Peter Miller Memorial Trophy
QUALITY NOT QUANTITY WINS THE DAY ON STENNESS
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| Young Raymond Miller delighted to win his Grandfathers Trophy |
The competition on Stenness for the Peter Miller Memorial Trophy is always a difficult night, and it was no exception last Thursday, when 31 anglers could only manage to boat 36 trout collectively. It was a tad chilly, but not a bad fishing night, with cloud cover for most of the time, and a steady Northerly breeze. The top end of the loch, from Voy down to the Dogger Bank was the popular starting point for many, but as the weigh in would reveal, it was another area of the loch which fished well early on.
For the unacquainted, Stenness is a brackish loch, with direct access to the sea. This fact can make the angling “interesting”, shall we say, with many species of fish turning up at times. Many anglers on the night found it impossible to land a measuring trout, while others excelled and had a good few. Norman Irvine reported having 2 cuithes in the 1lb plus range on the one cast, while Fanta was chuffed with his big garfish.
It was a night when the young guns showed everybody how it’s done with Raymond Miller taking the spoils with 2 cracking fish, one being the heaviest of the night at 1lb 15ozs, and together weighing 3lb 7ozs. Raymond certainly seems to have Stenness taped as I seem to remember saying last year how his grandfather would be proud of him. He caught his fish 4 hours and 2miles away from each other, one at Arion right at the start, and the other at Onston, such is fishing this enigmatic loch. Performance of the night though was from Thorfinn Muir, in his first competitive season, who weighed in 5 fish, albeit, smaller specimens, for 2lb 12ozs, a remarkable effort, and one which drew hearty applause from his fellow anglers. Other anglers who came close were, Emlyn Greive with 3 for 2lb 11ozs, Stewy Leslie with 3 for 2lb 7ozs and Sandy McConnachie,also with 3 for2lb 4ozs.
The Road Shore at the foot of How Brae was certainly the place to be at the start, with many of the better fish taken there, and on a night when 1 fish of 1 1/2 lbs could earn you 9 points, it payed of handsomely for those who chose to fish there. Thorfinn took his fish in Deepdale and by all accounts could have had a good few more if he could have kept a hold of them. The Stenness fish certainly fight above their weight and seem to have a canny knack of throwing the hook during their airborne moments.
Flies were typical for this loch, totally different to patterns fished on any other of our lochs, and some would say, more akin to rainbow or sea trout lures. The predominant colours are certainly to the orange and red end of the spectrum, with Colin’s Killer, Nic’s Lure, Kingfisher Butcher, Soldier Palmer and Coch Zulu, mentioned by many. A floating or slow intermediate line was all that was needed with the fish holding in shallow water due to the patrolling seals which remain a menace on this loch.
That’s more than a third of the competitions completed, and the top of the table has a familiar look to it with Ian Hutcheon in top spot, closely followed by boat partner Sandy McConnachie, and on form, John Munson. It’s very close then with 10 points separating the next dozen places. The next outing is back on Harray, on Tuesday the 9th of June, followed by the annual Intercounty with Shetland.
KK
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