Anglers hook season trophies
When the fishing season comes to an end, Loch Fyne Sea Angling Club members are usually looking forward to their AGM and award ceremony.
But, like so many other events, this was cancelled due to the present Covid-19 situation. This has already affected competition plans for the coming season with various boat venues on hold until the all-clear comes.
The club has had a reasonably good season with only one boat trip cancelled due to stormy weather, which is better than previous years. Top venue was Stornoway which produced a good range of species and one or two new club records. Over two days, members caught 144 fish made up of 15 different species including ling, spotted rays and turbot. There was just one day at Portpatrick due to heavy seas but they still managed to capture a few pollack, bull huss and tub gurnard. A trip to Oban, on the other hand, was pretty dire, with only five fish recorded. Most of the late season competitions were held at Loch Etive which is always pretty consistent for spurdogs, although they were mainly juvenile fish, a case of quantity over quality. The annual tally of qualifying fish recorded was in excess of 500, which were all returned safely, and three new club records: plaice, turbot and tub gurnard were set, so all in all not too bad a boat season.
The shore section didn’t fare so well this year with a few pretty scratchy first time venues. Corran was undoubtedly the most prolific shore meeting with nine scoring fish, mainly thornback ray, dogfish and a lone scorpion. Arbroath was a new venue for the group and although it wasn’t as productive as hoped, it did turn up a club record Continued on page 23