Lake of Menteith, day session, 14th April.

The Lake is in full swing, despite the Foot and Mouth restrictions (you will need to drive in over disinfectant mats). The day was milder and much more blustery than during the week leading up to it. It also rained all morning, clearing up later. A few fish fell to typical early season tactics in the first hour, but very quickly changed their behaviour. Those who stuck to Hi-Ds and lures struggle as the day went on. There was a reasonable hatch of black buzzers coming off, and although many anglers concentrated on intermediates or medium sinkers, our top rod by a long way got his fish on a couple of black size 12 wet flies. These were fished on the Hi-D, even though the fish were high in the water. Why change when you are having success? His hefty bag of 8 for 17 lb 8 oz plus 2 returned was 5 better than the second placed rod. The latter fished a damsel on the slime line over at the area of the pike nets. This area was a hot spot for many, while the other catching areas were the road shore and hotel bay. The Club's return was 12 rods weighing in 32 fish for 64lb 9 oz.

Two anglers had a scare when their boat capsized, turning into the wind. Fortunately they were in relatively shallow water near a downwind shore, so they were able to scramble ashore and most of their gear washed in after them. A point to note... One of the anglers was wearing a non-automatic, inflatable life jacket, the thinking being that if you fall in, you just inflate it by blowing into the mouth tube. Forget it, he said. When the cold of the water and the shock of the situation hit you, you cannot even draw a breath, let alone inflate a life jacket.