Well here we go again with another new season and thankfully we were blessed this year with some decent weather for opening day.

Hugh Gordon once again did a splendid job piping in the new season and it was fantastic that the fishermen lined the way and presented rods of honour for us to pass through. It’s always a very special and emotional moment for us and we would like to thank everyone for making this year just as memorable.

Our thanks again also to Maggie and Pip for all their hard work in preparing for opening and for ensuring that the opening days ran as smoothly as it did. There is a lot of work that goes in to the week leading up to opening day and without their help it would be extremely difficult to see how we would manage so thanks again to you both.

Photos and links to a couple of videos of the opening ceremony can be found below along with some of the most recent pictures of some of the tremendous fish that have been landed so far.

First fish of the season went to Austin Churm, who fishing from the bank, landed a splendid rainbow on his first cast. It doesn’t get much better than that but the bar is set well and truly high for Austin now!!

Needless to say, opening day fished extremely well for everyone and it was good to see fish being caught in all areas of the loch and at all different times of the day. Best methods seemed to be sink tips or slow intermediate lines, pulled using a variety of lures such as mini McCoist, damsel, cormorants but interestingly, even in the course of just one week the fish are now presenting much higher in the water and even now, dries are working very well.

Bank and boat are fishing very well although I would say that the bank is probably just ahead in terms of returns.

There has also been a tremendous variety of fish being caught, both in terms of size and type. Rainbows, browns, blues and tigers have all been caught and some of the browns and rainbows have been double figure fish.

As always, we ask that people try to keep the fish in the nets and in the water at all times, which includes taking photos of fish that are being returned. Fish do not do well for repeated handling and this is particularly so for the browns that must be returned each time. We have invested a good deal of money to provide the variety and size of fish that are out there and so please try to respect the fish, as much as possible.

Now that opening weekend has passed it is ok for members to invite guests and at the moment the loch is open from 8.30am until approx. 5.30pm each day. Once we feel that the days are long enough to move to later fishing we will of course let you know.

A reminder to everyone that a Season at a glance calendar is available on the Coldingham Loch Fly Fishers web site copy and paste the following link into your browser and scroll down the page to view the calendar (members do not log in as this will take you to a different part of the site):

www.coldinghamloch.co.uk/member-bookings/

This shows all the club and event days for the year which will help you with your planning.

Other News:

• It was with great sadness that we said farewell to two of our friends and fellow anglers in December/January. Brian Turner and Ted Wise both sadly passed away and will be missed by a great number of us.

Whilst Brian, due to his illness was unable to join us as a member, he was a regular and welcome visitor whenever he felt able to make it here. He battled for a number of years with his illness and never let it interfere with his cheery demeanour and fighting spirit. From the first time we met him he made us feel most welcome and I was fortunate enough to see him in action in his role as tour guide at a local distillery. His enthusiasm was infectious and as with most things that he did, he put his heart and soul in to making the trip as memorable for everyone that he could. A true gentleman.

Ted was somewhat of a legend of the Stillwater fishery world. His knowledge and application was admired by many and he was of great help to us when we first arrived at Coldingham Loch. Over the years we got to know Ted very well and formed a mutual respect and friendship which was very special to us. Ted will be remembered by many for his time here at Coldingham Loch and latterly at The Whinney. Both he and Tina served the fly-fishing world for many years and their contribution cannot be over-stated. We presented Ted with honorary, life membership of Coldingham Loch Fly Fishers in recognition of the work that he did and he will be sadly missed.

• You will see the first of the Fly of the Month series on the loch reports with A Fly to Tie & Try for April by Les Lockey. Once again thanks to Les for his continued work in doing these much valued articles.

Club News:

Over the next two weeks we will be visited by the following clubs:

• Saturday 23^rdMarch, Ladhope FFC
• Sunday 31^st March, Edinburgh Post Office

We wish them the best of weather and good fishing too.

Below are photos from Opening week – a link to videos will be put on here in a day or so, please bear with us on technical issues!