fishery has a super population of extremely rare Water Voles which the club works very hard to protect from predation by Mink. We are also privileged to have occasional visits by an Otter from the nearby Monboys Burn, a tributary of the River Cowie. It is currently cared for by convener, , and recent innovations include some unobtrusive casting platforms, several benches, two lifebelts, a wooden shelter hut and a lockfast adjacent members-only car park, with security keys available for members at £14.00 each.
Cormorant predation of our over-wintering rainbow trout and of those stocked during the fishing season itself, is a serious problem at Allochie and potential solutions such as fish refuge cages (recommended by a joint agency report on controlling cormorant damage in fisheries) are being studied.
Allochie contains several previously-stocked large rainbows and, like Crossley Quarry, is restocked annually with fresh smaller fish including Blue Trout, which seem to put on weight effortlessly. It is strictly a 'floating line with dry fly or nymph only' water (no weighted flies). The club prefers its anglers to use barbless or crimp-barbed fly hooks. Whilst the club actively encourages its members to fish on a catch-and-release basis, a daily creel of one fish may be taken.
