John Ferguson reports:

A wet, miserable morning awaited the anglers who braved the 2018 Fur & Feather. With winds blowing from the S/SW, most anglers opted for the Causeway, fishing into No4, with others trying their luck in the Bay by the Car Park. Barry Shedden, who was fishing halfway along the Causeway, had his four fish by 9 o’clock, fishing a DI7 with a short leader and a single Booby. Peter Baker, fishing next to Barry, also caught early on.

Meanwhile, John O’Regan and Dave Jarvis had started fishing on the Houses Bank, where the fishing had been phenomenal, and the trend continued today, with John catching his limit quickly, with an absolute cracker that hit the scales at 3lb 13ozs.

Back on No4, late arrival Frank Daley had started fishing along the East Bank, where he was rewarded with a nice 2lb 14ozs rainbow, up from the Steps. The method with the lads on No4 was hopefully to get a few good fish, with the backdrop of No5 fishing so well, then pop over there for the last hour and hopefully get your limit. And this is what happened with most of them.

The Houses Bank had been the chosen location, where Jim Dillon, Andrew Smith and John Ferguson managed to get their limits, but with so many now on the Houses Bank, the last hour with the fish probably pushed them further out, and things started to get hard.

Like last year, Andrew Smith did a tour of the lakes, getting names and addresses, as well as the whip for the biggest fish, and ‘guess the total weight’.

Later back at the Ferry Boat, when everyone had got their drink, we had our usual weigh-in outside. After that, with the scores added up, Dave Jarvis did the formalities, and crowned John O’Regan the 2018 winner, followed by now Rutland resident Frank Daley, with Jim Dillon finishing in 3td place.

Well done to everyone for making this our best day of the year.

Happy Christmas to you all!