Meig Open 2009

This year the Meig Open was held on Saturday the 25th of April. The competition was brought forward to avoid the start of the salmon smolt run, pity nobody told the smolts. 14 teams entered from as far away as the Western Isles, Lochaber and Lairg, plus all our local teams and worthies. The great day dawned grey and cold with a chilly easterly wind providing a nice ripple to start the day with. The loch was at a perfect height so there should have been no reason why bags were not heavy with basses bursting at the seams.

At 09:00 the teams roared off into the loch with the cheers of the onlookers ringing in their ears. OK, cheers and onlookers may be a slight exaggeration but there was a lady walking her dog along the road who showed some interest, I think. As the day wore on the sun came out and the jackets came off, the wind came and the wind went but generally the weather was kind. After about an hour boats could be seen racing all over the loch, a sure sign of anglers looking for trout. Reports were coming in from the dam end of big fish crashing into shoals of smolts and refusing to look at any offering cast in their direction. Toward the end of the day, approaching the weigh in, many boats were giving the thumbs down sign signalling the dreaded blank. In fact a number were already in the car park getting ready for the off.

The weigh in proved to be a quick affair with the only hold up being the attempt, of that old dolt on the scales, trying to differentiate between the two largest trout. In the end only 15 trout were weighed in, which was a bit of a disappointment for all, but that’s fishing. The winning team were the Black Isle, consisting of our secretary Okain McLennan and Dave Mateer who weighed in a very commendable bag of 4 trout for 4lb 10⅞oz. 2nd were Beauly A.C. and 3rd were SGL. Congratulations to the Black Isle who were presented with William Bartlett trophy. The heaviest bag and the Meig cup went to Dave Mateer with 3 trout for 3lb 4oz, a brilliant effort considering the overall catch. The heaviest trout was 1lb 11⅞oz caught by Neil Mackenzie of Beauly A.C. who collected the Strath Conon cup, well done Neil.

Finally I would like to forward my thanks to the Conon bridge hotel for their hospitality and to all the teams who entered, let’s hope the fishing is better in 2010. Especial thanks, to all the members who collected boats and took them to the Meig and then returned them back to their moorings during the days after the competition.

David F MacGregor, Competitions Secretary