Overheard in the bothy this week, one of our regular ‘worthies’ was heard to say “ye ken this, nithin makes a fish bigger than almost being caught”.
This was somewhat proved wrong this week as some lovely conditioned specimen fish were brought to the net to be returned to fight another day.
Karen Gillies proved this using solely a bloodworm when she accounted for 15 fish two of which were around the 6lb mark, with one at 13lb and another at 15lb which will earn her a Troutmaster badge. Other big fish netted during the week was one at 13lb by Hugh McInnes from Aberdeen on a beaded diawl back and one at 12lb by Raymond Sangster from Portlethen on a red cheeked black buzzer.
With the mild weather of the past week there was a lot of fish movement at or near the surface as they made the most of the natural food moving around them.
Pete Green on his two visits during the week accounted for more than sixty fish, in the main using bloodworm, hare’s ear nymph and by the end of the day rather battered looking fritz.
A result like that reminds me of the Somerset Maughan observation-“Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of habit”.
The bunny leech lure was particularly effective on the Muckle Troot loch during the week with B Duguid getting 9 fish, Dave Barron from Macduff 7 fish and Lewis Wright from Aberdeen with 6 fish.
The skilful art of buzzer fishing also brought success with Ernie Mackay Snr and Jnr accounted for 13 and 9 fish respectively, Brian Ross had 8, Alan Barker had 9, Dave McLean had 8 and John Weir from Aberdeen had 7.
It was nice to see so many other anglers coming out and enjoying their fishing in such mild and pleasant conditions.
The Winter League continues to get off to a good start with entry numbers well up on last year. You still have to the end of the month to enter and keep your hand in over the winter.
SP
