Brown lands latest leg of the Bass Rock shore angling series - Nigel Duncan
One of the most popular annual sea fishing events has been confirmed with the Clyde and Western Open Shore Sweepstake and the Junior Shore Championships due next month.
The date for your diary is Sunday, August 16, and the venue is the Greenock Esplanade.
Registration is from 08.30 to 10.30 and fishing from 11.00 to 16.00, and the rules for the pegged match include catch and return, 18cm minimum and three hooks. Scottish Federation of Sea Anglers (SFSA) rules apply.
Pre-book by contacting Scottish international, Billy Buckley, on 07732 741285.
Entry is £15 and juniors are free providing they are with a competing adult, and there is an optional £5 fee for the longest fish pool. Incidentally, this is a match recognised for the Angling Trust Sea League.
Locally, Alan Brown (West Barns) won leg eight of the Bass Rock Shore Angling League’s Summer Series with two fish for 63cm, beating David Fairbairn (Haddington) who also had two fish but measuring 46cm.
Stewart Fairbairn (Haddington) was third with two fish for 39cm while his son, Callum, aged ten, was next best with one flounder of 29cm. Niko Millar Jun (North Berwick) was fifth with a fish one centimetre less.
The next round is on Wednesday, August 5 at a venue to be decided.
Meanwhile, a new picnic area has been created at Allandale Tarn near West Calder. Iona Allan, the owner, said it has taken several days of what she described as “hard graft” to clear plants and trees then digging down to a good level. Temperatures are cooling and she was due to re-open yesterday.
Bowden Springs near Linlithgow has remained open and anglers have been catching but bosses at Pottishaw near Whitburn say the hot weather has affected fishing there.
Morton Fishings is set to re-open on Saturday, August 1 at 8am.
Lake of Menteith bosses say it has been “fishing its socks off” in recent days with most boats into double-figures using a floating line and lures or dry flies at the head of the wind.
The limit on catch and release has been lifted, and the 32 veterans caught 93 fish and the top rod was Jock Royan who caught his 12 mainly on dries. Finally, some “nice stockies” were introduced to the lake this week from their own pens.
On to coarse fishing, and Edinburgh and Lothians Coarse Angling Club hosted Match Day 6 of their Summer League. Anglers were back on the Match Pond at Drumtassie near Blackridge but they experienced “poor” weather on the day – showery spells at the start mixed with moderate winds and the odd gust. Presentation of the pole, therefore, was difficult and the weather made fishing “a tad harder” than it could have been.
Alex Kerr emerged with the best bag of 17lb 5oz with Darrin Ferguson next best on 16lb 6oz and Stewart Ritchie third with 15lb. They were all in Section A.
Shug Smith won Section B with 12lb 5oz with Mark Gleave second on 9lb 9oz. In Section C, Bartek Kozlowski topped the standings with 12lb 6oz. Erik Newman and Wullie Marr tied for second on 9lb 8oz.
After the weigh-in, the club updated their leader board and Ferguson, the club president, holds pole position with 27 points and a total weight of 106lb 4oz.
Ritchie is second two points behind and his combined weight is 67lb 8oz.
Shug Smith is third on 23 points and a total weight of 85lb 7oz with Mark Gleave fourth on 21 points with a weight of 66lb 8oz and Simon Clynshaw fifth on 20. His combined weight is 39lb 15oz.
It was a good day for Ferguson overall. He beat Ritchie to move into Round 4 of the Knockout Cup. Clynshaw (Ormiston, East Lothian) beat Heather Lauriston in the same competition. Joshua Lloyd v Smith and Andrew H Paterson v Bruce Lawrie complete the round and that will be done on Saturday, August 8.
Elsewhere, weed problems faced anglers during the second round of the Strathclyde Park Evening Series and it was held on the Boating Pond section and pegged along the Roadside Bank.
The organiser, Gus Brindle, said this proved to be the right decision as there was less weed on that stretch with gaps to get a rig in and, more importantly, bites to be had.
Graham McOwat took full advantage of an end peg towards the sluice to weigh 2kg 735g to take the win.
Dunfermline-based Brindle was runner-up on 2kg 485g, with Andrew Potts third on 925g. Brindle leads the chase for the title with Potts second and Colin McKerrell third with Scott Robertson fourth and Shun Smith fifth.
McOwat continued his good form by winning the final round of the Scottish Federation for Coarse Angling (SFCA) Canal Series on the Forth and Clyde Canal at Dullatur, hooking into a weight of 1kg 915g in heavy rain.