Five-starcatch

THERE are anglers who take competition fishing very seriously and those who don’t.

Stevie Whitehead of the Glencorse Reservoir Club and his mates, Alex Moffat and Kenny Gray, fall into the latter category and have fished the Scottish Club Championships for four or five years, never getting far.

But at the weekend, on the Lake of Menteith, the trio beat all comers to produce the top club bag of the competition’s heat 12.

Their catch earns them a place in the semi-finals and Stevie had the best individual catch of the evening session, which propelled him into the Champion of Champions final.

Stevie said: “There are some terrific experienced anglers about who live for competitions and go for practice sessions sometimes a couple of times beforehand.

“We just go for the day out. The three of us went to Angling Active to have a look. After that, we had a meal and then went fishing.”

Weather conditions didn’t make things easy. The wind was swirling and there were heavy downpours. Stevie, of Dalkeith, added: “I started fishing with Cormorants and Diawl Bachs on a floating line without any success, so I changed to a midge tip.

“No success on that either, so I put on a Di5 sweep line which sinks five inches a second, allowing the flies to fish at various depths.

“I got two or three knocks and put on a black suspender Hopper to pull through the waves. The fish were turning away at the last minute so I cut some of the foam away to allow it to sink sub-surface. That did the trick.” Team- mates Alex and Kenny had three and one respectively. Their catch of nine for 18lb 14.9oz was the best club basket of the night.

The Gateside Fly Casters trio were second with seven fish for 18lb 14.8oz, and in third place were Coldstream and District, also with seven fish but for 18lb 8.3oz.

These three clubs now go through to the semi-final.

The five anglers with the heaviest bags qualify for the final of the Champion of Champions. They are Steve Whitehead, with five fish for 10lb 0.9oz, Campbell Morgan, Strathleven, with four fish for 9lb 5.4oz, Jock Craig, Brechin, with four fish for 9lb 5.4oz, Bradley Chalmers, Gateside, with three fish for 8lb 12.2oz, and Derek Hessett, Gateside, with three for 7lb 0.9oz.

Fifty trout were caught by the competitors, the heaviest at 5lb 12.9oz being boated by Dick Logan of Coldstream.

The top club, angler and the captor of the best fish all received a bottle of malt from sponsors Loch Lomond Distillery.