Hello again. Thankfully, Foot & Mouth Disease has not managed to get a 'foot-hold' in this area, hence our farmer friends have now agreed to all of our River and Firth Fishings being opened for business as usual, albeit with any visiting anglers disinfecting appropriately before fishing. Given recent problems with permit renewal dates, etc. the text/font style is larger and extra clear this time. Points to note are as follows:-

ANNUAL COMPETITIONS: This year our Junior Competition will again be held at the Tarvie Bait Loch, where fly, spinner or bait may be employed: nets may only be used to land fish! The agreed date is Thursday 21st June and the contestants may fish from 6pm 'till around 9.30pm; transport, tackle and instructon will be provided as necessary. BAC make no charge whatsoever for this event in an attempt to encourage a limited number of young fishers from the Aird District to reinforce their interest and knowledge of a sport that will hopefuly provide them with enjoyment and exercise throughout their lives. For the first time, the winners of the competitions will have the occasion commemorated by a medal in addition to the customery cup: thanks for the medal idea Neil!

The Senior Competition will be held at the Tarvie Boat Loch on Wednesday 27th June fishing will be by fly only and competitors should 'phone Frank Durdle quickly in order to book one of the 2o places on a first come basis.

Regarding Loch Achilty, where we were due to hold the Senior Competition this year, Members will be saddened to learn that Mark Butcher's father Sammy died a few days ago. He was a good friend to many of our BAC members and will be remembered for his friendly and helpful ways: Frank Durdle delivered flowers from the Club to his wife Doreen.

ANNUAL BUFFET DANCE: It was held on Friday 6th April as usual at the British Legion Club in Beauly, where the drink was cheap and Hilda and her colleagues made us all most welcome. Although the night was enjoyable, the Club actually made a loss of around £200, due principally to too few tickets being sold. As only ten of our BAC Members were actually present, it was decided at our June 2001 Committee Meetng that we will make one last attempt in 2002 to run the event successfully. Basically, if there is to be so litte interest from our members, there must be little point in running it?

PERMITS: In order to avoid some of the problems that arose after our 30th April 2001 re-joining deadline, it was agreed by our Committee that from now on our Senior Citzen Members in the BAC category would have their permits made out for them at the start of the season and would be available for collection by them at Morison of Beauly. If not collected by say, the end of May, follow up action would be taken by the President to see if any uncollected permits would in fact be required. Once again. the Committee have demonstrated responsible and respectful attitude to the older members of the club: please see that it is maintained when the rest of us are in that category.

That's it for now: I promise you'll get a fishy story next time. The salmon are now running and are apparently queuing to have a go at my Arctic Fox body fur specials; so far the only drawback I've found from using this incredibly mobile material is that your salmon often display bite marks from other salmon that have been desperate to get there first.