Nothing defines a good angler from the others like consistency. Rain, shine, high water or low they will earn consistent results. Time on the water, reading the conditions, where and when to fish will consistently achieve results that the mere hobbyist can only dream of emulating.
This season I have hit levels of consistency I can’t recall hitting before. Truly I am “elite”. Six outings since the 15th of March and not a fish. What consistency!
Yesterday was the club’s outing to Lake of Menteith, a fishery I have a love/ hate relationship with. I love the place, a fabulous location, it is a magnet for anglers from all over Scotland who come to fish for their powerful Rainbow Trout, in perfect surroundings. Yet my results here have been consistently poor ( that consistency thing again).”Usually” I manage to ‘eke out a fish at the lake but have had some cheek reddening outings here in the past. My most memorable being the time I initially landed a ( heavily egg-laden) Pike on the fly ( no breakage ) but then lost, was broken, suffered bent hooks, on no less than 8 Rainbows through the rest of the day. At one stage I was almost hooking a fish a cast and sometimes playing the fish for ages, they simply would not go in the net only to get off, or break me. A guy in an adjacent boat that day could not believe my absence of luck that day as another fish came off just as I towed it to the net….
I related this to my boat partner yesterday as we prepared to head out in slightly blustery conditions on Saturday morning. My boat partner for the day is a hardcore competition angler, who really ( he told me) only fished Carron, Linlithgow and Menteith, as he either practices or competes in various championships. I thought, today I will learn something, that will put me on the right track on the Lake.
As if to make me feel worse, one of my club colleagues landed a rare fish
My strategy I decided was to fish buzzers, either straight-lining or washing line style with a booby on the point. If the fish seemed deeper I would gradually work down to them. Hopefully, we would meet in the middle. We started in Hotel Bay where, by the time we motored in, there were anglers in one or two boats scooping the first fish of the day out the water. I cast out and so did my boat partner. About three casts each and he had a thump as his rod suddenly bent double near the boat and he was into a fish.
I was straight-lining my buzzers, so I swapped to a booby on point, though I hadn’t seen any fish near the surface. As we neared the reeds at the foot of the bay we had to decide whether to turn round or go elsewhere….. “Let’s head up the ‘Malling’ ” we decided but as we fired up the somewhat problematic( through the day) motor he noticed a boat taking fish on the other side from where we were at Shear Point….” tuck in behind them”. Aye aye captain, so we joined the drift.
A few casts and I finally had my first touch of the season, a tug on one of the buzzers, ( the booby never left my sight so I know it wasn’t this) but it didn’t take but there was hope.
Nothing more and we decided to head again to “the Malling”. Again, part way there and distracted by boats in near the Butts we detoured off here, again a few boats were getting the odd fish so we tried again. I forget how many drifts we did here, probably 3 or 4 but neither of us detected a fish. “Mallings”
Again we headed there but about three-quarters of the way there, we saw fish on top in fairly deep water and the lure of an “easy” fish was too much. Nothing.
Finally, we decided to actually get to the Malling shore. And yes, there were fish! Topping! Surely we couldn’t go wrong? Over the next several hours we threw everything at them, buzzers, dries, wets, blobs, small lures, nymphs and probably flies, as a non-Competition angler, I am not even privy to! Floating lines, sinking lines, sweep lines, sink tips….. I was pleased to rise one fish that had a look at my dry but still failed to take it. Nothing, not a fish. Some boats around us were getting fish but it was hard to tell what was working, slow figure-of-eight-ing buzzers and Diawls or stripping in lures or blobs.
Fed up!
Around half two my boat partner had a domestic appeal to head for home. If he had just said, “you know what, this is shite” I wouldn’t have blamed him, as I was starting to think that way myself. After motoring back to the boat moorings to drop him off, I decided ( foolishly?) to head out solo for a few more casts. I have to admit I was starting to feel the aches and pains of the day now, as it was easily the longest session I had been on in a long time. I tried again in Hotel Bay and again encountered some fish but still had no reaction, then again at International Bay, there were fish here too but could I get a reaction. Nope? I really don’t know what I have to do to have a good outing a the lake. The club? Well as I motored back about an hour early broken physically and mentally, I passed one of our members just round the corner as he landed a fish. As he did he shouted, it had been a really tough day…… yeah, you’re telling me!
