Fishing – organisers hook more than 50 for fun day

More than 50 people attended The Peeblesshire Trout Fishing Association open day and the figure was one of the best recorded by the association for this kind of event.

Youngsters, a key target, plus a number of women new to fishing were shown how to cast by coaches.

Several attendees were considering returning to the sport and it was pleasing to the organisers that a number of those who took part came from overseas.

Some came from Canada and a handful from the American state of Arizona.

They responded to the media campaign mounted by the association to publicise the event at Kailzie Fishery near Peebles.

The fun day was blessed by good weather with temperatures reaching around 19C.

A breeze did affect casting for some but, overall, Peter Reith, the associations’ secretary and treasurer, was delighted with the day.

He said: “It was good to see so many people here, including youngsters. Some were locals but others were from further afield. Fish started to rise around lunchtime and there were a number of catches which is good.”

One of the biggest was landed by nine-year-old Alastair Graham from Kingston in Canada who had never fished before.

He was there with his parents Nick and Alison and the family are on holiday in Scotland. They heard about the event from relatives who live in the area.

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Trudi Palmer from Peebles hooked a 3lb rainbow on her first ever fishing trip.

Her husband Iain and their pet dog watched her bring the fish to the net guided by association committee member Paul Cunningham.

Mike Deyoung and his wife Decker French from Arizona were also there having heard about the day from pre-publicity. They were in Scotland to attend a wedding.

Ms Decker lost a fish but Mike said: “I’ve done some spin fishing back home but it was great to come here and receive instruction from experts. It’s all about getting your timing right and it was a good day.”

Among the coaches was Peebles-based Steve Culbert and fishing guide Hugh Hynd was also there.

He is the technical director for event sponsors FastFlies.co.uk, a local company who have 40,000 flies in stock. His wife, Alison, owns the business and she caught a rainbow trout.

The attendance was up there with best recorded in the event’s history.