Fly fishers from as far a field as Perth attended the Harpsdale Fishery Winter Shield Competition on Saturday 28th of June 2003. The competition should have been held last winter but was delayed for various reasons. The glorious weather that the whole county saw on Saturday encouraged 23 competitors to turn out for this hotly contested event. Starting at 10am it took only 12 minutes before angler J Belka landed his first two rainbow trout. However, working slowly in the background was John Blake of Thurso who landed a total of 8 rainbow trout (including 3 blue trout) to take the title. On the road to success, John also landed one of the fisheries few 'tagged' trout to give him a £100 cash prize. With only 1 fish separating the next three anglers it was down to the weight of the first two fish and the species to decide. After the totals had been worked out and the points added it was James Gunn, who had travelled from Perth to compete, who won through by catching 5 rainbow and 2 blue trout giving him the 2nd place by less than one point. In third was Peter Quilliam of Wick with 5 rainbow and 1 blue trout. Alan Ruiz of Halkirk finished in 4th with a total of 5 rainbow and 2 blue trout. With barely one point between 2nd and 4th it was one of the closest competitions for some time! A total of 78 trout were caught in almost 3 hours of fishing making this a great competition for the various spectators who turned up to watch the action.

Results: