Gold on The Lake of Menteith

Gold on The Lake!

After 22 years of trying Ireland eventually won gold away from home in Scotland, ironically the last time we won it away was also in Scotland on Loch Leven. 

What a week! The team captained by Martin McGorrian and Managed by Michael Monaghan had high expectations of some great fishing on the Lake of Menteith several weeks prior to the match with reports coming across the Irish Sea. The Irish Youths set the bar the high with an incredible gold on the The Lake during the month of August. We knew we had a very experienced team heading across for the Autumn International so the pressure was on, especially when the Irish Rivers Team also lifting gold in July on the banks of the River Agivey! 

Everyone was looking forward to practice with the conditions looking good and recent catches from the Scottish National getting us excited. On the first practice day we had a free run of the lake to go wherever, which in return provided some impressive bags on the first day. 

I started with sunburst fab and fire prawn & sunburst fab 10ft apart on airflo 12ft fast tip and immediately started to connect with fish. It would appear that the recent fishing pressure hadn’t put the fish off the bright stuff! It was a great days fishing catching hard fighting rainbows and blues up to 4lb. 

Conditions and wind direction hadn’t changed much over the next few practice days were we consistently caught fish in the usual hotspots and methods. However, it was also apparent that the other teams were also catching well! The Lake was producing some brilliant fishing.

I had opted to spend a practice day fishing with dries and concentrated on small hoppers in particular black hopper and fiery brown hopper fished 8ft apart from a tapered leader. The hoppers would rest on the surface for 20-30sec then I would figure 8 slowly back to boat. Fish usually took the hoppers static off the surface but any inquisitive fish required some movement to ensure a solid lock up. Red butt owls and foam daddies also produced fish during the week, although the forecast for matchday did not look suitable for dries…no wind and no cloud!

Team brief and summary of the week was narrowed down several hotspots that produced fish all week and a handful of flies which we developed through the week. Fabs and boobies were always in the mix and we knew we needed ‘middle’ flies to be working in order to win this match. There were a few nymphs and diawl bachs that were picking off more fish than others and there seemed to be trend developing. We found that flies tied with bright Yellow hotspots were attracting the fish. 

The day had come and the forecast appeared to be correct unfortunately with not a breath of wind and the sun slowly burning through the morning mist. I had drawn Welshman Paul Sharman with boatman and photographer Paul Barr for the day. I had opted to start with rio midgetip with 3 flies, hotspot cormorant, yellow head diawl bach and small cut throat booby. My partner started on dries so we were covering both methods. We agreed to head to Malling Shore next to the reeds to park up and hopefully wait for the fish to cruise past. There were another 2 boats with the same idea which wasn’t too bad as there was plenty of space in the area.

 Within 15min I had hooked and lost my first fish on the booby, and immediately thought ‘oh no…not the first!’ By 11am I had hooked 5 fish and boated 3, one on the booby and 2 on the corm. Before we decided to move from Mallings to Gateside I had 5 fish to the boat, so the pressure was off and I could relax a little and start to enjoy my fishing! We moved against the ropes in Gateside were my partner picked up and moved a couple of fish. I hooked and boated 3 quick fish fishing completely static allowing my flies to descend slowly through the water column. One of these fish was not playing fairly and headed immediately beneath the rope at the cages. I could see him rolling on the surface on the other side while my line was heading down to the rope! At this stage I was more worried about my flies than the fish! I could see the booby in the scissors so my only option to start the engine and move over to the rope and try to drag the fish down beneath the rope without catching the droppers…would that be possible? Rod down into the water was far as I could reach and start bullying this fish to the right side of the rope…the fish began to move and swim beneath the rope and as I was waiting for flies to catch, but no, the fish was clear and on my side…I motored into the middle of the bay away from the rope and landed the fish…I knew then my luck was in!

We returned to Mallings Shore and behind Dog Isle where I had now boated 9 fish by 1pm. I had only lost 2 fish and all other offers were lock ups. My methods had not changed all day and I was still picking up fish with the green head diawl bach starting to pick up fish in these areas after lunch. Word was travelling around the lake of some 9s and 10s being caught and our captain who was fishing near me had 7 fish at this stage. I picked up my last fish shortly after 5pm to bring my bag to 15 and it was then time to make journey back to the lodge for the weigh in.

The Irish Management were collecting the scores as each member arrived ashore and rumours had it that Ireland had the most fish…what?? In those conditions?? The team had several good bags of fish and some of those had fish in excess of 4lb so it was looking good. After all the weights were tallied up the rumours were made official and it was history in the making with Ireland clinching gold from a close second place of Wales! Ireland had caught 109 fish in almost flat calm conditions in wall to wall sunshine! Ireland winning gold was our goal as we had been getting closer and closer in recent matches. For me personally to lift the coveted Brown Bowl for a second time was amazing especially away from home on a superb water that is the Lake of Menteith. 

We kept to our game plan and the enthusiasm and determination from our captain and manager travelled through our veins and we produced an amazing result to cap off an extraordinary year for Irish Trout Fly Fishing Association. Long may it continue!

I would like to say a special thanks to my team, our captain Martin, our manager Michael, ITFFA and our sponsors Southside Angling for their continued support throughout the year.

I’m away to sleep until next year!

Credit to Paul Barr Photos

Arden Pollock