Cauld blew the bitter biting north, but it did not out off twenty four hardy anglers who contested the rescheduled Rabbie Burns Pairs competition at Lochter Fishery Oldmeldrum on Sunday.
The weather did not put off the fish either with one hundred and thirteen trout caught of which sixty six were released. When the results were totted up the winners were the pairing of John Brown and Kevin Neri with a teriffic 84lbs to their credit .In second was Steve Corsar and Tommy Graham with Kenny Riddell and Glen McHattie close up in third. The prize for the first fish caught went to Alan Noble and the last fish landed to Jim Adie. Top flies on the day were minkies, blobs and nomads all slowly retrieved. A fine warming lunch of haggis (which was suitably addressed before consumption by Howard Hughes), neeps and tatties went down well with the fishers and fortified them for the afternoon session and a good time was had by all.
Earlier in the week wind was the main feature of the weather but the fish were there to be caught and anglers found a variety of methods which were successful. David Pottinger down from Shetland accounted for twelve with his deadly shooting head set up coupled with olive and black fritz. M Wilson used montanas and cormorants to successfully net nine, D Simpson had ten on blobs and cats while N Smith using cut throat cats and olive damsels very successfully and to net fifteen ,keeping two for the pot. In spite of the cold weather buzzers were still worth a go. The McKay brothers from Inverness used them successfully during a quick afternoon session on Sunday with a dozen between them and earlier in the week Terry Daniel and M Sutherland found that the trout were very happy to sample their black buzzers.
The forecast is for soaring temperatures this week, which if correct will bring the water to life and provide anglers with a golden opportunity to really get among the fish.
HH
20/02/12
