Saturday, 4th September

Lake of Menteith, Day Session

Decent conditions for the main part, if a tad bright at times.  Light-mod westerly, warm, and the water had cleared from the colour put in by all the recent rain.  Only problem for those of us who come to expect some good dry fly sport at this time of the year was that the surface of the water looked like it had been Hoovered clean... then polished.  We saw about 2 rises for the day.  Maybe the culprit was all the rain -- long wet spells do seem to stop terrestrial insects getting into migration mode.

The day started with a bang.  It was like we dropped in on the fish having breakfast.  Many of our rods reported fish caught in the first few casts.  But, very quickly, they put their tin helmets on and it became much harder going.  Top marks for early action were Kate's Brae and Lochend.  Later, Butts Bay, Gateside and the hotel shore produced fish.

Ben Lomond, with her hat on

The fish were high in the water, and floater, ghost-tip and slime line were all that were needed.  The fish seemed to respond best to white.  In our boat, the majority of the catch came to small cat's whiskers and the same in boobies, figure-of-eighted, either on fast glass or ghost tip.

Going round the other boats, here's how it went...

Kenneth C had 3 to Diawl Bach, ace of spades and black pennell.  John M and George W had fish early, in International Bay, to Diawl Bachs, and later to dry fly (ginger hopper) in the Butts Bay.  Eric S took 5 to floater and a goldhead white lure.  Alans, M and H, had 8 in the boat from the Lochend area, to floaters and slime line, with boobies, Diawls, cats and damsels getting a mention.

If Ron's fish had come off at this point, there's a good chance he would have had an early bath

Stu B and Fraser topped that by 1, taking 9 to slime line and damsels, concrete bowls and Clan Chiefs.  Their early fish came again from the Lochend area, but later they tapped into a few in Gateside Bay.

Leon and Ron McC had the best of their sport later in the day, in the hotel bay area, with Leon catching 4 to a pearly bugger on a sink-tip and Ron two to a white booby on a sinker.

The club's total for 18 rods was 57 fish.