Donald Patience is Prizewinner in National Troutmaster Final

For the second year running, Dunlichity Trout Fishery was the top-placed Highland Fishery in the National Troutmaster Fishoff at Grafham Water when our 2011, Champion Donald Patience finished an excellent 7th out of 107 competitors.  As Dunlichity Champion, the Fishery contributed towards Donald's travel costs, and he made the most of the trip by achieving a personal best finish.

Donald Patience with his engraved hip-flask

Here is an extract from Donald's report of the day:

"I arrived at Grafham Lodge at 8am, greeted by bright sunshine and a strong breeze - not ideal conditions!  All of the competitors were split into two groups in the morning, with one group boat fishing and the other group bank fishing.  We would then swap around for the afternoon session.

I was on the boats in the morning, and ended up in a boat with Robin Berry (who was representing Achagour).  As Robin had never fished Grafham, I was left to decide where we were going to fish.  So off to G buoy we wentas I had caught a couple of fish there is a practice session the previous day. We anchored up and on my second cast, I caught my first fish of the session, a cracking 2lb bar of silver on a hot head damsel - excellent start!  I then managed to hook and lose another 3 fish before the wind dragged us too near the shore.  We went further down the bank and tried again - this time the anchor took a good hold and I was straight into fish again, landing 2 in 2 casts with the damsel. 

It was quiet for a while after that with the fish just hitting my fly short without being hooked.  I changed to an orange blob and was rewarded with another Grafham resident on the first cast.  I managed another 3 fish on the blob over the next half an hour taking the tally to 7 fish by lunchtime.  At the Lodge, I discovered that only one other competitor had managed to land 7 in the boat and the bank anglers were struggling.  At this stage, I was in 2nd place (the other guy's 7 fish were heavier than mine).

"After a quick bite of lunch in the Harbour View Restaurant, I headed off to the Dam for the bank session.  The session was due to start at 1.30pm and by the time 1.30pm had arrived, the Dam was covered with competitors almost standing shoulder to shoulder!  After about an hour thrashing the water at the Dam to no avail, I decided to get away from the crowds and go and fish in to the strengthening breeze at G Buoy as I knew there were fish holding there.  I arrived with an hour left to fish, so the pressure was on!

I put on an orange gold head to try and punch through the breeze and hooked a fish within 5 minutes, which I lost after a short battle - gutted!  I continued to plug away and was eventually rewarded with another fin perfect rainbow of 2lb 3oz.  That was it for me from the bank, so I headed back to the Lodge for the weigh-in.  There was quite a buzz at the Lodge and I was delighted to be awarded a lovely engraved hip flask for my 7th place finish.  The winner had 6 fish from the boat, and had his limit of 8 fish from the bank. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the event and hope to return one day for that first place trophy!"

All of our congratulations go to Donald on his great performance.

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