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CLUB records were set by members of the newly formed Loch Fyne Sea Angling Club at the first club outing on Loch Etive at the weekend.
Eleven members travelled to Taynuilt for the first round league match which was fished aboard the Oban-based MV Creagallan skippered by Colin Currie.
Fishing at anchor in blustery conditions made things pretty interesting but a swirling easterly wind made it difficult to hold the bottom at times and there were plenty of tangled lines to contend with throughout the day.
The first fish was a double dunt of spurdog and whiting to put Scott Rankine into an early lead, but this was short-lived as a steady stream of spurdogs and whiting were brought up from the depths for weighing.
It was very much tit-for-tat throughout the day with fish coming in on a regular basis and despite a lengthy quiet spell during slack water a total of 68 fish were caught and returned.
Richard Pate from Kilmartin made sure his name went into the record books with a 3lb 8oz thornback ray.
Several other rays were landed but none of them posed a threat to Richard’s newly established club record.
Kenny Thompson also put down a club record with a 4lb 8oz spurdog which turned out to be the heaviest fish of the day while Jim Hatton and Robert MacBrayne’s 8oz pouting and whiting set a starting point for both species.
Although no huge fish were landed on this occasion there was an impressive number of fish caught throughout the day and by lines up at 4pm the scoresheet revealed that Loch Fyne anglers had caught and returned 17 thornback rays, 34 spurdogs, 15 whiting and 2 pouting.
Kenny Thompson fished his way to the top of the leader board closely followed by Richard Pate, Scott Rankine and Derek Kelly.
The next club outing in May will be fished on Loch Fyne.
