Martin Grant Memorial Trophy presentation to John Goldie

Martin Grant Memorial Trophy presentation to John Goldie

This competition was held at Farmoor and was a boat contest involving fly tying in the morning and then using those flies to catch four fish in the afternoon, the winner weighing in the heaviest bag.  Five anglers took part.

The morning started at 09:30 with us seated around a table in the back room at Farmoor as usual John Goldie was late and when he did turn up was locked out of the building by the Ranger who had to go and sort out a boat problem.  Eventually John was let in and we all settled down to tie Diawl Bachs, Boobys, Foam Daddies, Hoppers and anything else which took our fancy.  The ranger had indicated that the bright sun had sent the fish down and fry patterns would catch, none of us had tied these so we thought the day might be difficult!

At 13:00 we all set out in the boats to catch our four fish, the weather was warm, bright and sunny with intermittent cloud and the wind occasionally dying away.  Richard Beckett and I quickly discovered that the fish were high up in the water, when the wind and cloud came they were taken on Diawl Bachs and Boobies fished as a washing line just below the surface.  But when the wind died fish could be seen feeding on the top and were caught by offering a Foam Daddy.

Everyone made their way to the local pub for an enjoyable meal which was made somewhat cheaper by selling most of our trout to the restaurant.

The winner of the competition – John Goldie was presented with the Martin Grant Memorial Trophy which is the use of a Snowbee Waldron vice for a year.

The competition results were:

John Goldie 4 fish 11lb – 12ozs

Richard Beckett 4 fish 9lb – 12ozs

John Pearce 4 fish 9lb – 8ozs

John Gamon 3 fish 6lb – 8oz

Geoff Darby 1 fish 2lb – 4oz

John Pearce