Eve and Bobby hit top form in worlds
SWANSWATER
It was a week of cold nights and sunny days with a cool easterly breeze most days. The water temperature is sitting around 10oc and water clarity remains excellent.
The fish were moving all round the main pond. At times they were just below the surface, other times they were quite deep. They were sometimes near the edges of the ponds and sometimes out in the middle.
Some cracking Rainbows and Browns in the 6lb to 8lb range were landed, along with some beautiful Blues, Golds and Tigers. A wide variety of flies were taking with the favourites including Ace of Spades, Dancer, Ally Mccoist, Eggs, Damsel, Cormorant, Buzzer and Hopper.
On the bait pond, many of the fish were to be found deep down near the bottom end of the pond and were taken on power bait, maggots, or worms.
The fishery is open from 8am-9pm every day except Thursday when it closes at 2.30pm.
Some of the best bags from the fly ponds included Eddie Mckillop three for 13lb 4oz including 8lb 8oz Rainbow and a Gold; Willie Macfadyen two for 9lb 2oz including 6lb 10oz Rainbow and a Tiger; Kyle Crossley three for 12lb including 6lb 8oz Brown plus one caught and released (C&R); Witold Skwrcan three for 12lb including 6lb Rainbow, a Gold and a Blue plus four C&R; Willie Nyguist three for 11lb 4oz including 5lb 12oz Brown; Donald Mcmurchy five for 13lb 6oz including four Golds; George Johnson four for 8lb from the Meadow Pond plus six C&R including four Golds and two Blues; Ben Mcinnes three for 8lb 12oz; Jack Morrison three for 7lb 8oz including a Gold plus three C&R; Craig Mason two for 5lb 8oz including a Blue; Robert Mccoll 11 C&R; David Goss and John Thomson both nine C&R; Marco Ezzi eight C&R; Kimin Smith seven C&R; Gordon Mcgill and Gavin Hosie both five C&R .
The bait pond was popular this week and there were some excellent bags. Amongst those catching on bait were Eugene 6lb 12oz Rainbow; Sebastian Savage two for 3lb 8oz including a Gold; Michael More five for 8lb 12oz; Archie Mckinnon five for 8lb 12oz; James Smith two for 4lb including a Gold; Ross and Zhao shared shared six for 12lb 4oz including a Blue; Craig Learmonth two for 3lb; William Johnson two for 3lb 12oz; Walter Mclaren three for 8lb including a Gold; Graeme Johnston three for 6lb including a Gold; Patrick Cring two for 3lb 8oz including a Gold; James Elliott three for 7lb 12oz including a Gold; Sam Parker three for 5lb 12oz; Nick three for 7lb 12oz; Ross Alexander two for 4lb; Modris five for 11lb 4oz including three Golds;
Armandos five for 13lb including a Gold; Kevin Finlay two for 4lb; David Comrie two for 5lb including a Blue; Cammie Muirhead two for 4lb 12oz including a Gold; Ryan Adamson four for 8lb 4oz including a Gold and a Blue.
LAKE OF MENTEITH
Thanks to Phil Dixon for organising the Menteith heat of the Scierra Pairs,all those involved in running it and the competitors for taking part.
Kevin Porteous and James Bews were the worthy winners with their eight fish in the boat after one and a half hours. If they had kept that catch rate up they would have had more than 37.3 fish for the boat in the seven alloted hours.
Robert Gibson and James Gilchrist also had their comp limit by 10.30am.
Phil’s adherence to the time bonus to decide competitions is maybe easier
Eve Muirhead and Bobby Lammie have reached the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships semi-finals in Geneva - but their opponents are still to be decided.
The Stirling-based duo powered past Hungary 10-4 on Wednesday while yesterday (Thursday) they beat Turkey 10-2 to leave them on seven wins out of seven and only lowly Spain to play last night.
Five pairs are still in with a shout of a semi-final spot - Japan, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden all sit on six wins and two losses while Italy are on the fish than catch and release. The competitors can go out again for a cast but in a more relaxed way.
After last year’s sustained water temperature of 22 to 24C in July, the fishery is thinking of imposing limits on catch and release in very hot water conditions – from next year. Something for competition organisers to ponder over and give me their thoughts.
PARKRUN
Recently the weekly parkrun had a “volunteer takeover” by the Wee County Harriers - which saw them provide the bulk of the volunteers and a chance to showcase their club.
Plean Parkrun is held every Saturday at 9.30am in Plean Country Park on a 5k course with a mix of trails, tracks and still in with a chance on five wins and three losses. The Italians require other results to go their way.
Against Turkey, The PEAK team were 10-0 up after five ends but withing a minimum of six ends requiring to be played, the Turkish pair registered a two before offering handshakes.
In the match v Hungary, they asserted themselves from the off, scoring a three at the opening end and after forcing their opponents to take a single at the next, a two at the third gave them a comfortable advantage.
The Hungarians rallied to score a two of their own at the fourth to close to just 5-3 down at the paths in the country park.
Event Director Jackie Stewart said: “It was a real pleasure to have the Wee County Harriers along volunteering. They are a professional and friendly bunch. There was a great atmosphere in the park and the volunteers were really supportive of everyone who took part.
“We encourage anyone of any level to fitness to join us - you can run, walk or jog - you don’t have to be an athlete to take part, you just need to have the desire to get outside and get moving - and you will never be last as that is the job for the Tailwalker.”
Fifty-eight people ran, walked or jogged the course with 16 visitors to Plean. Thirteen people recorded new personal bests and representatives of 12 different clubs took part. For more details contact plean@parkrun.com or visit parkrun. org/plean. midway break, but high class setup play from Lammie resulted in Muirhead having the easiest of draws to secure a five at the fifth end which effectively ended the contest.
“It was our first goal coming here, to qualify for the play-offs, so to have secured that with a couple of games to go feels nice,” said the Olympic gold medal winning skip.
She was particularly pleased with the way they dealt with changing conditions, partly as a result of the treatment of the stones being used for the championship, which were rubbed down the previous evening.
“The ice was definitely a little different, but Bobby and I managed that really well,” said Muirhead.
“They rubbed the rocks last night so that was always going to make a little change, but we managed it slightly better than them.”
“We want to keep the momentum going, though, because when it gets to the crucial part of the week, that’s when you want to step it up a little bit,” said Muirhead.
“I think we just keep doing what we’re doing. We’re managing things really well out there and playing key shots when it matters.”
• In the World Seniors , being held simultraneously in Geneva, the Scottish rink featuring Stirling curler John Davie has also qualfied for the play-offs thanks to an 8-7 extra-end win over Denmark.