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ORKNEY TROUT FISHING ASSOCIATION 2008 SPRING SOCIAL EVENING ENJOYED BY ALL
This years’ social evening was well attended by OTFA members and friends and they were all kept fully entertained by the events organised by James Bews and his committee members.
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The night was kicked of with a DVD on fishing for trout, salmon and sturgeon in Canada. This was followed by an extremely informative presentation from Ian Hutcheon on the entomology of our local lochs. Ian had painstakingly gathered all manner of nymphs, shrimp, sticklebacks etc from each water and presented them in clear containers marked with their origin. He then described what he thought were the differences in species and how prolific or otherwise they were compared to a similar study conducted a number of years ago. Of particular interest were the Stonefly nymphs, more commonly known as “Gadgers”, and more commonly found in running water in the rivers on the mainland.
Stuart Topp then teased everybody with a very well thought out quiz which consisted of some very tricky questions of an angling and geographical nature, and some of the answers beggared belief, especially the ones with a geographical slant. One entrant who shall remain anonymous, and obviously wasn’t a homing pigeon in a previous life, in answering the question:- If you were to draw a line due north from the Harray site, what would be the only other loch this line would pass through, said Kirbister! Ian Hutcheon was declared the winner and had the pick of some tremendous prizes which were donated very generously by WS Sinclair, Stromness, Gerry McDonald of Artifly, Hugo Ross, Wick and various other local members and supporters.
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There followed some fly dressing demos from Jim Adams, Brian Thomas, Ken
Kennedy, John Munson and James Bews. The flies produced on the night and
others donated by Jim Adams were then drawn for in a raffle organised by
Raymond Miller who played a blinder in getting so much money out of those
present and the total raised on the night, which included monies from a
scratch card was £270, a brilliant effort. We would also like to thank
The Merkister Hotel for its hospitality and sandwiches
The competition season kicks of this weekend with an outing on Swannay for
a few hours on Sunday, let’s hope it warms up a bit. All entries and
fees must be paid before the day. Particular attention is being paid to
the purchase of Boat registration tags for all members boats this year and
Ian Hutcheon has been appointed to administer and oversee this. Any queries
about the boat tagging should be addressed to Ian.
Ken Kennedy
Photographs by Jim Adams