Scottish Boat Angling Competition Page

30/08/2026

Big thanks to the MOGSAF team for another successful event, definitely the right call to change to the Saturday, fishing conditions were perfect. Congratulations to team Striker with Alec Bell and Eric McLean for winning this year comp🏆 very close at the top with 2cm separating the top 3 teams. Great fun relaxed competition with a simple format making great use of the angling live app for scoring.

30/08/2026

Winners update:

Men's heaviest fish
Billy Corbett, Olivia, Po***ck 8.39lb

Ladies Heaviest Fish
Amy MacGregor, Amy J, Po***ck 6.72lb

Under 18s Heaviest Fish
Fraser Ross, Kimarc, Po***ck 6.77lb

Under 12s Heaviest Fish
Arlo, Red Rose, Po***ck 5.95lb

Skipper Heaviest Fish
Billy Corbett

Most Mackerel
Dan Connell, Shearwater, 78.8 kg

Most Species
Joint winners:
Kenny Mackenzie, Saorsa, 9 species
David Bush, Scrishaw, 9 species

Best Dressed Boat
Angus Sinclair, Hook-Line-Sinker

And for the first time, we got to use the original RJ Macleod Cup which has been assigned for Skate/Tuna
Iain Boyd, Bourdon, 171 lb skate (they also caught a second at approx. 150 lb) - fish measured for weight and returned straight away

Update on winners from the kid's harbour fishing to follow later.

Good turn out, weather calm though got misty.

40 boats, 147 anglers (19 under 18, 12 under 12) and 28 kids fishing off the harbour. More pics and updates tomorrow. Hopefully.

24/08/2026

🎣 VIKING SEA ANGLING FESTIVAL 2026 – A RECORD-BREAKING WEEK ON THE WATER!

Festival Highlights

Twenty-two boats. Sixty-nine anglers. Six nations. One unforgettable festival.

Hosted by Scalloway Boating Club, this year’s Viking Sea Angling Festival was the biggest in modern times, attracting competitors from:

• Scotland
• England
• Wales
• Gibraltar
• Germany
• Norway

Fishing Conditions

The weather tested everyone and forced us to adapt the format.

The Viking Festival was fished over the first two days, allowing boats to reach the rich grounds off Fitful to target cod, saithe, ling and haddock. The Ling & Tusk day was then moved to the final day.

Despite the challenging conditions, the fishing was exceptional, with many anglers weighing in over 100kg each day.

The catches included:

• Cod to 15kg
• Ling to 10kg
• Haddock to 3.45kg

On the Ling & Tusk day, most boats fished closer to Scalloway, producing some excellent baskets of ling.

🏆 Ling & Tusk Championship

🥇 1st Kevin McKay 53.7kg 100%
🥈 2nd Laurence Williamson50.75kg 🥉 3rd Scott Gibson 48.95kg 100%

Ling & Tusk Junior Champion

🥇 Alex Stevenson – 100%

🏆 Viking Festival

🥇 1st Paul Firth 376.25kg 200% (237.2kg / 139kg)
🥈 2nd Scott Gibson 328kg 200% (149kg / 179kg)
🥉 3rd Keith Henderson 309.11kg 200% (179.96kg / 129.15kg)

Viking Festival Junior Champion

🥇 Aidan Inkster – 171.75%

🏆 Combined Overall Championship

🥇1st Scott Gibson 376.95kg 300%
🥈2nd Laurence Williamson 353kg 300%
🥉3rd Keith Henderson 344kg 300%

🏅 Hanne Mari Gjoesaeter from Norway, very impressive for her first visit to Shetland

🏆 Saturday Boat Team Species Championship

🥇 1st – Laurence Williamson and the SupaNova team. An outstanding 14 species. Very well fished! 👏🎣

Thank You to Scalloway Boating Club

A massive congratulations and thank you to the committee at Scalloway Boating Club for delivering such an amazing and memorable event despite the challenges.

Organising a competition of this scale, involving 22 boats and 69 anglers, requires an incredible amount of work behind the scenes.

Our sincere thanks go to:

• 👏 All the boating club staff who worked tirelessly to feed the anglers every morning and evening.
• 👏 The boat skippers and fishing stewards who provided their boats, time and expertise.
• 👏 The club members who spent countless hours recording, weighing and processing the fish at the end of each day.
• 👏 All the sponsors and fish buyers whose support helps make the event possible.

This was an outstanding example of teamwork, and that hard work makes the Viking Sea Angling Festival by far the biggest and most successful event hosted in Scotland. 🏆

Anglers, both old and new, will surely agree that the hospitality of Shetland is second to none. ❤️

Personal Thanks

A very special thank you to Laurence Williamson and Sarah Kay for the fantastic support and hospitality they provide every year when I visit Shetland. It is truly appreciated. ❤️

Finally, a huge thank you to Daiwa UK for continuing to support the junior competitions and providing fishing rods for the two junior championships.

Your support for the next generation of anglers is fantastic and greatly appreciated. 🎣👏

And how can I forget Laurie Hughson and Gary Smith my skippers for the week who kept me on the fish all each day. Thanks guys, great job 👏

Congratulations

Congratulations to all the winners, and to every angler, skipper, steward, volunteer and supporter who helped make Viking Festival 2026 such a memorable event.

Big waters, big catches, bigger teamwork — Viking Festival 2026 will be hard to beat. 🎣🏆

28/07/2026

Our Highlands & Islands & Western Isles Open events this year, again produced an exciting battle for top spots, with some of the best anglers in the U.K coming to compete for the title. Congratulations to Scott Gibson and DdAazz Rose (for the second time in a row) for picking up the winners trophies respectively. And a special mention goes to Lewis Goetz and Aaron Goetz who picked up the Junior Champion and Specimen fish awards. The brothers did exceptionally well, fishing against some top anglers over the championship. This event couldn’t happen without the support of club members organising the event and particular call outs go to Angus Macdonald Norman Campbell Henry MacInnes Finlay Maciver, Neil Macdirmid Gillies Mackenzie & Kevin Ingham in helping out this year. As we all know, the costs of everything these days is causing issues and it is no different for the club in organizing these events, especially given our location. Therefore it is becoming increasingly important for us to find sponsors for the event so we can keep it running, with all the added benefits to the club and the island it brings. So we are especially thankful to this years Headline sponsor Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks and our Juniors Sponsor Campbells Service Station, who we spoke about at the prizegiving and provided vital funding which without we could not run the event. We would also like to thank Seatrek who provided the excellent boat Sula for the event. Looking forward to next years event and hopefully some better weather to go with it. And finally , thanks to all the visiting anglers, who make the effort year in year to spend their cash and their holidays to come here and support our community. This year they also got the opportunity to throw a bit more cash about as Henry organised an excellent boat race, which raised £300 which is ring fenced for our Junior programme, which last year had 12 kids competing across the year. This will be money well spent on providing opportunities for our juniors to experience angling as a positive activity and social interaction as they develop.

24/07/2026

24/07/2026

Very Fresh start to The Western Isles Open today.

23/07/2026

Start of the Highlands and Islands Open off Lewis. A bumpy start but fish coming over the rails

17/07/2026

13/07/2026

The Scottish Open Light Line Championships (fished with Daiwa UK braid) & North of Scotland Sea Angling Championships were fished over the weekend with the father and son team of Scott Yuille and Derek Yuille taking the respective wins. The weather couldn’t have been better and the fishing although not spectacular, was steady enough to keep everyone interested and keep the competition lively. There were some great catches and some unusual ones for this comp with a common skate of c.70lb landed on 23lb line for Scott and two Tope landed in the second day amongst the usual good quality cod , ling , po***ck, haddock and wrasse. So big well done to the Yuilles, they fished exceptionally well over the two days. A big thanks also goes to the Leachkin Angling club from Inverness who have run this completion for several years and have made it into one of the most sought after and enjoyable competitions to enter. Well done Kevin Mackay Alastair Forsyth Alan Bell and the other members from all the anglers, for a great job again. Everyone’s looking forward to next year. Full results and photos below.