Busy month for Lake of Menteith anglers

At the LAKE OF MENTEITH the weather this last week has been rather variable, with high winds and heavy rain to very low wind and bright sunshine.

There have still been good reports of catches particularly on the dry fly around Gateside bay, Malling shore and Todd Hole.

The water level is now beginning to drop back to a normal height after a few dry days over the weekend.

The Ladies National Championship was held, with the overall winner being Jean Ferguson with 11 fish.

Jean won both heats making her the National and Overall ladies champion for 2019.

What a weekend at KINROSS TROUT FISHERY with 110 anglers over the two days and some amazing catch returns and a lot of fish caught on dries.

Flies of note were various dries, Ally McCoists, yellow eggs, yellow dancers and buzzers to name just a few, with fish active on the surface.

The £100 cash draw winner over the weekend was Stephan Lee, while the TroutMasters for the month stands at Grant Benvie 14lb 11oz, Shaun Craig 14lb 1oz and Robb Hall 14lb.

MONIKIE has benefited from the cooler weather and yet another stocking this past week. Fish are very active on the surface and responding well to dries and washing line tactics.

The Goth Fly Fishing Club with six boats (11 rods) kept 22 for 42lb 4oz and Arbroath Angling Club kept 38 for 76lb 8oz and returned another 35.

Notable individual returns included H Lewis with five for 10lb 8oz, J Gibb with four for 7lb 10oz and returning two.

Visitors E Craig and A Craig kept four fish for 9lb 10oz and returned 13, H Anderson and K Davidson returned all 12 caught, W Cathro and A Ramsay with eight for 17lb 5oz, D Brown keeping five fish for 11lb, K Giblin and B McLellan with 10 for 20lb and returning five, M Tidcombe and P Kilminster with 10 for 22lb 8oz and returning five, H Lewis with five fish for 10lb 12oz and returning three, H Anderson returning all seven caught, K Giblin keeping five for 10lb and D Couper with four for 9lb 9oz. Successful patterns included cormorants, dry flies, cormorant boobies, invicta, white booby, brown and claret hopper, Kate McLaren, goats toe and blue cruncher.

Last week at FRANDY FISHERY the top taking flies and lures included the yellow dancer, cormorants and the hot head damsel with the best fishing areas being in the middle to the far shore.

Fishing from the bank Andy Hunter, Alloa, caught and released nine, Raymond Pirrie (Tullibody) had seven c/r while Mark Ferry and Jimmy Short from Stirling kept 10 weighing 21lb while fishing from a boat.

On the angling club front Dundee West End AC kept 10 weighing 19lb 6oz, Pitcarmick A/C six weighing 10lb 14oz, Loch Inch A/C two for 4lb 8oz, Roybridge A/C five for 9lb and Wiremill A/C kept 12 weighing 20lb 5oz. Penicuik A/C kept six weighing 11lb 9oz, St Mungo A/C 13 for 24lb 10oz, Perth Ex-Servicemen’s A/C four weighing 7lb 6oz, Edinburgh Masonic Club had six for 12lb 12oz and Kelty Artisan kept 10 weighing 20lb 4oz.

At LOCH LEVEN the weather, especially the high winds, made for challenging fishing last week.

Some anglers managed to get some action and John Reilly, out on his own last Thursday, had a very nice basket of fish.

John had nine trout with the best estimated between 5-6lb and all were returned.

The fish were taken deep but using traditional flies.

The Kate McLaren had the most in the area just off Brock’s Hole to the Back of Yards at the very east end of the loch.

There has been a fairly prolific bloom of green algae this past 10 days which is quite unusual at this time of the year as normally there is a presence of brown algae (Diatom) in the back end of the season.

Fish are still “patrolling” the weed beds, ambushing the large numbers of fry to be found in or near to the weed but catching these trout can be very challenging indeed.