OL Angling Trip 2021
Friday 05th November 2021
Not since 1991 have as many as 15 OLs gathered in any one location to pursue the wily brown trout and not since 1965 have as many as 44 fish been caught. This year, by kind invitation of R. George D.Willis (1958) to fish his private club water Loch Walton in the Campsie Hills, the 15 OLs caught 46 fish, our second best year ever ! You have to go back to May 1960 when 16 rods caught 53 fish on Loch Ard to better this, and then the fish averaged ½ lb as opposed to this year’s 2 lbs with some even as large as 4 lbs. This year it was catch and release after the first two fish per rod so a proper weigh-in wasn’t possible but the winning boat had a fairly emphatic 16 fish to the next best boat’s 11 fish and so the winners of the tankards were Dr. Peter D. Semple (1964), Chris J. Drapper (1968) and Nicholas (Nick) J. Brading (1979) and our congratulations go to them. To put the outing in context, George had been angling (sorry) for a number of years to move the annual outing from the Lake of Menteith, which we’ve patronised since 1968, to the more relaxed Loch Walton. Finally, in 2020 we were ready to go but then the covid-19 pandemic and lockdown intervened and it all had to be cancelled. Even this year it was touch and go for us to go ahead but finally we were able to proceed and the success of the move speaks for itself. It was dry all day but mostly dull and with a light and rather cold easterly breeze. We started with coffee at 09.30 and launched the boats shortly after 10.00; came ashore for prosecco and a buffet lunch in the boathouse and then fished till 17.15. The evening concluded with 11 of the party enjoying a meal in the Fintry Sports Club. We hope to repeat the outing in May next year and the secretary Daniel (Dan) J. Lean (1972) (danjlean@yahoo.co.uk) would welcome hearing from any OL who wishes to join us who isn’t already on his email list. He’d particularly like to hear from any OL who may have fished with us whilst they were still at School. Daniel J. Lean (1972)