24th of March 2013 saw the opening day of the Lake of Menteith probably one of the coldest days I've ever fished ! It was bitterly cold, we were all so well wrapped up that it was difficult to tell who it was you were chatting to.

2013 Begins the new era of the Lake, the place has had a fantastic make over, much bigger car park and the building itself is much more conducive to the needs of the fisher people and staff, with an impressive entrance hall, booking facility, canteen, and lounge room with log burning fire to warm the cockles of your heart !

I was partnered up with a nice fellow called Greg, we hit the water at 10ish and like every body else looked for a sheltered bay so we fished the first bit of hotel bay...like every body else, it wasn't long before we saw a boat into a fish however there was a distinct lack of bent rods so we moved over to Shear point, after aimlessly drifting about we decided to give the cages a shot, the only thing we were catching were colds so we went over to international bay, I threw my line in, a gold bead yellow dancer followed by a gold bead daddy a buzzer and a diawl bach all on an intermediate line, we were quite close to the side and I felt some movement on my line so struck however the take I got felt strange there was not the usual tug followed by a run instead the line went tight and then I felt this heavy weight, thoughts of Pike went through my head once I realised that I did in-fact have a fish on, well I started the retrieve there was a lot of splashing on the surface, the fish felt huge it was only as it came closer that we could see what was going on, I had foul hooked it in the tail the poor thing was trying to swim away and I was pulling it in tail first, Greg managed to net it and I broke my duck.

After that we moved up to Loch End bay with no joy so decided to go over to Sandy bay which we new would bring us a little reprieve from the bitingly cold wind, it was then that Greg broke his duck with a nice two pound rainbow on a white booby and not long after got a blue on a buzzer and then a third which he caught twice as when he let it go it took again as it hit the water !

Having changed my flies to a white booby followed by a hears ear ant two buzzers I  was relieved to finish the day legally with a nice 2.5 lb rainbow on a black buzzer.

It was then that we decided to call it a day and head for home, the Lake had  put on the most wonderful hog roast with all the extras, apple sauce, stuffing and very crispy crackling for all the frozen participants.

Even though it was extremely cold we all had a very enjoyable time, so a big thank you to Quint and all the staff and helpers who made it a memorable event, keep up the good work, looking forward to many more happy fishing days at the Lake.