In the 2004 series Trout ’n About, Paul Campion and Gregory Rankine team up with Primal Scream members Mani (Gary Mounfield, bass player) and Throb (Robert Young, guitarist – he left the band in 2006) for a visit to North Third Reservoir west of Stirling.
North Third is owned and managed by George Holdsworth, who bought it 20 years earlier. “It’s great, it’s brilliant,” he says. “I can’t think of a better job, to be honest. Absolutely wonderful.”
The reservoir is stocked with rainbow trout, with the record being one of 19lb 13oz. There are also lots of “wild brownies”, brown trout. The fishery doesn’t open in the winter because it gets too cold – the loch is 47ft at its deepest point, and the fish stay down in the depths.
George is an enthusiast for float tubing, “a very serious fishing technique” pioneered by Steve Parton. Inside the heavy-duty nylon is a truck inner tube, and another flotation device, making it very buoyant. Tubers wear life-jackets as well, and flippers on the feet.
Anywhere in the reservoir can be reached, and the angler is able to cast low to the water.
Mani catches a trout, and they all adjourn to the East India Company restaurant in Stirling for a trout curry, cooked with turmeric, coriander, onion and chilli.
