17th May 2005
Congratulations go to young Davy King and Willie Millar who braved the elements in March to catch and land two sparkling 10 lbs spring Salmon from the Loch, beating the River Leven to the first fish off the whole system. Now that’s dedication and enthusiasm to be out on the loch as early as that, but it just shows you what can be achieved.

So onto May that magical month on Lomond where nature decides to change the winter’s bed clothes for a fresher new look in the form of leaves, flowers and sunshine. Along with the new look that May brings there’s also the runs of fish which begin to enter the loch in numbers. May to me, has always been the time when things seriously begin to happen, there’s the numbers of spring Salmon that enter the loch and begin to spread themselves throughout the loch and then there’s the Sea Trout that come in. These Sea Trout seem to be bigger than the ones that enter the loch later in the season, and I remember catching one of those bigger Sea Trout about 10 yrs ago off Darroch in a gale, it weighed in at 13lbs. I also caught another one of 14lbs when out with a work mate about 14yrs ago whilst trolling past the boats moored just outside Balmaha. Then only a couple of years ago in a hail storm I landed another of 9lbs just off the Carrick Rock. This reminds me to congratulate Syd Gath who caught a wonderful 17lb Springer just off the Carrick Rock a couple of weeks ago. That fish has now put the pressure on young Kevin Gath who now has to pull all the stops out to beat his old man in the fish stakes.

Finally, I managed a day out and after sorting out where everything goes in the boat I left the bay and began to pay out line. After paying off about 20 yds of line I felt the pull of something at the other end of my Rapala, and handing the rod to my Dad, thinking it was a pike, he began to wind it in. Complaining as he usually does about my left hand winding he eventually got the fish in and to our surprise it was a fresh looking Sea Trout of a couple of pounds, which was returned safely. Not a bad start, fishing time spent 30 seconds, fish caught one, maybe I should quit now. No, there’s better fish in the water than that, so on we went and my batting average went down hill rapidly, but I did enjoy the day.

The following Saturday I ventured out and bumped into Colin McCrory and his mate David McDowell fly fishing Inch Cruin and round towards Ireland. With my tummy telling me it needed some sustenance I went ashore for a drum up and was joined a short time later with Colin and David, and boy did David have a story to tell. They had only just begun fly fishing around Darroch after leaving Balmaha, and when I say only just begun, I mean a half dozen or so casts, when David hooked into a fish that in seconds screamed line from the reel, after getting some semblance of order, and three or four leaps from the water, they realised it wasn’t a Salmon but indeed it was a Sea Trout. Remembering that he had brought with him his video camera, Colin began filming the end of the battle with the fish which weighed just over 6lbs. It was noted that it was plastered with sea lice and certainly from the video it looked an absolute “cracker”. The fish took a muddler type olive bumble fly on the bob, about a size 8 in a bright kind of day with a good coldish wind from the North West. They continued to fly fish and had several more Sea Trout in the 1lb – 2lb class. All the fish caught by Colin and David were returned safe and well to the loch, for others to enjoy.

I understand that another 10lb Salmon was caught on the Loch and taken into the Club at the Vale on Friday 12th May, unfortunately I don’t know the anglers name as yet, and where it was caught. However, I do know that a 12.5lb Salmon was caught on Monday 16th May just off the small jetty on Inch Cailloch on a black and gold Rapala by Alex Bowie who is back on the Loch, after as they say in business, ‘taking a year out’.

Alex who is launching his boat in at Millarochy Bay for the time being, was telling me that the Rangers notice board tells you that at this time of year the gate will be padlocked from 7.30pm each evening and insist that all equipment will be locked within the confines of the gate. After speaking to the Rangers at that outpost, sounds as if it’s in the wild west, well I suppose it is at the weekends with the jet bikes and speed boats, the Rangers state they will not lock anyone in but will shut the gate over without padlocking it. I know that this information may be of use to two other anglers who launch their boats from there. The times the gate will be locked will change when the summer months come into play.

In the picture below is a couple of crackers, no not Rab Livingstone and Frank Donnelly, but their fish. Both spring fish of 15lbs and 13lbs respectively.