England strike gold at Kingennie

The eighth annual international still water fly fishing competition was held at FORBES OF

KINGENNIE with six anglers from Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales competing.

The competition was fished over the Boathouse and Burnside pools with three days of practice seeing lots of flies and techniques used.

Competitors fished four pegs in the morning and four in the afternoon lasting 40 minutes, giving them two full rotations of the pools.

At lunchtime results were calculated with just one fish separating first, second and third.

Scotland led with 28 fish for 62 place points, England second with 28 fish for 67 points and Wales third with 27 fish for 70 points. The Irish had 19 fish for 101 points.

There were several more big fish caught in the afternoon session, with seven anglers catching fish over the 60cm limit and by the end only three anglers had failed to catch a fish bigger than 50cm.

The biggest fish of the day was caught by the Scottish rod of Gregor Hannen. It was a rainbow measuring 76.9cm and weighing around 14lb, caught on a small bloodworm from the Boathouse Pool.

England went on to secure the gold medal with an outstanding afternoon session landing another 37 fish.

That brought the final result to England first with 65 fish, Scotland second with 50, Wales third with 48 and Ireland fourth with 37.

The top individual on the day was Glenn Appleby with a total of 16 fish and only seven place points. There were several patterns taking fish but a mix of bloodworms and black lures were the winning patterns for the English. Fishing at RESCOBIE

LOCH has been challenging but there are still huge numbers of fish in the loch.

The cold, windy weather made conditions tough, but there have been some cracking rainbows caught – Eric Sellars 9lb, Charlie Walls

9lb, David Watson 8lb 5oz, John Malloch 8lb 4oz, Mr Murchie 6lb 8oz and G Burnett 6lb.

Fish of the month for October looks like being shared by Eric Sellars and Charlie Walls.

Anglers catching the four-fish limit: Mr Westwood 17lb 4oz; Pat Greig, 16lb 8oz; Mr Barlow 12lb. NEWTON FARM FISHERY had another superb week with many reaching the high teens on catch and release.

Richard Shepherd had 15 on snakes with fish up to 8lb; Dave Dawson had 13 on fabs and diawls, including a 7lb blue.

Newton remains open seven days, 8am till dusk, all winter with fun competitions on the last Saturday of every month through until March.

There are still some nice fish being caught in Gateside Bay at LAKE

OF MENTEITH with the biggest on Sunday being more than 8lb.

In the quieter water there was a large hatch of black buzzers with fish rising in large numbers. A particularly good area for this was the Rookery.

There are still some boats available for the Kirk and School fundraiser on Sunday. Fishing is from 11am to 4.30pm with the cost of a boat being £45.

All proceeds go to charity and there is a barbecue thereafter.

● This is the last angling column of the season but, with many fisheries opening all year round, there is still some great fishing to be had.