Angling: Broken, beaten but unbowed

By STUART FRASER
Published on 28/07/2012 12:00

One of my favourite competitions has to be the Scottish 
Club Championships.

The three-man team event is held on a Saturday evening on the Lake of Menteith. Windy conditions had hampered most of the day session anglers, 
making poor returns; one boat reported having a good session in the cages area, so I headed in that direction.

Several boats were in the same area and I went with floating line and two dries. Although fish were showing I could not get any interest so I changed to a couple of Cormorants and a Cat Booby and drifted along the rope. As the wind subsided I began to get offers and my first came to the Booby on a fast 
figure eight retrieve.

It was game on I thought as, with my next cast, I was in again. Unfortunately it broke me and I lost the whole cast. I managed to get another cast in before the end of the drift andwas broken yet again. I cursed my luck, thinking this may have scuppered our chances of 
qualifying.

With only a few drifts left to end the session I managed to pick up another three fish before we had to head back to port and the weigh-in.

We failed by only one fish to qualify, but we all enjoyed our match and vowed to return next year and hopefully do it next time.