News
EWOS sponsor Unst charity fly fishing event
Unst is the most northerly island in the Shetland archipelago and so come midsummer the nights don’t get dark just a bit dim. It’s also the home of Lakeland Unst where salmon production exceeds 4000t per year and the Lakeland Unst Freshwater hatchery at Quoy which produces 20 million eggs and 1.6 million smolt annually. Both operations are supplied feed by EWOS Scotland.
Freshwater Manager at Quoy is Davie McMillan, who is the organiser of the Unst annual Simmer Dim fly fishing competition, a charity event raising funds for the Teenage Cancer Appeal. A conversation started at the Lakeland/EWOS forum in
Over 25 anglers took part with over half travelling to Unst from Shetland mainland and various parts of
The participants
Conditions this year were not the easiest with some rain and a cold north westerly blowing through the night. Good numbers of fish were caught up to midnight but it was hard going for the next 8 hours for those who persevered. A total of 99 fish made it to the weigh in with a couple of baskets of over 10 fish, although two or three unlucky competitors blanked. Individual winner was Steven Leask, team winners were Lindsay Thomson and Marvyn Tait and best fish was a magnificent 4lb 14oz caught by Lindsay. Douglas Low came in with one excellent fish at 2lb 4 oz and claimed a bad back forced him to retire at 3am. Probably an overuse injury as he had been fishing hard since Friday evening.
A typical Loch of Cliff Trout (probably 2 lb 4 oz)
One fish was rejected prior to weigh in for being below the 10” minimum so in reality the magic number of 100 fish caught was reached and cheque for £500 for the Cancer Appeal has been despatched to
The excellent health of the trout and seatrout fisheries on Unst is evidence that angling and salmon farming interests can co-exist happily particularly when effective sealice management is practiced and when so many fish farmers are also keen fly fishermen.
