It has been a busy week at the Oldmeldrum fishery as it played host to the Macmillan Cancer Care Big Fish Competition on Saturday and the Scottish National Stillwater Championship Final organised by SANA, on Sunday.
The Macmillan event raised the excellent sum of £3055 for the charity with the prize for raising the most cash going to Ronnie Cowie with £770 closely followed by Ian Hamilton with £766, while Stuart Aird won the prize for the biggest fish with a nice specimen of 11lbs 4oz.Well done and thank you to all the fishers who supported the event.
Four tagged fish had been released in the loch and anglers who were lucky enough to catch one had a chance of winning £500,£300,£200 or nothing. Two tagged fish were hooked and almost landed before Gary Sutherland hooked and landed one with a blue tag and when the envelope was opened cheers rang out especially from Gary when he found it was worth £300.
On Sunday anglers from all over Scotland assembled for the National Stillwater Final. They had all qualified at heats prior and included some of the top anglers in the land. The prize was a place in the Scottish team for the International event to be held later in the year in County Claire, Ireland.
Fifty one anglers took part and two hundred and eleven fish were caught and released. When the points were tallied the winner and Scottish Champion was Stuart McCormick from Ayr who had eleven fish. Other anglers who qualified for the team were John Morton, Kenny Hunter, Alec Bowler, Ewen Miller, Andrew Barrowman, and Richard McHattie.The latter two are both local anglers.
All anglers whether winners or losers had a great day, the fishing was suitably testing, the weather was kind and the reputation of angling in the North East considerably enhanced. The team now go forward with confidence and the best wishes of all to Ireland in October.
Earlier in the week the fishing was as mixed as the weather. Terry Daniels from Ythanbank had a fine day with thirteen mainly on hoppers and visiting angler Mike Blackwood from Galashiels had a dozen on white minkie and buzzers.J Parsons netted nine using a black and green frazzle while Kevin Martin stuck to the WSW and banked twelve.
Prospects are excellent with continued changeable weather keeping the fish alert.
HH 13/06/11