Fishing Reports

River Leven.

The autumn colours brightening up the river banks should remind us that we are entering the last four weeks of the season. The river level has remained steady, giving good fishing conditions for fly and spinning.

Euan Slowic recently landed this 12lb salmon at the Double Pipes. It was Euan’s twelfth fish this season and was released back into the river.

Last week Euan broke a rod playing a 14lb salmon on the Fruin. However, the fish was eventually landed and returned.

Andrew Wright had a good day’s sport on the fly last week with three salmon netted, including this 11lb fish. Two 8lb salmon were returned. Well done Andrew!

Other reported catches this week include John Donnelly (8.5lb) on the fly (above). Peter Colatowicz (14.5) McKinnons on the worm. Steven Brown (8lb) Chapel Hole on a black flying-c, returned. Tam Mooney (10lb) Piles on a rapala, returned. James Campbell (5lb) Piles on a spun tube fly.

Willie Brand (13lb) caught on the fly – day ticket.

Martin McLachlan (6lb) Chapel Hole.

On Friday 28th, Chic McLean continued his successful season with a 6lb grilse, complete with long tailed lice, at Managers, returned and Keith Adams landed a 3lb sea trout which he says was a fresh ‘bar of silver’.

River Endrick.

The Spout of Fintry.

Those anglers who can time the river conditions right are having great sport. Denis McLaughlin landed eight salmon in a week, the heaviest 15lbs (above). All of these fish were returned except one which couldn’t be revived. Alan McKee (6lb) Barns Ford, returned. Gavin Ramsay (4lb) (7lb) Bridge Pool and Long Pool, both returned. Jim Muir had a sea trout of 4lb, returned. Malcolm Prescott, two salmon and two sea trout. Malcolm MacCormick, 4lb grilse at Alan Cuthbert’s stretch and 2.5lb sea trout at Cowdenmill.

The Endrick webcam has proved to be very popular, receiving more than 750 hits during the first week alone. It has been welcomed by members as an invaluable tool for planning a day on the river. Although still in the experimental stages, the positioning and clarity are very good. Evaluation continues.

At this time of the year our stocks on the Endrick are very vulnerable to poaching. We are very pleased to report that over the weekend, assisted by Central Scotland Police, our bailiffs made several arrests and good intelligence has also been gained. Patrols will be increased reinforced by our warranted volunteer staff. We thank Central Scotland Police for their assistance and look forward to the further strengthening of our partnership. Good work by Colin and Bryan.

Members have contacted us regarding this most unwelcome obstruction to the river at Drumtian which will be removed as soon as possible.

Loch Lomond.

Some anglers have already taken their boats out for the winter, but for the hardy boatmen there are still a few fish about.

On Saturday David Henderson braved the blustery weather boating a 7lb salmon at the mouth of the Fruin. It had taken an orange/gold jointed rapala and was safely returned to the Loch.

Last weekend Robert Gorman landed a 10lb salmon at Cashel. Robert was going to forward a photo but had rather an unfortunate accident with his mobile phone. He asks that any angler catching a fish in possession of a Blackberry gets in touch……..

Contact Reports at: web@lochlomondangling.com

River Leven.

The heavy rainfall on Monday ensured that the river remained in great condition, continuing to provide excellent sport.

On Thursday 20th, Jack Ferguson hooked this cock salmon on the fly at the Bonhill Pool. It measured 38″ in length and 19.5″ girth which equates to approx. 21.5lbs. As you can imagine it gave Jack some great sport, taking him down to the pipes at the bottom of the pool before it was landed. After a quick photo the fish was released back into the river. Well done Jack!

Other catches reported include: Monday 17th, Chic McLean (9lb) Sandy Hole on a black/gold rapala – returned. John Campbell (6lb) Linbrane. Andrew Wright (10lb) Bonhill – returned. Steve Hills (6lb) and (4.5lb) – returned, both on a small copper spoon, also 2 sea trout (2lb) (2.5lb).

On 19th, Brian Ward (4lb) Chapel Hole and the following day (6lb) again at Chapel Hole, both fish on the worm. Mike Palmer (5lb) on the fly – returned. Brian Murray, day ticket (9lb) Piles – returned.

During the week John Paul Donnelly lost a good fish, estimated at around 20lb, on the fly. The next day he took his 4 year old grandson along for a few lessons which resulted in the lad catching a 4lb grilse at the Piles on the worm. Hooked for life!

Bob Baxter (8.5lb) at McKinnons, worm – returned, also (6lbs) Cake Shop, worm – returned. James Brady (9lb) McKinnons on the worm and Sam Burgoyne (13lbs).

Today, Chic McLean landed his 13th (lucky) salmon of the season (9lb) at Sandy Hole on a rapala. We are very pleased to hear that Chic has returned each of these fish back into the system.

River Endrick.

From a raging torrent at the beginning of the week, the Endrick  was at a nice height today and a healthy number of fish were netted.

John Coppola landed five salmon, three from Barns Ford and two at Drumtian including this 12lb fish. Mark Johnstone (6lb) above Drumtian. Bernie Johnstone (5lb) Coolies. Alex Grant (4lb) – returned. Ben Marshall, six salmon landed up to 11lb – all returned and 8 lost!

The Endrick webcam has now been up and running for a week. This project is still in the experimental phase and a vote of thanks goes to the team responsible for the planning and siting of the camera. Our eventual aim is to site similar cameras on the Leven and Fruin.

Bailiff Colin McFadyen has been busy again, carrying out path maintenance on the Endrick at Coolies Lynn.

Colin warns that there are some big holes on the bank side of the path which are now more visible and the path should be used with caution.

On Monday 17th, one of our members was fishing down from the Ballochruin Bridge towards Drumtian when he had an unfortunate stumble resulting in the loss of his rod and reel. If any member comes across an 11ft rod on this stretch please let us know.

Contact Reports at : web@lochlomondangling.com

River Leven.

The last two weeks has seen the Leven in good condition with steady catches reported including: Ross MacLeod (6lb) at McKinnons on the fly. Charlie O’Hara (17.5lb) Howgate on the worm. Brain Ward (9lb) Chapel Hole. Sinclair McAllister (13lb) Bonhill Pool on the fly, returned. Brian Stewart (10lb) Stuckie Bridge, returned. Andy McIlwee (7lb) farmed fish, the Glebe on the worm. Chic McLean (9lb)(6lb) at the Street Run and Bucks on the fly. Both fish were returned. Russell Boyd (8lb) Glebe, returned. Simon Griffen 7lb.

River Endrick.

Endrick fisher John McNab enjoys good sport with a 7lb salmon at Barns Ford.

The fish was quickly released to continue on it’s way.

The stile at Netherton is now complete and with the bank strimmed makes for a more pleasurable day out.

Work will continue on the river over the winter period. Thanks again to bailiff Colin McFadyen for his much appreciated labours.

Not many reports received recently from Endrick fishers, however we know that there has been a good run of grilse. The most recent catch was on 14th September by Alec Grant (4lb) at Coolie’s Lynn.

Loch Lomond. 

The continuing high water has not been helpful to the boatman’s sport this season and there was little evidence of the grilse run remaining in the Loch for any length of time.

A few boats are still setting out on the troll. As these anglers discovered there is always the chance of a fish.

Reports have come in recently of sea trout to 4lb being caught on the troll and returned as far up the Loch as Tarbert, Rowchoish and Doune, areas which are not normally fly fished these days.

On Saturday 8th September, Balmaha boatman Scott Sinclair decided to give the top end of the Loch one last visit for the season, resulting in his heaviest salmon to date….

At Rowchoish Scott connected with this fearsome gent who had taken a dislike to his trolled orange rapala. Scott tells us:

‘Caught this handsome chap on the troll up at Rowchoish. He’s obviously been in for a while and would have been some fish when he was fresh. I beached him, took a few pics and released him to charm the ladies up the Endrick or wherever he was heading. Sorry about the black and white pics, wet hands and a touchscreen mobile phone don’t always do what you expect’

‘I estimate this one to be about 20lb. He was 97cm long and approx 44cm girth, but open to any other guesstimates…as long as they’re heavier of course!’

Well done Scott, we certainly agree with your estimate. Different….. a coloured fish in black and white….we get the picture though!

Contact Reports at: web@lochlomondangling.com

Late News. 

**Endrick Webcam** now active. Sited at the Pots O’ Gartness showing 10 minute updates of river height. Select ‘Endrick Webcam’ button on home page.

River Leven.

The river level over the last fortnight has been constantly very high. Overall,the Leven seems to be fishing well.

Chic McLean recently caught and released grilse of 5lb and 6lb, taken on a rapala. A 3lb brown trout was also returned.

On 24th August, Ross MacLeod (4lb) McKinnons on an Allys Shrimp. 25th, Paul Kelly (5lb) at the Piles. 28th, Davy Robertson (5lb) Double Pipes on the fly, released. 29th, David Watt (6lb) Glebe on a brown trout rapala, released.

Loch Lomond. 

The Loch level has remained high for weeks, much to the dismay of boatmen. Even at the weekends there have been few heading out.

However, on Saturday 25th August, Phil Shannon returned to Balloch with a 12.5lb fish onboard.

On Wednesday 30th August, John Bell decided to leave the trolling rods at home and have a day out on the fly. He tackled up  wet fly and dapping rods and set out towards the islands. A good steady SW breeze meant that there was plenty of scope, though conditions were on the bright side…..he thought.

After spending the morning fishing wet flies John decided to try dapping, his first ever attempt. Daddy longlegs imitations were given an airing without any interest, so after lunch he changed over to a Black Pennell style fly. It wasn’t long before a fish came up for a look and shortly afterwards, off the Ladies Point at Inchcruin, he had a good solid take from this 3lb sea trout. The fish gave a great account of itself, stripping line and taking off round the boat. It was netted and quickly released…one happy angler! John tells us he’ll be back out on the dap this week.

River Endrick. 

Fishing the Endrick is all about getting the water ‘just right’ between deluges. Two members who enjoy regular success are John Coppola and Chris Turner. On 30th August, John landed a 5lb grilse at the Meetings. Then on 1st September a 6lb grilse, which was released, also at the Meetings. Chris is pictured above on 30th August releasing a 5lb grilse at Barnes Ford.

The Met Office has announced that this has been the wettest summer for 100 years…..think we had already worked that one out….

Contact Reports at: web@lochlomondangling.com