Saturday, 12th April

Lake of Menteith, Day Session

Signs of spring show as new greens on the landscape

Another glorious day, and we are starting to wonder if this might just be a year of good weather.  On the other hand, it will likely go pear-shaped in May and June, as it usually does!  The only problem from the fishing perspective was the almost unbroken sunshine.  It didn't stop fish from getting caught downstairs, but it put to total waste, a fantastic hatch of buzzers.  The sand martins hadn't arrived yet either, so there were thousands of them going uneaten -- the Lake fish never seem to get going on the pupes, only the emergers and they wouldn't poke their noses up for them in the bright conditions.  Jimmy M and Stu B took one or two wintered fish by trying here there and everywhere.  Jimmy had one on his flashback Cove PTN.

Derek K lifts into a fish in International Bay

So, it was a case of going after stockies, and there were 4 main groups that our rods found.  Early on the fish in international bay obliged, but as they took a bit of pressure, boats peeled off to Kate's Brae and found fresh sport there.  Needless to say the fish at Kate's took a bit as well, and the last area to get tapped into was in front of the hotel.  The hotel fish must like a long lie  --  many boats started there in the morning and did nothing, but the boats that returned there late in the afternoon had plenty sport.  The fourth area was around the burnmouth in Gateside bay.

Mike P with a stockie of standard stamp

Most of our bags were taken on black minilures and black tadpoles, although Trevor G and Alan H reported taking their hotel bay fish mostly on white.  Lines, didn't matter too much, as Derek K caught with DI-3, Tommy S and Bob N with UFS.  Mike P and I had them on Hi-D and later, when we sensed they were higher in the water, slime line and even ghost tip.  In addition to those caught while doing standard retrieves, we found takes coming at all manner of odd moments: dropping in, during a pause in retrieve, while reeling in, flies hanging over the side of the boat, etc!  Mike did well with Jimmy's black tad, while I found the fish almost exclusively picking out my middle dropper, a wee sparkler type lure based on Ronnie Robb's Kate McLaren booby!

The club's total for 12 rods was 42 fish for 79 lb, with 4 returned.