The first Stirling Castle AC outing of 2013 was this weekend at Lake of Menteith. The Lake and me have a bit of a schizophrenic relationship. On one hand I love the place, its big enough to be challenging but can throw up copious fish and it can be very changeable at times. But then it can be very challenging, the fish can be hard to locate and the some spots will just not fish well at all.
What would this day be like? Funnily enough I have never had a truly great day there in terms of fish caught. Having said that, I know I am not alone. One chap I spoke to had been there 8 times and only ever blanked… and he was not a rubbish angler.
I was paired up with Dougie again and I fitted my new electric outboard to the boat to give us more stealth in the bays.
We started up at Lochend where it was fairly calm. We had only had maybe ten minutes and Dougie had his first fish on a blue bushy dabbler style fly. On his Di3 he had a three fly cast with a booby on point I had two flies, a cormorant on point and a green and black spider pattern, which I chose due to the number of midges hatching off on an intermediate line. Dougie was .
We had no more interest and moved up towards the Todd Hole area but still had nothing. The Fleet was mostly at the hotel bay. The wind was picking up a little and south-easterly. I was hoping it might brighten up and warm up too. I had a few false alarms thinking there were fish but think it was probably weed.
This was the story of my morning, I seemed to get a lot of weed on my intermediate line but Dougie on his Di3 and point Booby was getting a clean retrieve. Very frustrating. I changed flies several times to no avail and by the time we motored to Sandy Bay ( the start of the drift into the Butts was getting busy with boats) I was on buzzers. This area was moving with midges though not fish it a seemed.
Along into the section between Sandy Bay, Heronry and into the Roman Bay as I was moving the boat Dougie hooked into his second again on the bushy fly.
We fished this side for a while all the way along but never had any more. After a lunch break we moved right up the top end of Roman Bay drifting in from Dog Isle and I had my first proper touch a dragging feeling and a slight tug but no take. A move round to the reeds and another touch but no fish. I definitely wasn’t missing the takes the fish were just not being committed enough.
The cold wind from the early half of the week seemed to return so we decided to cross the lake back to the Butts to get some shelter.
I expected it to be busy as there were few boats to be seen elsewhere but there were in fact only 3 or 4 here.
Starting at Bogle Knowe and drifting the shore I had at least another two touches but still nothing solid.
As we neared the promontory of the Butts and Arnmach we started to see a few boats ahead of us pick up a few fish. By now the wind was stronger and our boat had no drogue ( annoyingly, as I had a drogue in the car but understood the fishery supplied them with the boats, you are not supposed to use your own)  so holding slow enough to get a decent time to fish well but Dougie picked up number 3 then soon after 4 on yellow dancer. I had by now been through about 20 flies including some of the same patterns Dougie was catching on. He was now also on an intermediate. I now had a damsel on point, yellow blob on middle dropper and a Bibio dabbler on top. I was also wondering what I needed to do to get a fish. Then I did. The take was subtle but a small 2lb rainbow came to the blob. Despite the gentle take the fish was very solidly hooked and fought very hard.
Another drift and number 2, a Blue,  in similar fashion, some boats able to hold station better with a drogue were really hammering the fish right near the point of the promontory.

menteith hotspot

Map of the Lake showing the spot with al lthe fish on the day we visited

After a period of some very annoying tangles with leaders and the engine and a boat that was drifting too fast, Dougie picked up number 5. I think on a blob, then I picked up my third on a pale olive ( almost yellow ) damsel. On a later drift I lost a fourth it seemed on then the line went slack and finally near the end as I was lifting off the line went solid. It felt like I was trying to pull a  fish right out the water and with my arm fully extended above me I had no remaining motion left to properly set the hook. The fly came pinging from the water. That was near enough finishing time. There were obviously dozens of fish shoaled up on a space about 10 yards by 10 yards.
In total the clubs 6 boats had 33 fish with quite a few singles in there. It was a tough day away from this spot on the Butts, one of the guys got 6 on dries over by the Reedy Bay which is good going, as we barely saw fish move all day. “Butt” it was a PB at Menteith for me though it could’ve been more with a wee bit luck, and a drogue.