Catching up..

SCOTLAND’S top two angling competitions are back on track again and entries are flooding in from angling clubs.

The Scottish Club Championships and its parallel competition, the Champion of Champions, have always been seen as the ones to be part of.

Kenny Miller of SANAAC tells me that 130 three-man teams have alreadu been entered for the competition which always takes place on the Lake of Menteith.

Kenny said: “We have spaces for another 10 teams, so club secretaries wanting to enter should get in touch with me as soon as possible.”

Kenny’s number is 01236 764063.

Catch statistics for last season issued by fishery manager Quint Glen revealed that the two-man average boat catch for the season was 5.9 fish for 13.9lbs, marginally up on 2015’s 5.4 fish for 13.5lbs.

Sixty three per cent of all fish caught were released.

Quint revealed that the 13,946 killed and weighed in represented 45 per cent of the annual stocking, a big reduction on the old figure before catch and release, usually around 70 per cent.

He said he believed increased losses were due to predators’ catch and release.

But to help the fishery understand better what was happening, he appealed to anglers to help by accurately recording fish caught and released, and fish killed.

A near tragedy on the lake on March 19 underlined the necessity of wearing lifejackets.

In a gusty 30km per hour wind, a boat travelling too fast shipped large amounts of water breaking over the bow which was nose heavy due to a large angler sitting above the bow seat on a very heavy plank.

The angler on the outboard, who was not wearing a lifejacket, was seated off centre.

The end result was that the boat shipped so much water it was destabilised and turned upside down.

The man on the outboard managed to hold on to the boat which was lying almost level with the surface due to the buoyancy tanks and shouted for help.

The angler in the bow who was wearing a lifejacket was able to cling to his tackle while awaiting rescue. Quint highlighted: 1. The failure of the angler to wearing his lifejacket despite instruction.

2. Failure to slow down or sufficiently to prevent dangerous amounts of water coming intothe boat.

3. Failure of man in bow to reposition to middle seat to prevent waves breaking over the front, and to centre himself in the middle of the boat when it became unstable.