Monikie’s opening marked by strong blustery conditions

Despite the strong winds over the first days of the season, the Island and North Ponds at MONIKIE have been fishing well for those anglers who braved the wind.

On the Island, which has been more exposed to the wind, Di3 or fast glass lines have proved to be the most successful, with black & green lures, nomads, orange blobs and hothead damsels being the taking flies.

The North has been more sheltered and while Di3 and fast glass lines with the same flies have been taking fish, floaters and midge tips with diawl bach’s and buzzers have also worked when fish have been seen rising in the sheltered areas.

Some of the notable catches include R Keith taking five for 9lbs 11oz plus four fish returned on the Island, C Milne taking five for 11lbs 2oz on the North, H Anderson on the North taking 10 for 21lbs 6oz, L Irvine and A Rose on the Island taking 10 for 19lbs 3oz, A Phillip and B Robertson on the Island taking 10 for 24lbs 8oz.

The Khats Whiskers AC were the only club out so far but fared well with four boats on the Island pond taking 21 for 46lbs 8oz, including a cracking 7lb 2oz overwintered rainbow caught by B Duffy.

CARLOGIE DAM has seen a rise in the number of anglers now the weather is slowly improving.

Buzzers, lures and WSW’s are proving the most popular flies and some have started to fish dry flies.

Recent catches include Brian Longmuir, Arbroath, c/r 30, Frank Ferrier, Arbroath, c/r 15, M Price, Arbroath, c/r 15, S Spence, Arbroath, caught and kept two, Ally Stewart, Dundee, c/r 10, Tim Hale, Forfar, c/r 2, George Woods, Montrose, c/r 14, Jim Smith, Forfar. c/r 20, Jock Leslie, Forfar, c/r 10+, Gordon Skelton, Arbroath, c/r 5.

Alan Twaddle, Arbroath, c/r 8, Bruce Thomson, Arbroath, c/r 19 including a 4lb, Bill Beattie, Forfar, c/r 8, John Thompson, Dundee, c/r 12, including a 8lb, Joe Westland, Arbroath, c/r 27, including a 6lb rainbow, Ben Bosch, Carnoustie, c/r 3, Ian Middleton, Arbroath, c/r 10, Colin Tait, Brechin, caught 11 kept 4 for 8lb and returned 7, Jim Strachan, Wellbank, caught and kept 4 for 9lb. Opening day at RESCOBIE

LOCH saw 14 boats venture out in the blustery conditions and 29 fish weighed in with some anglers catching the four-fish limit.

M Johnston caught an excellent brown trout of 7lbs 4oz, and C Pyke a rainbow trout of 5lbs 12oz.

Good conditions on Friday, Saturday and Sunday have brought the anglers to the loch with nearly all the boats out on the water.

Clubs fishing include Ferry Fly Fishers, who had 28 fish for 68lbs 4oz, and Rainbow AC, who had 17 for 47lbs. Anglers catching the four fish limit were Lee Anderson, four for 10lbs 8oz; Scott Reith ,four for 10lbs; Bob Buick, four for 9lbs 8oz; Magaret Norrie, four for 8lbs 12oz; Jim Moncur, four for 8lbs 12oz and Davie Milne, four for 8lbs 8oz. The 2017 season at LAKE OF

MENTEITH opened on Saturday with a relatively mild and settled window of weather.

Buzzers had been hatching in the calm conditions and the fish were feeding avidly upon them.

The best tactics on the day were fishing near to the surface with midge tip or intermediate lines with boobies, fabs, cormorants and buzzers.

Fish were also taken on pulled lures including snakes, (mainly pink). Fish were found in all areas but many boats concentrated on the area from the Butts to Lochend.

There were also some large 7-9lb fish caught in the Heronry and Malling Shore. A feature of the day was the number of large fish between 5-10lbs that were caught.

A total of 454 were recorded as being caught, of which 41 were killed for a total weight of 97lbs, 4ozs. Five boats did not fill in the return sheet so the total will be higher.