Charity Day & Loch Report 19^th Sep – 2^nd Oct

The main focus of this loch report is the Charity Day which was as always, a great success and plenty of fun.

We don’t know how, but thankfully, once again we seemed to find a hole in the weather which meant that we were able to go ahead unhindered. As always, the day was fully attended and the people that fished and helped enjoyed themselves fully.

The usual format saw everyone fishing the same patch of 11 flies throughout the day with no one knowing until the event, just which flies they would be.

In the final reckoning the most productive fly pattern, which accounted for over half of the fish caught, was the humongous, tied and supplied by Neil Keillor … well done Neil. Obviously, the fish were somewhat fixed on the lure patterns which mimicked the plentiful supply of fry swimming about the loch and if all the fish that were hooked had been landed the overall catch would have been much healthier. This is perhaps the downside of fishing quite large fry patterns in that sometimes the fish don’t always fully engage with the fly which in turn results in a number of “long releases”.

Needless to say, the rivalry between the dads and the lad(y)s team was palpable and with the overall score for the ‘L’ of a Length Trophy, standing at 5-3 in favour of the dad’s team, there was all to play for.

Over the usual, slap -up, barbeque lunch, everyone remained quite guarded about how they were doing but it felt like the scores up to that point were quite close. Dave Walley once again did a sterling job of capturing as much of the day as possible to photographs and you can enjoy these by going to the galleries below.

With everyone full from bacon rolls at breakfast and probably one too many cakes at lunch, the teams took to the water in the afternoon to slightly windier conditions but the wind could not dampen the enthusiasm and determination.

When the final gun went the boats came in and all the score cards were quickly gathered to formulate the scores. Who would win this time? But before the final results were announced there was the all- important raffle to be held. Once again people dug deep into their pockets for the raffle tickets whilst others gave very generously to the selection of prizes. We also held a mini auction for a rather lovely fruit cake made by Glynis Straker which she beautifully decorated with a brown trout. Pete Dann would not be outbid for this one and so became the proud owner. Well done Pete.

At last the all- important results:

Lad(y)s – 19 fish for 330 inches

Dads – 20 fish for 348 inches

So surely the Dads must have won? But wait a minute, Les Lockey landed a brownie measuring 18 inches and in this competition, browns count double (a fact that I have to own up to missing when I did the initial scoring …. Oops, sorry) So what this means is that ultimately the competition was a very honourable DRAW!!

This now means that the overall annual score stands at:

5.5 wins for the Dads

And

3.5 wins for the Lad(y)s

Thank you’s:

A huge thank you from us to all those that attended the day, baked cakes, brought venison burgers, helped on the day, donated prizes, and thanks to members, holiday guests and friends who were not there on the day but supported it by buying raffle tickets and making donations.

A special thanks to Mike Warburton and CLFF member, Les Lockey who donated a considerable number of rods, reels, and some fantastic fly tying equipment etc which we have been selling from the fishing hut and on our member’s website. This on its own raised a huge £697. Mike was given the fishing gear by Heather Keeley, the daughter of his friend Peter who passed away. Mike spoke to Les about donating it to our Charity Day and this has really helped boost funds raised.

This £697 along with all the fishing ticket sales on the day, raffle monies, cake auction and the kind donations from members and friends of the loch all added up to a fantastic sum of money for the Lifeboat:

Total raised for St Abbs Independent Lifeboat: £2038.50

This was a fantastic sum, we are so pleased to have raised such an amount for a very worthy cause.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE

Team results in a bit more detail:

The ‘Dads’ had most of their team land at least one but no rod taking more than 3 fish: Four ‘Dads’ landed 3 fish, two ‘’Dads’ landed 2 fish & four ‘Dads’ landed 1 fish. Total 20 fish.

The ‘Lads/Ladies’ had a few more blanks in their team but higher numbers of fish landed for those that did catch: One ‘Lad/Lady’ landed 6 fish, two ‘Lads/Ladies’ landed 4 fish, one ‘Lad/Lady’ landed 3 and two ‘Lads/Ladies’ landed one. Total 19 fish.

A wee mention needs to go to the Ladies this year as we had 3 ladies fishing and they each landed at least one fish with Joy Gardiner landing 6 and being the top rod of the day and Pauline Cooper landing 4, sharing the second top rod of the day with Les Lockey.

Other News:

• The Coldingham Cup Boat Competition: This is being held on Sunday 16^th October and there is just one place left to fill. Entry for this competition is now also open to non- members and so if you are interested in taking the last remaining place please phone us asap to reserve your slot. Entry to the competition is £20, with vouchers prizes for Fishers of Penicuik for the first three places and bacon rolls included for everyone at lunch time. The winner will hold the cup for the next twelve months alongside getting their name on the honours board in the fishing lodge.

Visiting Clubs:

Over the next two weeks these are the club days:

• Saturday 8^th – West Lothian Fly Dressers
• Monday 10^th October – Ellem Club

We wish them a warm welcome to the loch and hope for tight lines for everyone.

Fishing reports from anglers over the last two weeks:

Fishing Report by Les Lockey

25th –  30^th September

Cold and very strong northerly and north westerly winds, often accompanied by heavy showers, dominated the week’s fishing, so much so that fishing was abandoned on Monday and Friday. Needless to say such conditions made fishing not only difficult, but very uncomfortable too, with catch returns across the board well down into single figures.

Thankfully the lads and dads charity competition on the 25^th escaped the worst of the weather but the fishing was tricky to say the least. I spent the morning using a floating line with a Fab on the point and either a small Diawl Bach, or an equally small foam daddy on the dropper, but could only illicit several tentative tugs. After lunch, and anchored in Boathouse Bay, I changed to a long midge tip line and rather reluctantly tied on the large black and gold Humongous lure and began working the fly slowly along the edge of the lilies, and in a one hour purple patch I landed 4 fish, including a lovely brown trout that came from nowhere to savagely engulf the Humongous just feet from the boat as I was about to recast. Note to self: remember to fish the flies right to the boat and dribble each fly at the surface.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, and with the wind still blowing straight down the loch, I took refuge in Boathouse Bay and continued with the tactic of targeting the margins with a small black lure on the point and an orange FAB on the dropper which produced a few fish to the net but again numerous pulls and tugs went unconverted. Another tactic that produced a few fish was to cast out a single orange FAB across the wind and allow it to drift around on the wind in similar fashion to fishing a team of buzzers.

Thursday started off overcast and with the threat of rain, but importantly the wind had eased, and for the first time in 4 days the whole of the loch was accessible.  Not that this helped me much, as the fish still proved very elusive. Throughout the day I managed several hook ups but my net remained stubbornly dry as each fish in turn threw the hook. Later in the day, however, the skies cleared, the sun came out to add a touch of warmth to the air and a fall of large daddies got the trout’s attention. A change to a floater with a foam daddy on the point and a yellow owl CDC on the dropper brought an immediate response from the trout and although I only landed one rainbow and one beautiful brown, I lost several others on the way to the net. My tally for the 3.5 days fishing was 14 fish including 2 browns, but it could easily have been double that number if I had managed to net all the fish I hooked, but that’s fishing and long may it remain so.

Charity Day galleries:

Loch Report gallery (photos taken by Les Lockey):