Angling Trust Team England Fly Fishing

As announced in March last year, the results of the Lower Itchen qualifier (November 2019) and the Wherwell, R. Test qualifier (February 2020) will both stand, with qualifying competitors fishing the Rivers National Final next year in 2022.

In addition, there will be new series of River Qualifiers, with qualifying competitors also taking part in the 2022 Rivers National next year.

For any queries regarding the AT TEFF Rivers Qualifiers please contact the coordinator Peter Scholes – 07523 121 494.

Matches will be fished to full international rules and AT TEFF River Qualifier scoring system. Measure, Catch & Release basis. Only in season fish 20cm and above will be eligible for measuring / scoring / awarding fish points.

Entrants will be split into 2 groups:

• Morning group fishing am & controlling pm.
• Afternoon group fishing pm & controlling am.

The Qualifiers kick off on the Lower Itchen in October 2021, details below:

October 2021

Sunday 10th October – South East FF Federation – Lower Itchen fishery (Official Practice: Saturday 9th October) – Organiser: Tony Fox – Overall Results: 1. Gillaum Vermeulen 2. Cameron Craigs 3. Gavin Walsh 4. Mike Heritage 5. Daniel Price 6. Trevor Hayman

Andrew Smith reports: “The decision to run this match just after the closure of the trout season paid off, as we saw the Lower Itchen fishery in fine form with excellent water clarity and pleasant weather.
Grayling were well spread throughout the river, with plenty still in shallow riffles. Only a single day’s coarse fishing had taken place, so it seems the fish had not become preoccupied with a maggot diet. All age groups of grayling were evident, with a good number of 40cm plus specimens.  
Fish were caught on a variety of methods. The rod averages for the morning and afternoon sessions were over 19 and 15 fish, which shows the quality of the fishing.”

Full Results:

November 2021

[Sunday 28th November – River Wear – Cancelled]

January 2022

Sunday 23rd January –  River Dee

February 2022

Sunday 20th February – River Dee

March 2022

Sunday 27th March – River Dee

April 2022

Sunday 10th April  – River Ure

May 2022

Sunday 15th May – River Wear

HQ: Sunny Brow Car Park, opposite Brown Trout Pub, DL15 0NQ – Fishing Times: Morning group 08.00 – 11.30. Afternoon group 13.00 – 16.30 – Briefing: 07.15 – Entry Fee: £27.50 – Fishing Fee: £10.00 payable on the morning directly to the organiser – Min entries: 12 / Max entries: 24 – Practice Permits: Sheldon’s Newsagents, Commercial Street, Willington, 01388 746 392 Shaun O’Dowd 07766 171 318 wdasec@gmail.com Day Tickets £10.00 – Please contact Peter Scholes for further details – 07523 121 494.

Final – tbc

2019-2020/2021-2022 River Qualifiers – Entries & Results

NB: AT TEFF matches now have an AT membership requirement. If you need to renew or sign up please visit www.anglingtrust.net/membership or call 0343 5077 006 (option 1).

The Angling Trust states: ‘Keep us fishing’ is the Christmas message to Government ministers from the Angling Trust following the refusal of the Health Secretary, Saijid Javid, to rule out further Covid restrictions or even a fourth lockdown as is occurring right now in parts of Europe.

Angling Trust CEO Jamie Cook has written to senior members of the Government, including Michael Gove and the Secretaries of State for Environment, the Cabinet Office and Culture, Media and Sport, to remind them of how angling continued successfully and safely through the last two lockdowns and to press for similar treatment should new restrictions be introduced.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday morning, the Health Secretary made clear that he did not rule out new coronavirus measures before Christmas – saying there are “no guarantees” in the pandemic.

In his letter to ministers, Jamie Cook said of previous lockdowns: “We were pleased that the Government agreed to permit and encourage individual outdoor recreation to continue so that those who were initially restricted in the first lockdown could once again participate in individual, socially distanced outdoor recreational activity. This delivered huge benefits to those whose recreation is not narrowly confined to running, walking or cycling. Experience has shown that socially distanced outdoor recreation such as angling is a safe and responsible activity and that its continuation does not contribute to the spread of infection.”

He added: “Whatever decisions you have to make in the coming weeks we urge you to allow angling to continue for all the reasons set out above and in the attached report. We stand ready to guide our sport through these difficult times in a safe and responsible manner as we have done throughout.”

Back in February, as the government prepared its stepped approach to easing lockdown provisions, the Angling Trust submitted it’s ‘Fishing out of Lockdown’ paper outlining the advantages of keeping people engaged in angling and the measures that were taken to keep people safe and to ensure that our sport delivers economic and social benefits and makes a significant contribution to improving mental health outcomes.

The paper, which has been resubmitted to ministers, outlines other reasons for permitting angling to continue including:

• a largely solitary sport where social distancing occurs naturally
• proven benefits for mental health and physical well-being
• appealing to people of all ages and backgrounds
• evidence that non-contact outdoor activities will not increase infection rates
• a reduction in pressure on other public open spaces

Martin Salter, Head of Policy at the Angling Trust said: “Angling has proved both popular and beneficial throughout this dreadful pandemic with more people getting closer to nature and enjoying a safe, healthy and naturally socially distanced activity within Covid secure guidelines. While other sports like golf were locked down, anglers were able to get out in the open air presenting no risk to themselves or anyone else. The Angling Trust is determined to do what we can to ensure that this remains the case through the difficult period that lies ahead.”

The venues and dates for these qualifiers are now available – please click the link ‘Match Calendar’ on the right side of this screen.

The AT TEFF Executive has worked hard to minimise entry costs to anglers and will be reducing entry fees to just £27.50. We are also working hard to negotiate favourable prices with all the fisheries.

If you have any questions relating to these qualifiers please contact me by email.
Ian ian.colclough@gmail.com AT TEFF

April 2022

Friday 15th April – AT TEFF Loch-style Qualifier, Grafham – entries open 1st March
Sunday 24th April – AT TEFF Loch-style Qualifier, Blagdon – entries open 1st March

May 2022

Sunday 8th May – AT TEFF Loch-style Qualifier, Carsington – entries open 1st April
Sunday 15th May – AT TEFF Loch-style Qualifier, Bewl – entries open 18th April
Sunday 15th May – AT TEFF Loch-style Qualifier, Draycote – entries open 18th April
Sunday 22nd May – AT TEFF Loch-style Qualifier, Rutland – entries open 18th April

June 2022

Friday 3rd June – AT TEFF Loch-style Qualifier, Blithfield – entries open 9th May
Sunday 19th June – AT TEFF Loch-style Qualifier, Chew – entries open 16th May

July 2022

Saturday 9th July – AT TEFF Official Loch-style Repechage Practice, Draycote (book directly with fishery)
Sunday 10th July – AT TEFF Loch-style Repechage, Draycote – invitations will be sent out around 22nd June

September 2022

Thursday 8th – Friday 9th September – AT TEFF Official Loch-style National Practice, Draycote (book directly with fishery. Note that you must fish with another qualifier on 9th)
Saturday 10th – Sunday 11th September – AT TEFF Loch-style National, Draycote (by qualification) – invitations will be sent out on 1st August

The AT TEFF Executive has recently concluded its budget for the 2021/22 Season which projects that the cost of England representation in World, European, 5 Nations, Loch, River and Bank Internationals in 2022 will be approximately £70,000 in total. The majority of this cost, approximately £57,500, will be borne by the Team Members and Managers. The remaining cost will be funded from AT TEFF grants distributed from the proceeds of the EPP League, Qualifiers and National Finals organised by AT TEFF Volunteers as part of the England Team selection process.

Entry fees for the 2021/22 season have been set at £27.50 per event (a reduction on previous years). Around 700 entries are anticipated from the League, Qualifiers and National finals.

The budgeted Income from entry fees is £29,500, of which £15,500 will be used to cover £5,000 of Volunteer organisers out-of-pocket expenses; £7,000 Loch and River National Final fishing and supper costs; and £3,500 other expenses. The remaining £14,000 will be available to support our competitive activities.

For 2022, the AT TEFF grants will be applied to the Teams at a rate of £200 pp.

In summary, AT TEFF’s total budget for the season is £87,000 income, £85,500 expenditure, with £1,500 being held in reserve.

AT TEFF Executive

11^th December 2021

AT TEFF has been informed by Stephen that he has stood down from his volunteer role as manager of one of the loch-style teams.

His track record was second to none, as he managed the team on six occasions, gaining gold medals at Lough Owel in 2014, Menteith in 2017, and Grafham in 2019. He was also involved in organising the recent Pro/Am events at Chew and Draycote, raising over £1200 to go towards team funds.

I’m sure you will join us in thanking Stephen for his dedication to our sport over the years he has been involved, not only as manager but also as a volunteer of many years. He will be sorely missed. We wish him well for the future, and hopefully we shall see him again around the loch-style competition scene in future years…

On behalf of Angling Trust Team England Fly Fishing Thank You!

Ian Colclough
Acting Secretary AT TEFF

The Covid Pandemic has disrupted the normal timetable and progression of events that lead to the identification of a Team to represent England in Bank Internationals. As a consequence, the recent Bank National Final has produced an England Team for October 2022 from Qualifiers etc. that started back in 2019.

The usual timetable and progression of events is for:

Qualifiers to be held November – March.

Semis to be held April.  

Final to be held in May, for the winners to represent England in October that year.

To restore this timetable, the 2022 Bank National Championship will start with Qualifiers in November 2022 leading to a final in May 2023. This will result in the Team to represent England in the 2023 Bank International to be hosted by England.

To support the Bank International Team, we are considering to take the opportunity during January – April 2022 to organise Cash Prized Bank Fundraising events, with the proceeds being ringfenced for the benefit of Bank International Team Members. This is still work in progress and the details will be posted by the Executive when confirmed.

After reviewing the progress of the proposed 2021 5N League, the selection of individuals to form future England 5N Teams will be incorporated into the Elite Performance Programme (EPP).

The impact of COVID restrictions has inevitably disrupted the normal timetables for selection and representation of World and European teams. We now need to bring these back in synch and incorporate the 5NFFC team selection.

For 2022 Teams:

World – selected from recent 2021 EPP

European – carried over from 2019 EPP selection

5NFFC – selection options being considered by ATTEFF exec

For 2023 Teams:

World – to be selected from 2022 EPP

European – selected from the recent 2021 EPP

5NFFC – 1 or 2 teams to be selected from 2022 EPP

For 2024, all team selections will be made from the 2023 EPP.

The Angling Trust reports: The Angling Trust brings you a unique opportunity to keep participating in loch-style competition during the winter. Thames Water’s Farmoor Reservoir Fishery has been selected as the host for our end of year loch-style match on Saturday 4th December, and the venue is the ideal for winter fly fishing. Farmoor has hosted many highly-respected competitions in December and January. The AT Brumal Loch-style match is a follow-on from the 2020 Loch Style Autumn Series, with the competition being hosted in the winter this year.

The competition will be fished from drifting boats from 9am until 3pm to international rules and full catch & release, using barbless or de-barbed hooks.

Entry is through the Angling Trust booking system only and is open to anglers aged 16 and over.

The entry fee for the match is £50.00, which covers the entry fee, boat fee & fishing permits. There will be cash prizes first to fourth placed anglers with the amount subject to the number of entries. First place will also receive a book of boat fishing tokens worth £100 courtesy of Thames Water.

To find out more & to book your ticket visit: https://anglingtrust.net/competitions/at-brumal-loch-style-2021-farmoor-reservoir-4th-december/