The Club returned to angling at an impressively well-organised Black Loch Fishery. Everything was done by the book, and we enjoyed a challenging day's angling on one of our regular waters. While it didn't rain as much as the equivalent outing last year, the wind was what might be described as 'awkward' for much of the day. It was obvious from the off that the fish were well spread out, although not far from the jetty, as Robin proved by catching one while Paul was still attaching his flies.... Most of the boats started off drifting from the Reedy Bays area along to School Bay, with a few closing to anchor in School Bay at the end of the drift. Willie found fish off the Heathery Bank on his usual fly (if you have to ask....) but managed to keep those fish that were available to his end of the boat (writes Alastair). Bobby and David did a bit of tandem hoping and losing at their end of the first drift, but they wouldn't have counted anyway as the engine had been started prior to either fish attaching itself. (Obviously.) This started a short period of frantic roly-poly as the obvious conclusion was that the fish wanted the fly moved quickly - they didn't.
Barrie came ashore for lunch with new member Gordon - and we were particularly pleased when Barrie produced a bottle of this splendid stuff. Aerstone. A fine addition to the Lunch Club knowledge base. We didn't learn much about the fishing over lunch. Willie's 3 fish were becoming things of legend, with the captor being his usual shy self about the successful method - not. The rest of us just had another dram....
More boats seemed to anchor up in the afternoon. Not sure if it was my imagination, but the wind seemed to become more difficult. Bobby picked up a fish after lunch, with Barrie nabbing a couple in the last hour. Willie added to his total and David picked up 2, also later in the day. In the end, Laurie appeared with 3 good fish to pinch 1st place from from Willie. Laurie's fish were on dries. The rest were on the usual mix of nymphs and junk food. 18 fish for 14 anglers proved the challenging nature of the day. The full results were:
1st Laurie 3 for 9 lb 4 oz 2nd Willie 4 for 8 lb 3rd= Robin 2 for 4 lb 3rd= David 2 for 4 lb 5th Barrie 2 for 3 lb 12 oz 6th Bill 2 for 3 lb 9 oz 7th Bobby 1 for 2 lb 8 oz 8th Gilbert 1 for 2 lb 9th Paul 1 for 2 lb
13 fish were weighed for 29 lb 1 oz, giving an average weight of just under 2 lb 4 oz. 18 fish in total gave a rod average of 1.38 fish per angler. Congratulations to Laurie on First place and winning the James Lamond Memorial Trophy.
All the above anglers qualify for the 2nd round of the Corona Cup (top 8 plus ties). At the Lake, the top 4 anglers, plus ties, will qualify for the semi final at Frandy on 29th August, and the top 2 from Frandy will contest the final, back at the Black Loch, on 19 Sep 2020.
A few pics below - if anyone has any more, please let me have them. Thanks, David.