Yesterday was the annual Day after Boxing Day charity “competition”. It’s not a serious affair with the primary goal being to raise money for the Strathcarron hospice.
The competition was staked out for 28 entrants but on the day 23 turned up, on what was a fine is slightly breezy morning. Certainly a big improvement on the recent weather with Storm Barbara followed by Storm Conor right behind it and some pretty torrential wind and rain.
Getting started
Early on with anglers catching on the island to the left
I drew Peg #1 as my starting point. That put me up by the boat-house fishing clockwise moving three pegs every 35 minutes and due to end just down from the boathouse by 16:00.
As soon as the whistle to start blew, anglers lined along the island facing the dam and the channel were pretty well all into fish. And that continued for the first 35 minute session with I think three anglers all “bagging up” on their first peg. The idea was you could land up to 5 fish ( it was all catch and release) the first on each peg being scored at 2 points and the next four at 1 point for a max of 6 points per peg. Along my bank at the top end of the main loch there weren’t any fish caught and I think this remained the way of the day. Having said that there were definitely fish there as on my sessions at peg 7, near the top corner, myself and the adjacent angler to me seen five fish rise directly in front of us over a period of maybe 2 minutes. With the fish’s back’s being visible each time it was clear these were Rainbows not wee wild Brownies. But no one had a sniff at them all day.
Each angler got two pegs on the island and really if you failed to capitalise on this it was likely you were going to blank.
Second of two fish on the island- this one destroyed my nomad!
First fish I would think getting on for three pounds.
Catching at last
For my part I managed a fish on pegs 13 and 16 on the island, both taken near the bottom fishing black and green nomad style lures. The second fish utterly destroyed the fly with its teeth. The first fish was about 3lb the second nearer 2lb. Before my first fish I felt a tug on one retrieve back and using the same fast/ slow retrieve a second time I managed to hook it the next cast.
Methods
Most of the fish caught were either on lures or on buzzers under a bung, claret and black seemed to be the most successful, though being on the right peg at the right time definitely made a difference to your success. This year there was a rule that you couldn’t fish a lure under a bung ( a normal rule here anyway) but they decided a squirmy Worm constituted a lure as it had a tail of more than 10mm. I think a few anglers were maybe a little unhappy at this. It is interesting to note that last years winner caught all his fish under a bung on a “Cat Bug” which is a leggy buzzer not unlike a squirmy wormy but white. One wonders if he would have won with the same rule in place last year?
For my part when the wind was a problem I fished the buzzer under an indicator and where it was easier I tried the lure.
Towards the end
Towards the end the fish had clearly moved out from the island and while the odd one was still caught the hot peg became the one on the top of the dam wall where anglers could reach the water the fish were moving in to to move out from the island, and this peg resulted in a few late fish. Over the day there were apparently two fish of around 10lbs caught. As I stated before it was all catch and release so they are still in there!
Late on in the competition with a low sun setting behind the anglers
End results
It was though a good day with a good turn out and overall with entry fees, the good prizes in the raffle and the money from the annually collected tea and coffee box, and a contribution directly from the fishery itself, around £1100 was raised which is a great credit to the fishery and all who turn out year after year to support it. The winner was Stephen Cassells who took the 10 fish on the island in the first two sessions and then never had another fish all day! But those 12 points were enough. Having supported the event for 18 years I think it was a well overdue and deserved win.
