Islay post 2 Gp competition

Well after a nights sleep in the van I can say that I was absolutely knackered and today I was invited to fish in the local angling club in there annual competition on the famous loch Gorm!
Woody was working so Kev and myself headed off to the meet up on a farm where we all met up in the shed with all the local jocks..
I broke the ice with these hardy loch lads on entering the shed with ' ey up jocks the English have come over to kick your arses on your own water!!'
Well to be fair they took it very well and I got some right stick off them which was again taken well!!
We had to sign in, there was 28 anglers who were all mad for it,
We were given time to find our fishing position on this huge loch and start fishing at 1 until 5
The weather was shocking, blasting gails and heavy rain, far cry from creeping around my rivers back home but again thus place is wild and the fish even wilder so right up my street..

I started off with a three fly traditional set up, not my style but dry fly was not going to be on the list with big whacking waves across the loch..

2 hrs went by and I did not even have a pull, I was cold and starting to lose concentration, I could not see anyone else catching so just carried on.. It was proper hard going, I changed my flys, depth. Retrieving speed, you name it not a touch...

I found a pocket out of the wind and cast my set up out and straight away got smashed by a small trout! I cast again and another fish Rose to my fly, I managed to land my first fish!!
A big sigh of releif.. I had gone back to what I know... A big ltd sedge with a orange tag like Jt uses on his polish sedge..
I put three ltd's on and started to twitch them across the surface in short blasts... Omg the fish started to hammer my fly and I started to take fish..
Typical gp I had forgotten my landing net!! We were told to kill all fish and take them to the way in at the end, I was also using barbless hooks!!
Well I was slating fish out but could not land them and was trying to grab them and loosing them all at the hand..
One fish was well over a pound which I knew would put me in a winning position but again I dropped it as I grabbed it!! Grrr

The orange egg sack ltd was hammering them so I was buzzing, all the locals use wet fly and I was have dry fly sport in massive chopping waves in the rain.
Five o'clock came and Kev and myself grabbed a lift off a local jock back to the weigh in..
There were 28 anglers there all putting the catches in..
I could not believe it, over 10 anglers had blanked and the most caught was 9 fish to one of the famous Islay lads, I had caught 4 fish and lost 11 fish due to no net and barbless hooks!!! Including a 1lber
The crack in the weigh in was top draw, I was giving them loads and had them all shouting and giving me abuse but was all in good spirits, they loved it mostly when I told them I had met all types of people over the world but ' you jock c**** are the worst' !!!
I came 5th out of 28 and first time ever in a comp on a loch so was well happy, my dry fly had done the business but I was so gutted I had not taken my net and I would of won the match by miles.. But that's me , never organized!!
The locals were sound and gave me loads of drams so we went back to our mansion pissed!!
A cracking day and am glad in a way I did not win as think they would of strung me up in the shed lol..
All the lads are arriving now and there will be ten of us stopping in our mansion over looking the famous finlaggen!!
Internet is slow here so will post some pictures when I log onto a wifi in town..
Fishing finlaggen tomorrow and tying flys tonight with plenty off woodsy piss so all good..
Hope all well back home and the may fly are waiting for when I get back
Thanks for the comments on the first post..
Nice one
Glen
Jtuc





'living the dream'