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Comment
For those
of you who, like myself, feel uneasy at the thought of,
and I quote, "A fishing competition involving Sea
Trout," I can only say you have to be there. That's
exactly how I felt before I marshalled the first Sea
Trout Festival, but I must tell you that it is unlike any
other fishing event I have ever heard of. It is certainly
competitive, but it is much more likely to be a
competition with yourself, or with a strange river, or
with your fishing companion than any form of contest in
the normal sense.
Craig
Irving our youngest challenger in 1997
I am
thinking now about Tony and Chris. Two friends who have
taken part in the festival from the start. Tony is an
excellent angler, a bundle of energy and a keen
competitor, and in fact he came second in the very first
Sea Trout Festival. Chris, his fishing companion of many
years, is much more laid back, but once more an excellent,
highly skilled angler, and in the second Sea Trout
Festival Chris was in grave danger of winning until the
final night. Arriving on his beat for the night on the
Nith, Chris found it in flood. Phoning the organiser,
Anthony Steel, Chris said something like "Forget the
Festival, find me a stretch somewhere where I can fish
for Sea Trout." Anthony duly complied, found Chris a
spot on the Annan (which was not in flood) and Chris
promptly caught (and returned) enough Sea Trout to
probably win the "competition."
But my
point is that this event is so far removed from a
competition that no one involved in the Festival gave a
second thought to the quantity of Sea Trout Chris caught
that night (Chris certainly didn't, he had stepped aside,
he was no longer present if you like) but on the contrary
everyone joined Chris in heartily congratulating the
actual winner as a worthy champion.
Then we
come to the prize for winning the Festival. It's a
wonderful prize - not the sort of thing you would ever
pluck up the courage to buy for yourself - but if you are
given it, and as a prize, well, that's a different matter.
But let's be realistic here, if you sold the first prize
in the Sea Trout Festival the next day the proceeds
wouldn't cover your expenses for the week. In fact they
wouldn't put a dent in it. ( Oh hell, I hope there are no
Sea Trout widows, partners or significant others reading
this)
In short,
having marshalled the first two Sea Trout Festivals on
the Annan, I feel the event is well named. It is not a
competition, it is a Festival, a celebration if you like,
in honour of the Sea Trout, the greatest of all the
quarries that man the hunter still pursues in these
overcrowded islands.
"And
when man the hunter can no longer pursue the Sea Trout,
then no one will care for it or the river in which it is
born and that great fish itself will disappear from this
world into legend, and future generations will wonder if
there ever really was such a creature."
Andy
Dickson
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