August the 9^th saw the annual “open” fly fishing competition run by the Isle of Man Fly Fishers. This years sponsor was once again Fuzzelogic Solutions software and web design specialists, who very generously provided the excellent array of prizes for the winners.

With four Juniors amongst the ranks a grand total of 28 anglers chanced their arm at the Clypse and Kerrowdhoo reservoirs.

From the off action was almost immediate on both reservoirs. On Clypse Paul Hay, Billy Booth and Geoff Thomas were instantly catching fish. Hay had a couple around the 2 ½ lbs in his bag when he hooked into something a bit bigger. A tense battle ensued before a fine fish of 4.8lbs lay in his net. Hay then went on to catch and return many fish over the 3 hours before finally settling on his fourth fish for the weigh in. Jonathon Smith and Graham Norman were also soon in the action, they too caught and released many fish before finally, along with Thomas giving up on the “big one” and settling for their fourth before time ran out. Whilst this was going on, John Halsal was quietly and efficiently catching fish. Halsal also had the luxury to be able to “select” better fish and he finally hooked into a good one. Once again a tense battle ensued before a fine fish of 5.8lbs lay in his net. This fish along with 3 others around the 2 1/2lbs mark gave him a chance of victory.

Meanwhile on Kerrowdhoo action was also swift. Last years champion Sam Bailey was also instantly catching at his favourite spot by ”the bench”. Bailey caught very quickly and was also able to target larger than average fish, finishing with four trout all over 3lbs in 20 minutes from the start. Excellent angling!!

Fishing along side but unable to find the bigger fish was Dave Howe. Howe fished well and had a couple of “over wintered” fish in his bag of four at the weigh in. Other anglers found the fishing a bit harder with Brian Craig weighing in the only other four fish limit from the “neck” of Kerrowdhoo.

The junior anglers were also catching fish. Elliot Black Williams weighed in his first fly caught fish from the Clypse. Well done Elliot. It was however “old hands” at the competition game Orry Watterson and Matty Cretney who battled for the win with both anglers finishing with 2 trout each, to make the weigh in interesting.

There were a total of 60 fish caught by all the anglers with a rod average of 2.14 trout per angler. The quality fish also has to be applauded with the average weight being just over 2 ½ lbs per fish.

So at the weigh in there were 3 anglers in with a shout of the title. The congratulations  however went to Sam Bailey for the third year running who took victory by 3 ozs from John Halsal in second and Paul Hay third.

Halsal did however have the consolation of winning the pool for heaviest fish.

The winner of the junior prize was Orry Watterson with 3.9lbs just beating Matty Cretney’s 3.15lbs with Elliot Black Williams 3^rd with 1.8lbs

Results

1^st        S Bailey   12lbs 12.8ozs

2^nd        J Halsal            12lbs 9.6ozs

3^rd        P Hay               11lbs 4.8ozs

All anglers who caught a fish also received a prize.

Once again a big thank you to our sponsor Fuzzelogic, without them the competition would not go ahead, also a big thank you to the fishery staff for all their hard work over the year providing quality fish for us to catch