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HARRAY FISHES WELL DESPITE THE BRILLIANT SUNSHINE
click on red fly to view image
Extremes of weather are common in Orkney, but anglers last weekend had
to endure the very worst angling conditions from either end of the scale.
Saturday was decidedly Baltic, with heavy rain, hailstones and a serious
wind chill, but by Sunday morning it was almost Mediterranean, with brilliant
sunshine and light winds! What would the trout think of it?
Harray fished very well indeed and it took good baskets of fish to get among
the points on Sunday. Favoured areas at the 11am start were definitely all
north of the Ess Holms with Bankhead, Nistaben and Merkister all seeing
heavy boat pressure. There was also a split between anglers fishing the
deep water drifts and those fishing the shores and skerries.
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| A delighted Keith Young after his Harray win |
Top rod from 34 anglers on the day was Keith Young with a cracking basket
of 19 for 12lb 1 ¼ ozs who fished a combination of skerries and deeps
in Bochan and around Neds, which he had to himself for most of the day.
Erlend Hutchison, Sandy McConnachie, and Ken Kennedy were the best of the
rest, but nobody really came close. Heaviest fish to be weighed in was a
specimen of 1lb 3 1/4ozs from Jimmy Grant. As this was the Bullen Cup, there
were further calculations to do to see who won the cup, Stromness or Kirkwall.
This is worked out on average baskets for the number of anglers fishing
for each side. Kirkwall’s 19 anglers averaged 4lb 15ozs and Stromness’s
15 anglers averaged 5lb 1oz. This meant that Keith also won the Bullen Cup.
Many anglers reported that the fishing just died at about 2 o’clock
in the afternoon, no surprise really as this is when the sun, with a NW
wind blowing, moves round behind the angler and the fish cannot see the
flies as you are basically pulling them towards the sun. As usual it was
also noticeable that one end of the boat was more beneficial to be in than
the other, this again, I think, is to do with what angle to the sun your
flies are retrieved at.
Fly pattern, and more importantly colour, was pretty critical, with Peach,
whether it be:
Muddler,
Palmer,
or Midge by far the most successful. Doobry
Muddler, Sunburst Kate, Norsky
Lad,
Cormorants, Dabblers, Bibio
and Coch
Zulu were also mentioned in dispatches. Its Harray again on
Saturday night so let’s hope the wind comes out of the north and warms
up a bit before then.
Four local anglers head for the Lake of Menteith next weekend for the Scottish
National qualifiers. Best wishes go to Sandy McConnachie and Ken Kennedy
who are representing the OTFA, and Malcolm Russell and Erlend Hutchison
from Merkister Flyfishers.
KK
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