Saturday, 7th October
Lake of Menteith, Day Session
Conditions for the first 10 minutes of the day were very pleasant (see above). It was all downhill after that, as the westerly breeze grew and grew, and dreich, drizzly stuff turned into rain. That sucked the temperature out the air, and it got quite cool as the day progressed. Quint reported that fish had been getting caught on midge/ghost tip lines, but that had been in mild. less windy conditions. On the day, we had fish to everything from floater to DI-4. Given that spread, not surprisingly slime lines and intermediate got the most votes.
Tommy (busy) and Ivor (less so) at the pink buoy (that isn't there)
Fish were taken all round the water again. The butts and Gateside Bay/Stable Point were the top marks, with fish also taken at International Bay, the pink buoy (that isn't there), and the Rookery.
Tactics varied. John Miller and guest John Levy had equal top boat with 10, all taken on floating line, Diawl Bach and buzzers at the butts.
Dougie into an acrobatic blue in International Bay
Stewart Barnes and Bob Whyte took 9 to the boat on intermediates, with slow and figure-of-eighted retrieve. Stewart was on hot-head damsel and cormorant, and Bob on orange blob and cat's whisker. John Robertson and Bob Norris had another 10 in their boat. They got tuned-in at Stable Point, fishing DI-3s with a slow retrieve, and orange and black mini-lures.
A busy Gateside Bay
Yet another score of 10 went to Dougie Skedd and your correspondent. Dougie was figure-of-eighting a DI-4 with a Santa's cat booby and cormorants, while I had mine pulling a DI-3 with a white Howwood, a black and green mini-lure and a hare's ear palmer. We scratched around all day, taking an odd fish or two from 6 different locations without ever finding a concentration. Alan Morrison and John Gibson found fish on the go on their second visit of the day to the butts, and they finished with 9 between them, with Alan top rod on the day. Alan and John fished slime lines and cormorant/booby combos, with a figure-of-eight retrieve.
Our 2006 Club Champion Dougie Skedd, with one to the booby in Gateside
The club's 14 rods caught 53 fish -- a very creditable total in such unsettled conditions. We had another couple of big fish in our catches: rainbows at 7 lb 12 oz and 8 lb 12 oz.
Photos: Canon 10D with Sigma 10-20 (image 1) and Canon 28-135 IS (images 2-5) lenses
