Saturday, 30th August

Lake of Menteith, Day Session

A truly idyllic late summer day, this one... so much for the forecasters call of a sharp northerly breeze!  It was never more than a zephyr, although unfortunately for the chances of settled fishing conditions, it came from every point on the compass several times over.  The early sun even gave way to reasonable cloud cover.  The water had a brown tinge to it, but visibility was good.  There were odd buzzers hatching and black gnats and shield bugs on the water, but very little inside the spooned fish.

Our boat started at International bay, and we were into fish from the first cast.  I was on a fast glass and washing line set up, figure-of-eighting a candy-stripe snatcher, a Diawl Bach and a small black and gold booby on the point.  The booby got the lion's share of the action.  Stuart C also fished a slime line and his successful flies included this March brown/coch-y-bondhu cross and a buzzer.  However, after a couple of hours, someone threw a switch and the fish went off very suddenly.  There was still the odd oncer showing, and a change to dry fly proved successful, although it was very much a case of sitting patiently, waiting for a take out the blue.  The oncers were far too widely spread to get in among them and there were very few steady risers to get a bead on.  Nevertheless, any fish coming across the flies seemed happy to come up and take them -- very positively!  Successful patters were a CDC heather fly, and a fiery brown hopper (to imitate the shield bugs).

Steve-O and Eric G chill out

The fish were of a good quality, as this one of standard stamp shows.  We even had a blue, although the blue colour of the back doesn't show up well in the photo (the silver flanks, do, however!)

Elsewhere on the water, Dougie G also found the washing line set up the most successful method, and also found the booby was the one to take the fish.  Dougie fished the heronry and when the fish there put the shutters up on the washing line, he kept the action going by switching to booby and UFS.  Ron McC was another to have success with booby, taking a brace to this orange/fritz pattern on Hi-D at the hotel shore.  I don't know if Ron realised the hook was opened out really badly.  The photo was taken after I had a go at shutting it!  Leon J took a couple to PTN and hare's ear nymphs up at the plantation.

Stuart C with the first of the day

Richard G fished the hotel shore and the road shore, taking fish early to viva and cat's whisker on medium sink, before switching to dries later.  Richard reported a heron flying out from the side to have a go at his fish while he was landing it, not once but twice.  We also witnessed this confused bird attempting to have a go at a fish being landed.  What did it think it was going to do with a 2 lb rainbow?  Maybe it was a young bird that hadn't got things quite worked out, or maybe it has been watching the myriad cormorants and fancies what it has seen.  We saw a cormorant with a 2 lb plus fish, which it was clearly having difficulty in swallowing.  All in all, it was a day of problems for the bird life.  We witnessed an osprey dive and grab a fish that must have been just over the maximum limit for osprey payload.  Three attempts to get airborne later, it had to admit defeat and let the fish go.

The club's total for 15 rods was 28 fish for 56 lb 4 oz, plus 3 returned.