On Sunday 23rd October an impressive crowd of family, friends and D.D.A.C. Members gathered at the Clachan of Glendaruel , for the unveiling of a memorial plaque in remembrance of Colin MacDonald (senior) and his wonderful commitment to the River Ruel.
Mrs. Hazel MacDonald, her son and Club member , Colin (junior) and their extended family and friends joined with D.D.A.C. Members , all of whom wished to commemorate and celebrate the tireless work carried out by Colin (senior) over his years as bailiff of the River.
D.D.A.C. President Davy Landsburgh welcomed those gathered before sharing a touching account of Colin’s work to improve salmon and sea trout stocks and his determination and ingenuity in finding solutions to overcome the challenges faced. Davy included an emotional and personal account of how Colin had helped him develop as an angler and clearly many others present shared this sentiment of a man who was always willing to offer assistance and share his knowledge and expertise.
Colin (junior) was then invited to unveil the memorial plaque that has been mounted on a large stone on the bank of the River. Colin (junior) then gave a both factually interesting and lovely dedication to his late father.
After the ceremony the MacDonald family kindly invited all in attendance to come to the Marine Hotel in Hunter’s Quay for lunch allowing more stories and tales of Colin’s role as bailiff to be enjoyed.
Fittingly the rain stayed away for this occasion to celebrate the life of a gentleman angler and true custodian of the River Ruel.
(Thanks to Davy for making and fitting the memorial plaque and to Bob Clark for clearing the ground around the stone.)
The lock Eck competition went ahead from Saturday the 1 st October and ran till the Saturday the 8th of October. There was a very poor turn out from the Dunoon and District angling club members for having over 140 members the turnout was simply shocking.
In total only 3 members fished the competition, they were: Graham Henry fished on Wednesday the 5th but unfortunately did not contact any of the lochs wild fish.
Saturday the 8th, Bill Rankin and myself Allan Miller fished the competition, we had a bit of mixed weather ranging from flat calm to torrential rain and at times high winds. The fishing was hard going as always, with Bill Rankin only catching one 10″ sea trout. I landed one Brown trout of about 11,1/2 inches but this was out of season and did not count to the weigh in. Shortly after that I hooked a very big fish which offered a very short fight as it snapped my 8 lb leader.
So the winner for the 2022 Loch Eck Competition is Bill Rankin with one Sea Trout, congratulations Bill. There’s always next year. If any club members has any ideas on how to make the competition more attractive so more people enter, please feel free to contact me or any of the committee with your thoughts.
The final day of competition for the Mackenzie Shield and the Club Championship took place on
Saturday 13th August. Falling in a mini heatwave this afternoon Competition was looking like
being a tough challenge. One concession on the conditions was a decent breeze from the east.
There was also a little cloud cover early on before the strong sun broke through. Four anglers
started the competition with three weighing in fish. The result was as follows;
Lee Lindop. 6 fish 4lb 5.3oz
Graeme Hendry. 1 fish. 0lb 9.9oz
Duncan MacGillivray. 1 fish. 0lb 9.4oz
This final result saw Lee Lindop take the Club Championship. He had begun the day with a slender lead over runner up Graeme Hendry and extended this lead on the day with a very decent bag given the difficult conditions. Lee’s consistency across the Competitions is to be applauded and he ran out a worthy winner. Congratulations Lee!
Graeme Hendry also deserves praise for some great bags of fish and staying in contention throughout. Graeme also had the consolation of catching the biggest fish across the Competitions, with a fish of 1lb14.7 oz. Well done Graeme!
As well as displaying considerable skill with a fly rod both of these anglers adopt an approach that requires a huge physical effort to cover water and seek out fish in rough terrain and a variety of weather conditions.
Weather started with a goodly blow from the west, reducing eventually into a very warm afternoon. The water was very cloudy especially on the east banks, which made the fishing a bit more challenging.
There were 10 members came to the outing, with five only catching.