Smithfield Shield
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COLD SNAP SLOWS SPORT ON HARRAY
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| Smithfield Shield winner Brian Thomas |
This was the re-organised Smithfield Shield which was cancelled on the
original date, the 10th of June due to adverse weather. 29 anglers fished,
less than usual, due in part to the fact that 4 regulars were down at Lintrathen
fishing the Scottish National semi final. A brisk NW wind held up all night
and when the cloud cleared, and the sun went down, the air temperature plummeted
and it turned decidedly Baltic. The trout obviously didn’t fancy it
either as they were very difficult to locate compared to earlier in the
week. What threw many anglers was the fact that the deep water resident
trout completely turned off, and if they did not switch their attention
to the shallows and skerries early in the evening then this would severely
affect the size of their baskets. The water quality had also been adversely
affected by the previous day’s high winds.
Winner of the Smithfield Shield on the night was a delighted Brian Thomas,
the Hundland Correspondent, a popular result, applauded and cheered by his
fellow anglers. Brian brought 16 fish for 8lb 8ozs to the scales. Baskets
of note came from Ken Kennedy with 12 for 7lb 9ozs, which included the heaviest
fish of the night at 1lb3ozs, Kevin Muir had 13 for 6lb 13ozs and Stewy
Leslie managed 10 for 6lb 4ozs.
As indicated previously, fish were hard to find and it was a late foray
into Decca which transformed Brian Thomas’s night. Many anglers found
the same change produced fish but there were one or two who stuck it out
in the deep water and put together reasonable baskets. Bochan, Ballarat
, Nistaben , Bankhead and Merkister were good as you would expect when fish
move in to the shallower ground. The usual high density lines were employed
to varying degrees of success in the deep water but it was floating and
slow intermediate lines which did the business on the stones.
Successful fly patterns were pretty diverse, from Erlend’s Cat to
Brian’s Orange Edge Ogg, with Muddlers, Dabblers and various concoctions
of black and green also putting fish in the boat.
One angler had good luck of a different kind during the night. At the end
of a drift he reeled in and put his rod down at the front of the boat, his
mate on the engine started motoring back up the loch. This angler then started
shifting his seat position and somehow knocked his rod overboard. When it
first resurfaced there was about 3 feet of the tip sticking out of the water,
just like Excalibur, but sinking fast. Some quick thinking and some brilliant
boatmanship from his partner got them turned round and back to it just in
time to grab it before it disappeared below the waves.
Set your alarm clocks for the next competition as it’s the early morning
competition for the Tommy Thomson Trophy on Saturday 28th, fishing 7am to
1pm.
KK
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