News

June

The month started out on a high note for Ian Cannop with a nice basket of 4 fish taken on Sunday 1st. Best fish was around 1lb 8oz with the other three hovering around the 1lb mark.
June 3rd - The Mayfly hatch is now well under way and most anglers are being rewarded for their persistence. However, Ronald MacKenzie and Raymond Millard took a day off from St Johns, on the 2nd, to fish Loch Heilan almost a year to the day when on that particular visit Raymond caught a wild brownie weighing in at 10lbs 12ozs, easily the biggest fly caught wild fish in Caithness in living memory, up until now that is! This time it was Ronald who had his mettle tested with a fish eventually tipping the scales at a whopping 11lbs 10ozs. (See pictures at right).
June 7th - George Maclean had a fine morning out on the loch and caught three beauties (pictured right) by 9a.m. All were taken on a dry Mayfly pattern fished on a # 3 outfit (what fun that must have been). The smaller of the trio measured 17'' and combined they weighed 7lb 4oz.
June 8th - Ian Cannop had another good day out on the loch landing a cracking fish just a whisker over 3lbs 2ozs. Association Chairman Alastair Foggo also had his first outing of the season at the weekend and managed a nice fish of 1lb 12ozs.
June 9th - Ronald MacKenzie, brother-in-law Mervyn Johns and Pat Nicol spent the day on the loch. Between them they boated five fish with Ronald having the heaviest at 2lb 6ozs.
The Mayfly hatch continues and I'm hopeful of reasonable baskets for our competition weekend starting on the 14th.
June 14th - Member's Competition was won by Richard Norburn who took both trophies (Heaviest Fish & Heaviest Basket) with one fish weighing in at 1lb 4oz. Total fish caught amounted to 6 for a combined weight 5lb 4oz. A total of 14 anglers participated 8 of whom blanked. See photographs at right.
June 15th - The Fly Tying Group held their annual competition on St Johns. The winner was Neil MacDonald with three fish for 2lb 7ozs and the number for the day was 6 fish for 4lb 15ozs. A total of 9 anglers participated 4 of whom blanked.
June 17th - A good time shared amongst friends on St Johns, what could be better? Tom Ganley (Senior) & Tom Ganley (Junior) from Kinross, Tayside along with Gordon Reekie from Hill Of Beath, Fife spent a very pleasurable day out on the loch with Gordon bagging the best fish of the day which weighed in at 2lb 8ozs taken on a wet Olive Mayfly.

May

I have received little news from the loch for the first half of the month but I am delighted to report that Les Jones finally broke his duck on the 19th with a fine trout of 1lb 12oz. Well done Les! No picture on this occasion but it's nice to know that, despite the glorious weather, the fish are on or near the top.
May 27th - Further report from Les to say that the Mayfly hatch has started and that he had boated four nice trout with the best weighing in at 2lbs taken on a Melvin Octopus.
Reports continue to come in of some good hatches of Mayfly and some anglers are hitting the loch at just the right time. Raymond Maclean has had several nice baskets since the 28th with 7 the following day while Alex Sandison managed a basket of 14 fish all in the region of 12oz to 1lb. Pat Nicol also managed a basket of 8 similarly sized fish. Anglers haven't had it all their own way though and a number of blanks have also been reported.

April
The season finally got underway in good style on the 16th with Don MacKay landing three beauties weighing in at 2lb 8oz, 3lb and 5lb. Don was fishing an Intermediate line and all three fish were taken on a Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear Nymph.
Once word got around of Don's good fortune, a few hardy souls braved the cold and had a go.
On Monday 21st Ronald MacKenzie took to the water and landed three for a total weight of 6lb 12oz.
On Tuesday 22nd he added to his score with one for 2lb 11oz and on Friday 25th he managed another for 3lb 1oz. With the weather continuing to be fairly settled I expect to see more of the same in the coming weeks.