Saturday, 29th May

Loch Leven, Day Session

Cap'n F on Uist.  JSB Reports...

The applications for Leven places have been very poor this season. This was no surprise considering the disappointing returns of last year.  The situation was exacerbated by a number of club members fishing in Uist, hopefully with better results than today, and this unfortunately left us with one of the poorest club turnouts of recent years – 7 rods to be precise.

In early morning the weather was sunny and calm which didn’t seem to bode well for the day.  On arrival at Leven some 2 hours later, thankfully with no hold ups at the Forth Bridge, the weather had changed completely.  It was dull, windy and much colder.  It was questionable whether or not this was better.  The word was that there were lots of fish up at the Sluices and Hole o’ the Inch.  This information, plus a strong East wind, meant that virtually all the fleet headed up to the far end of the loch.  On arrival there we had at least some shelter, but this was cancelled out somewhat by a couple of hours of steady rain.  The temperature wasn’t too bad and the Sluices produced a few fish, but not for our boats.  One or our number headed for the Hole o’the Inch, as did most of the other boats despite the pressure on that area.  The weather improved, but not the fishing.  Eventually, with a couple of hours to go, a second boat, fishless at the Sluices, joined the throng behind St Serf’s.

This proved to be a good move as it produced 5 fish, which was equalled by the boat already there.  Boat one succeeded mainly with white lures, while boat two took their belated 5 with buzzers on a DI3.  The fish were mainly stockies, with a best of 2lb 4oz.  The third boat decided to roam and went as far afield as the North Shore, another tipped area.  However, their sole reward was one small rainbow returned.

Some other boats, which had reached Hole o’ the Inch early, came in with good baskets of stockies. If one was to be kind, then it could be said that fish were there to be caught, but we are still far from repeating the Leven glory days of the past.

JSB