Mid- way through October now and the weather remains good for us despite an occasional increase in wind speeds. Considering the long hot summer that we went through, one of the hottest on records, we are delighted with the way the loch has fished this year. Summer conditions are always quite tough and as we regularly say to people, the nicest time to fish is often the hardest time to catch. Thankfully we are now in to a period that usually sees an up-turn in numbers coupled to extremely hard fighting fish. For me personally, I love this time of year and on the more settled days I often find that the fish are very willing to look at the dries. Dry fly fishing in October and November …. Surely it doesn’t get any better than that?

We always hold our annual boat competition in October for the prestigious, Coldingham Loch Cup and the right for the winner, to have his or her name on our honours board. The event is also supported by Mike Wilson of Fishers at Penicuik who very generously enhances the prize fund each year. Once again, thanks very much Mike, your support is much appreciated.

So, this year’s event took place yesterday and with 16 accomplished anglers set to pit their skills against each other the scene was set for another interesting and fun day. The weather forecast was spot on yesterday and so as predicted the boats had to endure quite a difficult morning with the wind gusting and swirling. This made holding the boat on a consistent drift quite difficult in certain areas of the loch but by no means impossible and as the day progressed, conditions improved greatly. The other good thing was that everyone caught fish and hence there were no blank returns.

The story of the day was as much about the fish that were lost as the ones that were landed and the eventual rod average of 4.75 could easily have been doubled had all the fish stayed on the hook. An example of this was Karl Ferguson who lost 3 fish in the first 10 minutes of setting off … one on and off and a double hook-up resulting in a smashed cast sort of set the tone for the day for Karl.

Given the early conditions, it was certainly a day for the lures yesterday and the eventual top three rods caught most of their fish on a combination of snakes, shammies and other such weird and not-so wonderful creations. Needless to say, it was once again a very close- run finish and the way that the event is structured means that you score a point per fish netted and an extra point for each of the six one- hour sessions that you catch fish in. i.e. there are an extra 6 points available for those that fish consistently throughout the day.

So here are the results:

1^st Place – Derek Johnson  – 10 fish, 5 session points,  Total: 15

2^nd Place – Willie Crombie – 9 fish, 4 session points,    Total: 13

3^rd Place – John Pringle      – 8 fish, 5 session points,    Total: 13

(Willie Crombie took 2^nd place on account of having more fish than John Pringle)

Our congratulations and thanks go to all the participants and Gordon Boulding for all his help to us on the day. Congratulations to Derek Johnson for a fine performance on the day. We hope to see you back next year Derek, to defend your title!!

The pictures in the gallery at the end of this report are all from the Coldingham Cup Day

Other News:

• 2023 membership: If anyone is interested in joining as a member next year for the first time, please get in touch with either Carmel or myself here at the loch. You can ring us on 01890 771960 or email us at info@coldinghamloch.co.uk We will be sending out reminders to all our current members about renewal for next years membership very shortly through the members portal.
• All the information about membership can be found on our websites by visiting either, coldinghamloch.co.uk or www.coldinghamlochflyfishers.co.uk 
• A quick reminder that the last day of our season will be on Wednesday 30^th November 2022. This means that there are still approximately six weeks left of this current season and still some great fishing to be had. The days are much shorter and so evening sessions are effectively now over.
• Club Bookings 2023: Most clubs have now booked their dates for the 2023 season but if you are a club that hasn’t please get in touch with us asap to see what might still be available to you.

Visiting Clubs:

Our club days over the next two weeks are as follows:

Saturday 22^nd October – Bank of Scotland AC and Wiremill FFC

Sunday 30^th October – Black Bull FFC

 Let’s hope that the weather remains settled and the fish respond accordingly.

Gallery below from Coldingham Cup (boat competition) 2022. And thanks to  Pete Dann for taking a few snaps at the prize giving :