Saturday, 5th April

Lake of Menteith, Day Session

Thursday and Friday were 15 degrees, with a SW breeze.  Just the ticket.  Saturday was 5 degrees with quite the most annoying wind any of us could remember having at the Lake.  It came this way, then that, spinning the boat round and round.  In fact, conditions in general were never the same for more than 2 minutes.  At times it was almost calm, but later we had a wild squall that had us running for sheltered water (my arse bone is still sore from being bounced up and down on the thwart!).  At times we were peeling off the layers in the warmth of the sun.  Later we were blowing on our fingers to get the feeling back into them.  What a day!  Most folk packed-in with a wee bit left on the clock; we assumed out of frustration that it just was not any pleasure trying to fish in such conditions.

Bob Whyte, Bob Temple and Dougie Skedd discuss prospects

Apart from the odd shower of, variously, rain, hail and snow, most of the rest of the day the sky gave us bright, brassy sunshine.  So, all in all, not great fishing conditions.  Easy to make up excuses, if we needed them.  However, the fishing was OK.  There was a cracking good hatch of fly.  Buzzers small and large, stone flies and sedges (yes, sedges in April!) were all hatching.  And, when conditions allowed, there were fish up and feeding on them.  We found a good number on top in the shelter of the reeds between Sam's point and the Rookery.  Unfortunately, as the conditions were changing every few minutes, it didn't last, and there was no chance to have a go at them with dries.

Dougie Skedd with the first of the day

Dougie Skedd and I went with different tactics.  Dougie set up with DI-2, and a washing line rig of wee green-and-white booby on the tail with hare's-ear and claret snatchers on the droppers.  I'm afraid I was nowhere near so sophisticated.  I went DI-3, with black tadpole, cat's whisker and orange blob.  Well, the conditions weren't very inspirational!  As it turned out, we caught exactly the same number of fish, so I felt justified in my choice.  In fact, we had fish on all 6 flies.  We caught the usual well-conditioned rainbows and superb blues, but also had quite a few brownies.  These were obviously stocked fish.  In fact the colouration of some was quite unusual -- it seemed like the hatchery had put a bit too much astaxanthin in the diet, as they had orange pelvic and anal fins!  When I saw the first one flash under the water, I thought I had a perch, or a roach on!

Dressing for Arctic exploration, or fishing Scotland in April - it's much the same thing

After morning spells in home bay, the Rookery and the Butts, where we caught fish in all 3 locations, we repeated the tour in the afternoon, but couldn't repeat our success in any of them.  We tinkered with our tactics, and tried a few alternative spots, but all to no effect.  So, we ended up coming to the conclusion that the fish had been put off in the afternoon by the continuously changing weather.  Wrong!  It turned out that quite a few of the other boats hadn't started to catch until the afternoon.

A blue on its way in for Dougie

The road shore was a good spot (one place we didn't try).  Two of our best boats fished there.  John Miller and John Levy were both on DI-3s with lures (black and green tadpole, orange blob).  Len Newby and Tam Forrest fished a mixture, higher in the water (ghost tip and intermediate).  They had fish to fritz lures and tadpoles, but also to buzzers and cormorants.  Tommy Steven and John Robertson also had fish early in the Hotel Bay / Home Bay area, and when they went off there they had some success at Lochend.  Both fished DI-3s.  Their successful flies were damsel, viva and black tadpole.  Alan Duncan and Dougie Goddard had 5 to their boat, but no details supplied.

Er, that'll be the next change in weather on its way...

Bob Whyte was yet another to have success on a DI-3 line.  Bob had a bag to cat's whisker and black fritz in Gateside Bay.  Catch of the day was made by Bob's boat partner, Bob Temple, who equalled Tommy Steven's feat of a few years ago by catching a 20 pound pike on a yellow fly in Gateside Bay.  Tommy's was on a yellow booby.  Bob's was on a yellow dancer.  Pike do like yellow!

The club's total for 14 rods was a very respectable (given the conditions) 47 fish.

Photos: Canon 40D with (images 2 & 3) 17-40 mm L and (images 1, 4, 5 & 6) 55-250 mm IS lenses, both with polarising filters.