Crohm Mhin Bay

When you have one fishing day available and the weather forecast is doing all it can to try and persuade you to hide indoors, you have two options. Either cut your losses and don't even bother getting out of bed or set your expectations accordingly, get out and give it a shot anyway.

Option two was obviously our choice and at first light 4 anglers and 8 rods were on their way to, a still very high Loch Lomond. As Gordon, Tom, Daniel and Myself, each as certifiable as the other, waded along hundreds of yards of flood plain through knee deep water, it seemed that the weather man might have got it wrong as, although raining, there was hardly a breath of wind.

As it turned out, it wasn't to stay this way as we were soon being battered by a strong and un-relenting SW gale. Undeterred and still up to our knees in water, we carried on until, after a constant symphony of wind induced blips and beeps, Tom's alarm burst into life.

Now I like catching fish and i really like, on the rare occasion, catching more fish than everyone else. However when conditions get tough and it gets hard going, I'm honestly more than happy to see anyone get a fish. It's a team effort after all. At least it is when I can't seem to catch a cold.

This resulted in the only fish of the day. A surprisingly lean 13lb fish and Tom's first Lomond Pike, a just reward for enduring such horrendous conditions.