Shore Competition Winner 2008 Ross Hall. |
The club held the annual Shore Competition on Saturday the 6th of December, after eventually deciding on a venue beforehand, it was decided that fishing into Loch Seaforth from Maraig in Harris was a nice and accessible venue that could accommodate a number of anglers safely.
Since this time of year can be pretty much a bit of a hit or a miss when shore fishing from certain marks, the anglers taking part agreed to a revised set of rules, which were as follows.
Fishing to the Boat Competitions Rules using measurements, with the following amendments
- A minimum size of 20cm on all species of fish
- A limit of 5 Pollack
- A limit of 5 Whiting
- A limit of 1 Mackerel
- A limit of 1 Coalfish
- 2 Rods Allowable, with maximum of 3 hooks on each
On the Saturday morning, like the rest of Scotland everything was frozen solid and covered under a blanket of frost due to a ridge of high pressure over Scotland. A beautiful crisp frosty morning and a flat calm sea meant that fishing on the day would be a pleasure, but extra care would have to be taken for icey spots on the flat slippy rocks.
Five anglers turned up to fish the competition, Steve Phipps, Angie “Mopp” Macdonald, Ross Hall, Gillies Mackenzie and Iain Kennedy, with each angler choosing a rock to fish from along the coastline. The first fish of the day came to Ross Hall... whilst winding in his baits a surprise Mackerel jumped on, then later on Ross was into another fish when he wound in a Lesser Spotted Dogfish. As Ross was winding in the Dogfish, Iain Kennedy was fishing with flies for Mackerel, and a number of small Pollack jumped onto the hooks, and within a few casts he had around half a dozen Lythe (Pollack).
With the news that Iain was getting Lythe, Angie “Mopp” Macdonald was quick to get some small flies on and slipping and sliding over the rocks over to beside Iain and within minutes was busy catching small Lythe. With Mopp busy catching wee Lythe, Steve Phipps appeared on the brow of the hill displaying an Lesser Spotted Dogfish that he had just caught. On watching Angie Mopp catching Lythe, Gillies Mackenzie’s catch for the day stood at only two large crabs!!!! So he got out his light spinning rod rigged up with a ball lead and orange Redgill fished a slow retrieve along the edge of the rocks for Lythe, in no time he had two better sized Lythe, and then an even bigger one.
In the meantime Ross was busy fishing for Lythe also, and catching a number of under 20cm ones, but eventually got one or two just in size, along with an undersized Poor Cod. Angie Mopp was desperately trying to catch larger Lythe, jumping around the rocks like a cat on a hot tin roof, but he failed to catch any as the Lythe seemed to be a little spooked from all the lures flying around.
3pm was the end of the days fishing, just as the light was beginning to fade, and despite not many fish caught, as the mark is known to produce good numbers of Thornback Rays, Dabs, Ling and the odd Codling .... even Common Skate have been hooked here.... it agreed by the five taking part that it was a very enjoyable day out.
1. Ross Hall - 34 points (1 Mackerel, 1 LSD and 2 Pollack)
2. Gillies Mackenzie – 22 Points (3 Pollack)
3. Iain Kennedy – 22 points (5 Pollack)
4. Angie “Mopp” Macdonald – 22 points (5 Pollack)
5. Steve Phipps – 16 points (1 LSD)
Photographs from the Shore Competition
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