Saturday, 11th October

Lake of Menteith, Day Session

After it blowing a hooly for most of the previous week and a half, it all settled down unbelievably well, just in time for our last official outing.  The morning was flat calm with bright sunshine and the layers were peeled off, one by one as temperatures soared (well for mid-October anyway).  In such tricky conditions, most folk struggled early on, though Ian Mac had 2 in the first half hour on the washing line in international bay.  Jimmy M had a go on Hi-D and boobies, and picked up 3 at the drop-off to deep water at the pink buoy (that isn't there).

JSB and Alan M, setting up in the heronry, with Stu B and Stuart C beyond

By mid-day, the cloud cover was building up though.  A look around as the cloud came over showed us that fish were starting to rise, and that was our cue to get the dries on.  It was hard going, with almost nothing coming out the blue.  That meant you relied on covers, and the majority of fish were only showing once.  There was a wee spell of a corduroy ripple and during that 5 minutes you were guaranteed a fish, as the fishes' wariness of flat calm diminished and your own cover for your flies improved.

Then there came an interesting spell when a proper breeze got up for half an hour and pulling seemed the best bet.  However, again, nothing came out the blue -- but cover a rise (which were still going) and the fish would lock on and chase.   Unfortunately, we both went with slime lines and it was noticeable that as the flies were pulled under, the fish lost interest and broke off their chase.  A change to pulling on the floater resulted in our only hook up during the spell (albeit it fell of!).

After that, it went calm again and it was back to covering risers with the dries for the rest of the day.

A nice blue for Jimmy (an appropriate colour)

We managed a total of 5 each on dries, with Jimmy taking his fish mostly to a size 14 Hare's ear shuttlecock (fished as a single).  The other fly worth a mention was a size 14 candy stripe shipman, which caught for both of us.

Dries featured heavily among the catches.  John M had 5 of 6 on a claret Bob's bits, mostly in the heronry.  Dougie S, fishing with John had 4 on Klinkhammer and comparadun emerger.

Trevor G had a bag of 5, mostly to a carrot fly, fished wet/dry in International bay.  Stuart C and Stu B had most of their fish to dries, with an odd fish to snatchers, as did Fraser G, Tommy S and Steve-O.

Only boat to buck the trend was Alan M and JSB.  After a bit of trying around, they ended up in the hotel bay area watching 2 guys sconing fish big time.  After making enquiries, they went with Diawl Bachs on slime line (and later floater).  That did the trick and they took 6 apiece.

The Club's total for 18 rods was 42 fish for 85 lb 1 oz, with 19 returned.

Creity Hall Hotel (note to digital photographers -- PSP 8 for correcting converging verticals - brilliant!)

After the fishing, we enjoyed a cracking meal at the Creity Hall Hotel, where the Club's Champion for 2003, Tommy S, was presented with the Marr Bowl.  JSB was presented with the Singer Senior Trophy, as the inaugural Seniors' Champion.