Toby lands angling title
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WITH one event remaining in Dounreay Fly Fishing Association’s 2012 championship, Toby Bracey is already the champion following another first place last Saturday. The club’s seventh competition was held on Loch Ruard, just over two miles west of the Causewaymire road, with access from the Achavanich area.
A total of 14 members tackled the journey to fish what is a real hill loch despite it being so close to the A9.
At the start of the day, a light north-east breeze and some fly life on the water had a few fish rising but as the day wore on the wind fell to near flat calm for a short period then veered east before settling to a steady breeze from the north. This cooled things down so that very few flies were to be seen but one surprising sight during the day was the occasional mayfly drifting past.
The weigh-in at the lochside fishing hut proved to be something of an anti-climax as due to problems with the digital scales, it was agreed to base the results on numbers of fish as the trout were all a very similar size.
In first place with 10 trout was Bracey who claimed the Iain Hay Hill Lochs Trophy and 20 championship points. He had fished both ends of the mile-long loch and most of the west bank.
Second place (17 points) fell to Alex Donald who took seven fish from the south end of the loch. Tony Chalmers took third place (15 pts) plus 2 extra points for best fish after concentrating his efforts at the north end.
Fourth equal with five trout each were Neil Clyne and Dave Savage.
After seven of the eight scheduled events, Bracey cannot be overtaken for the championship as he now has 117 points with Jan Hughes next on 78. Tony Chalmers and Peter Creasey are third equal on 76; Alex Donald fifth on 70; and Bill Robertson sixth on 66.
The final competition is for the Parry Trophy and will be fished on Loch Watten on 18 August.
