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Simpson takes first place on bank fishing trip to Halladale lochs





James Simpson won the Iain Hay Hill Lochs Trophy and received the bonus point for best fish.
James Simpson won the Iain Hay Hill Lochs Trophy and received the bonus point for best fish.

Members of Dounreay Fly Fishing Association completed their 2022 series of competitions last Saturday with a bank fishing event on lochs Seilge and Caorach.

The lochs lie in the hills above the north end of Strath Halladale and involve a 45-minute climb from near sea level to about 500 feet. A strong east-south-east headwind as the anglers signed on at the roadside car park at 9am only added to the rigours of the climb.

Due to the wind, most of the fishing effort was along the east and part of the south banks of the lochs and James Simpson bagged 11 trout from those areas of Caorach, then added another three from Seilge before lines up at 4pm.

The 14 fish weighing 9 lb 11.25 oz was enough to give him the eight points for first place, the Iain Hay Hill Lochs Trophy and the bonus point for the best fish at 1lb 1 oz. James had used a Fast Intermediate tip line, with Foam Daddy and Bibio Snatcher flies doing the business.

Toby Bracey had fished similar areas to the winner and put 10 from Caorach plus four from Seilge on the scales for a total of 8 lb 12.5 oz that gave him six points for second place. He had employed a Fast Tip line, with Ginger Hog, Viva Sparkler and his ever-reliable Red Tag flies the best choice.

For third place and four points, Aivis Kreslins had caught four towards the south end of Caorach and added five more on a late sortie to the far side of Seilge for a total of 5 lb 8.5 oz. He had used his favourite Intermediate line, his best fly being a Gorgeous George, but a King Fisher Butcher gave him a keeping size trout on his first and last casts of the day.

Also weighing in were Robbie Hawken, Neil Clyne, Kevin Imlach and Tony Chalmers.

Following the weigh-in down at the car park, Alex Donald was confirmed as Bank League champion after a good year on the banks, his two first places contributing to a total of 35 points. Runner-up Neil Clyne was the only member to score on all five bank events – his best four results giving him 29 points.

The rest of the top six who qualify to represent DFFA in the inter-club competition against Shetland Angling Association next year are Toby Bracey (28 points), James Simpson (26), Robbie Hawken (21) and Tony Chalmers (20).

All the trophies for the association's competitions will be presented later in the year.


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