On a day that started out very promising, Eric Singer and I set out full of hope and looking forward to good sport. We anchored up at the outer edge of Town Bay. A few casts later Eric was into a fish, a nice one of over two pounds. Shortly after, I had one on but proceeded to practice my long-range release – something I am getting rather good at doing. We then had pulls, snapped 9.5 pound casts and we lost fish at the net. However, we did add to our meagre tally and ended up with two each – and all this before lunch. After lunch, we had a very quiet time, but this gave us the opportunity of putting the world to rights again. We also had a long blether about whether to move the boat or not and decided not to bother, then we spoke about Rusky and the ospreys – it is true that we did not catch a lot of fish but for me it was one of the most pleasant days fishing I have had for a wee while.
Now how did the keen fishers fare on an overcast but bright day – the water was 17°C & the air was 14°C – we also had a WSW wind with a cold edge to it.
Stewart Barnes, fishing with Alasdair McKechnie, landed eleven fish – he used a varied retrieve with a floater – damsels and cormorants. Alasdair had four using a slow retrieve with a midge tip line he got his fish on the good old black Pennell. The fish were caught in town bay.
John Miller was out with Derek Kilgour and they were in town bay. John had seven fish – he used a slow intermediate and a slow retrieve – he got two fish on a sunburst FAB and five on a black JC diawl bach. Derek landed eleven fish on a floater and melanistic flashback PTN. His retrieve was slow to static. This was our best boat with eighteen fish.
Trevor Gibson was fishing with David Tyrie -unfortunately, David had to leave at lunchtime, which is unfortunate as he is in close competition for the club championship. Trevor, back on his buzzers, had eleven fish – he got them fishing along the edge of the weed in town bay.
Bob Allan had two – he used a floater and cormorants. His boat partner John Levy had only one fish – a 5 pounder that fell to a buzzer – I would have thought that on such a day John would have had more with his usual Diawl Bach. Perhaps the lack of success is down to the position – just west of the island.
David Bertram, our single angler, fishing in town bay, landed seven – Eric and I were fairly close to David and watched him lose about the same number – David was fishing a floater with nymphs and boobies and a slow retrieve.
Our 11 rods landed 62 fish. 28 were taken and these weighed 70 Pounds 10 oz.