2016 Champion of Champions - SANACC

The weather was kind to the competitors in the final of the 2016 Champion of Champions with a light to brisk easterly wind throughout the day.  It was mainly overcast and stayed dry with the sun breaking through for a couple of hours in the afternoon.  This was another hard final which included four recent champions in the line-up (Shane Kelly - 2014; John Buchanan - 2013; Ray Anderson - 2012 and Gregor Fleming - 2009) a recent National Champion (Ronnie Glass - 2011) along with three recent Brown Bowl winners (Alan Steven - 2016; Ray Anderson - 2013 and John Buchanan - 2012) and two Silver Salver winners (Allan Smith 2015 and Ronnie Glass - 2012).

There were 52 anglers in the final and between them they caught 355 fish for 764lbs 14.9ozs.  The match was fished on a partial catch and release basis with the first two trout being retained and an allowance of 2lb given for each returned fish.  Heavy fish were capped at 4lbs.  Quite a few large fish were taken to the scales notably 7lbs 13.9ozs (Gregor Fleming); 7lbs 4.9ozs (Alex Moriarty); 6lbs 15.7ozs (Wullie Cowan); 5lbs 14.8ozs (Alan Steven); 5lbs 7.1oz (David Moore); 5lbs 6.2ozs (Michael Ward); 5lbs 1oz (Mark Stephen); 4lbs 8 ozs (Frank Ross); 4lbs 5.7ozs (Neil Anderson) and 4lbs 1 oz (Bill Ramage).

We wish to thank our sponsors Snowbee who provided a Snowbee Prestige Rod to the winner; a Snowbee reel for the second and a Snowbee line for the third.  Fly Tying Scotland provided a multi pack of fritz to the top three and a pack of fritz to all competitors; the Loch Lomond Group provided a bottle of Loch Lomond Signature whisky to each of the top three; Glencairn Crystal provided crystal ware for the winners and Keir Hardie Joinery provided the fly measures that were used throughout the competition.

In all there were five competitors with 10 trout with another five competitors on 9 trout and seven competitors on 8 trout.  All competitors caught fish with the lowest bag being 3 trout.

Second placed Brian Mackenzie was drawn with Gregor Fleming (8 fish - 13th place) and most of their fish were taken at the butts and lochend areas.  They moved away from there for a couple of hours and tried the cages but returned to where they started.  Brian's first fish was on a booby with the rest being on dries.

Alan Steven finished in third and was drawn with Steven Welsh (7 fish - 24th place).  They spent their day in the lochend/butts area where they took all of their fish steadily until the sun appeared about 3pm.  Alan took fish on fabs fished on a floater and boobies and blobs fished on a fast glass.

The heaviest fish in the Saturday nights weighed 7lbs 3.6ozs and was caught in heat 9 by David Bonnington of Alba Orvis FF "A".  David was presented with the Salver and a bottle of Loch Lomond Signature Whisky at the Champion of Champions dinner.