2023 Veterans Cup Round 5 Lake of Menteith
By Jock Royan
Military Veterans Cup Round 5 Results
We were met by a squally South Westerly Breeze on Sunday, which restricted the areas somewhat. Mostly, the boats headed to the relative shelter of Gateside Bay or the top of the Malling shore. Between gusts, conditions were actually very good, particularly due to an overcast sky. Some anglers took the risky decision to start out on Dry Fly as the fish were reported to be high in the water. This was indeed the case but most of the early fish were caught on tip lines accompanied with Boobies/FABs. A good head of fish were located at the Burn Mouth in Gateside Bay but early solid takes soon changed to plucks & pulls. Always makes for some colourful language 😂😂.
Information was shared at lunchtime on methods, areas and flies and I believe the best boat had 13 fish so all to play for. Once again John Paul Maestri surpassed expectations by providing an excellent lunch. 👏👏 I’d have quite happily followed that up with a snooze, especially after devouring a slab of sponge cake!
If anything, the wind increased after lunch, which made the hot-spots quite busy. Boat etiquette could have been better but understandable on a “fun day” 🤔. Decent numbers were caught on a variety of methods, mostly tip lines with boobies/FABs. We (David McKay & myself) decided to seek some shelter and target feeding fish so headed to the Butts where it was flat calm. Fortunately, there were fish working along the margins so we took advantage of that. Some consistent bags of fish were recorded but as is usual on any day, where some found it relatively straightforward, others toiled. That’s fishing!
Results…those below with the same number of fish are separated by the time of their first fish.
Jock Royan 15 Fish = 1 Point
Graeme Ferguson 13 Fish = 2 Points
Mark McKeown 12 Fish = 3 Points
Stuart McBean 11 Fish = 4 Points
Glen Lamont 11 Fish = 5 Points
Jock Kettles 10 Fish = 6 Points
David McKay 9 Fish = 7 Points
David Halliday 9 Fish = 8 Points
JP Maestri 8 Fish = 9 Points
Ally Middlemass 5 Fish = 10 Points
Chris Skivington 5 Fish = 11 Points
Graeme Sharp 4 Fish = 12 Points
Jim Watson 3 Fish = 13 Points
Cameron Duncan 3 Fish = 14 Points
Chris Sutherland 2 Fish = 15 Points
William Shepherd 1 Fish = 16 Points
Graham Fulton 1 Fish = 17 Points
Dave Penny 0 Fish = 20 Points
Just a reminder that your top 4 scores count from the 7 Veterans Cup Matches.
As the league stands after 5 rounds, our most consistent angler and clear leader is Graeme Ferguson. He has set an impressive target of 7 points. (A 1st and 3 x 2nd Places). Incidentally, Fergie dropped off a credible 6th place from an earlier round yesterday, replacing it with a 2nd which solidified his lead. Magic in second place is holding Glen off by a point, so looking forward to that fierce battle over the last couple of rounds. (I can smell broken glass) 😂😂.
Points totals below are from those who have fished at least 4 matches. There are a couple of lurkers on 3 results who may influence positions, however no value in adding their scores at this stage.
Graeme Ferguson 7 points
JP Maestri 16 Points
Glen Lamont 17 Points
Chris Skivington 29 Points
Jim Watson 34 Points
Dave Penny 40 Points
William Shepherd 52 Points
Bill Surtees 56 Points
Finally, we have 2 spaces remaining in our 16-Man team against a Scotland Select at the Lake of Menteith Fisheries on 18-20 October. Please let me know if you’d like to participate.
https://www.mvff.org.uk