| COMPETITION PROGRAMME | LEADERBOARD |
Tommy Thomson Trophy
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Top rod Sandy McConnachie |
HARD TIMES FOR HARRAY FLY FISHERMEN
It was back to the big loch last Saturday, fishing for the Tommy Thomson Trophy. Conditions weren’t conducive for a days angling, with the sun breaking through and strong NW winds.
A smaller field of 19 anglers all set off for the 10am start, and nobody started fishing south of the Ess Holms, with Bankhead and Merky Bay popular. It wasn’t long before there were boats baling out from their favoured drifts, and scattering all over the place.
For some anglers, fish were just impossible to find in the deep water or on the skerries and shores, and their day would finish fruitless. Many managed to save the dreaded doughnut but only just, catching 1 fish. Two anglers were head and shoulders above the pack, as they have been for the last number of weeks, putting the time in on the loch and finding some areas with fish.
Sandy McConnachie came out top in the boat shared with Ian Hutcheon, he had 8 fish for 7lb, while Ian had 7 for 5lb 7ozs, therefore Sandy took the Tommy Thomson Trophy home, superb angling! Only two others were worthy of a mention, Alan McConnachie with 5 for 3lb 9ozs, and Stewy Flett with 4 for 2lb 13ozs. Heaviest fish weighed in went 1lb 6ozs, to Jim Harcus’s rod.
Sandy and Hutch fished DI7 and 5 lines respectively, with Erlends Cat doing well for them. For the rest of the anglers, there just seemed to be an air of shock, with many saying they had never seen it so bad. There were loads of excuses muted, high water temperature, bright sun, cormorants etc, but in the past, when we’ve had similar conditions, the fish move out to deeper, cooler water, but you could catch them with fast sinking lines, but not today, they are not there. Let’s hope it’s a temporary situation which will get back to normal with a cooling of the temperatures, but personally, I think there is a serious problem with a lack of numbers at the heart of it.
Whatever the problem is, we are back in a fortnight and can only hope for a vast improvement in returns, tight lines,
KK
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