Lake of Menteith 19th Sept 2011

6ft Water Temp – 13C, Clarity (Secchi disc) 2.1m

Some cold nights have
started to undo the
summer stratification
of the water column,
and clarity has reduced
a little as a result of the
mixing but still
remains a healthy 2.1m. Catches have spread from west and
north western shores to the eastern drifts, with good catches also
being taken from Reedy Point, Hotel Bay, Shear Point and
Lochend. A variety of flies have as usual been doing the
business. Dries have been mentioned a lot in the last few days,
and the booby is as usual as deadly as ever. Left: Top rod in the first of the Scottish Club Semi-Finals was Andy
Dunn from Glasgow. Andy caught 17 fish (returned 14) by slow figure of eighting a booby (point fly), cruncher,
diawl bach and cruncher. Most of his fish were taken at Lochend and nearly all on the booby. Andy’s efforts
secured Change FF ‘A’ top placing on the day - their 3 anglers netted 35 fish. Also through to the Final are
St.Fillans and Lochearnhead (31 fish), Balfron Piscatorials (28), Grizzlecats A (23), Clan Chiefs A (23), Kinross
AC (20), Port Glasgow AC (19), Roscobie Loch B (19) and Caley Liners B (18). The 30 boats weighed in 169
fish for 466lbs (av.weight 2lbs
12oz) and returned 192.

New Monthly
Boat Catch
Record for the
Lake

August Analysis: Mean

weight of the fish in August was
a gut busting 2lbs 10oz. and
30.2 % of all fish caught were
returned. The average 8hr, two
man boat catch was 6.2 fish for
16.1lbs. The numbers caught per
boat are the best since April this
year, but it is the weight of fish
combined with the good numbers (i.e. the average
boat weight catch of 16.1lbs –includes 30% of
fish that were released) which is eye catching and
a Menteith record. Difficult to quantify and more
important than weight, was the condition of the
fish. I would say they were the best looking in my
time at the Lake. There was a good proportion of
resident type fish – thanks in a large part to
increased levels of catch and release. Not only
were the catches good but the red legs were on
and the dry fly fishing was excellent during
August. These fine photos were sent in by Colin
Riach after an outing in the middle of August.
They show the stomach contents of a Lake trout
and a nice blue with a “jaws effect” caused by the
water distortion.