31st May 2007

Well there we have it…May almost over and not the most memorable on the Loch or the river. What happened to the long awaited springers? However there was a burst of activity last weekend which may be the start of things to come. With a good fish into Balmaha, three into Balloch and I’m told that there were two fish off the Leven the same day.

David Harrison and John Douglas landed a 15lb bar of silver. It took a brown/gold/ orange rapala in 8ft of water at Claddich Bay as they headed back towards the Bank. Well done guys and thanks for the attached photo. This type of report gets all our hopes up!

The fish that have come in won’t tend to hang about too long and a fair proportion will move up the Loch to the deeper, colder water, favouring lies around Rowchoish and beyond. This was again confirmed today by Gerd Elsweiler who got into a fish of some 12/15lbs at Mill o’ Ross. Sadly after playing it for about 15 minutes he lost it at the net. When I spoke to Gerd I think he had almost ‘lost it’!...muttered something about ‘throwing the net in after it’ …..what might have been! Sometimes it’s too handy to have a boat partner to blame. Copper/silver toby on the outside rod did the trick though.

On a more positive note. I had an e-mail from Angus MacRitchie to let us know that sea trout fishing is definitely picking up. Angus had a 3lb fish last Thursday at the Geggles on the fly. Colin McCrory and Denis McLaughlin both recently had fish of 2½ lbs at the Long Point of Inchmoan on the fly. There have been quite a few reports of decent sized sea trout being caught on the troll and returned and I would like to think that the efforts of Angus and the S.I.W.G.have not been in vain. Good to hear that early fly fishers are getting some sport again too.

So what can we expect June to bring? The remainder of the spring salmon run?….or perhaps the grilse will be early this year…or….if any one knows please let us all know!

Regards J.R.