On reaching the mouth of Loch Carloway there was a northwesterly breeze and a fair swell, but conditions were fine to continue and after a stop for mackerel bait, it was decided to head out to deeper water and fish an area of clean ground in approximately 30 fathoms which normally holds a good variety of species, including haddock, whiting, gurnards dabs, dogfish and odd megrims.

However fishing was again dire with the anglers having to wait quite a while for the first bites to show up, and even then very few fish coming aboard, with just the odd haddock, whiting, tiny dab and gurnard being caught. There were more bites on the rougher areas of seabed, but this turned out mainly to be numbers of small pest poor cod; most of which were not even big enough to register for scoring.

This, unfortunately, was the pattern for the whole day, with not even the numbers of haddock which are normally caught at this time of year showing up, so we can only hope things will improve over the next few weeks, as catches are well below normal expectations for June.

One highlight of an otherwise poor day was the capture of a nice megrim of 1lb 12oz by Joe Campbell, which was into zone 3 on the measuring stick.
Another highlight was the antics of a school of porpoises which raced along with the boat, easily keeping up, and diving under the keel when they felt like it.

Weatherwise, conditions improved as the day wore on, with the sea flattening out as the wind dropped, and by the time we headed home it was a pleasant day to be at sea, as the sun came out, making it much warmer than the morning.

This year's Club Champion is Paul Akister who won the day with 9 fish, 6 species, 85 points and 100%. Gillies Mackenzie was second on 9 fish, 5 species, 64 points and 75.29%, and Joe Campbell came third with 63 points and 74.12%. The top team of three was Paul Akister, Joe Campbell and John Nicolson, and the heaviest fish was caught by Gillies…a haddock of 3lbs.