THE LAKE OF MENTEITH FISHERIES WEBSITE
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Fishery Report 29th March 2011
Clarity 2.1m Water Temperature at 6ft 6C.
Another good weather opening day brought out the best in the Lake. The new fishing season was declared open by the Port’s most senior community member, Helen Armstrong (pictured left). Helen moved here 70 years ago at the age of 22, when she married into the village Armstrong Clan. Helen remarked that the “Lake of Menteith Fisheries provides fishing activities enjoyed by the young and the forever young, on this historic lake, within these beautiful surroundings”. Thanks also to piper Stewart Marshall for his excellent piping.
New Record Opening Day Catch
Despite a drop in pre-seasonstocking compared to lastyear, a new record catch was set and this may be attributable to increased catch and release in 2010. In total 674 fish were caught by the 36 boats, 481 were released and 215 were weighed in for 459lbs. There were plenty of overwintered fish in the catches, one boat which caught and returned 26 fish, said that over 20 were overwintered. The main catches of overwintered fish were further out from the shore – especially off the road shore (otherwise known as out in the middle). The best fish (right) of 7lbs 8oz was taken by George Beattie of Edinburgh (photo J.Boyd).The fish were caught on a variety of tactics (boobie, blob, buzzers, cormorants etc) and were not deep in the water.
Beware road closures between Rob RoyHotel and Gartmore due to resurfacing (www.stirling.gov.uk/roadclosures)
Coulam In-built Electric Review.
Another point of interest
concerning the day was a public airing of Jim Coulam’s new boat complete with in built electric engine. The boat (pictured right) with delivery and sales helper (Ronald Orr) is powered by two large batteries below the central thwart, which are charged in situ. We have had the boat out for three days (24hrs) fishing without the battery being recharged (admittedly in flat calm conditions). This design is highly appealing to the discerning angler and fishery manager. The price tag (around the £7K mark) is the down side but the boat is certainly well designed and the manufacturers have estimated that using 3 phase white meter to recharge, charging costs would be 90p or 30-45p per day, giving possibly big energy savings relative to petrol. All who have tried the boat have given it rave reviews. It is quiet, economical, very probably more reliable than a petrol outboard, easy to operate versus a 4 stroke petrol outboard and drifts well. We were scratching our heads to think of a drawback and all we could come up with was the difficulty in rescuing a still intact fly line from the prop.
Lake Tackle
We have taken the decision to start selling a limited amount of terminal angling tackle at the fishery. This will include flies, nylon, lines etc.
