Scotland take Gold in a tight contest

Results:

1st Scotland (91 fish) 207lbs 9ozs

2nd England (92 fish) 201lbs 0.6ozs

3rd Ireland (84 fish) 182lbs 10ozs

4th Wales (63 fish) 139lbs 8.2ozs

Brown Bowl for biggest bag: Craig Smith (England) 14 fish for 30lbs 0.2ozs

Full Results: iffa2015autumn

AT TEFF Chairman Clive Collier commented, “We knew this was going to be a tight match, and as the day progressed it seemed as though the eventual result would be very difficult to call. Congratulations to Brown Bowl winner Craig Smith of England, and to Scotland for coming out top in a very close contest”. 

AT Team England FF was represented by: Ian Colclough (capt), James Atkinson, Rob Barden, Chris Bobby, Martin Burgess, Mark Glass, Kim Green, Paul Golding, Gary Haskins, Mike Heritage, Carl Malpass, Craig Smith, Mark Stevens, Mark Withyman & Paul Angell (manager).

The Angling Trust reports: “After four days practice in a variety of conditions England knew that there were fish to be caught in most areas of the lake. Tactics and areas to be fished would be dependent on the weather conditions on match day. Friday saw bright sunshine with very light breezes which would make the fishing challenging. As expected the start saw the fleet split evenly with around half the boats turning left out of the harbour and heading towards Lochend, with the rest going to Gateside Bay. Tactics would be to use a washing line, with buzzers between various boobies and fabs, and to vary the line according to conditions. The retrieve would be either to fish static, or a figure of 8 retrieve, with dries becoming a major tactic during the afternoon, especially if cloud cover came in. The rules for the day were to kill your first 3 fish, then fish catch and release, with each subsequent fish counting as 2lb.

The warm and bright and almost still conditions meant that boats had to search out fish. Eventual Brown Bowl winner, Craig Smith, winning his first cap for England, fished Otter bay and Kate’s Brae for the first 5 hours, taking 8 fish, before moving to Gateside Bay where he took the remainder of his 14 fish final tally. A superb result when the rod average for the day was just under 6.

At the weigh in, it was obvious that the result would be a closely run thing. Scotland with 90 fish just eased ahead of England, who caught 91, on the weight of a couple of large fish. Ireland finished with the bronze, with Wales in fourth place.

Paul Angell, Autumn Loch-Style Team Manager stated “It was a great team performance, based on the sharing of knowledge and ideas to develop a strategy that very nearly produced another gold medal and an outstanding performance to take the individual top position by new cap Craig Smith. The team wish to thank all the sponsors of Team England Fly Fishing for their help and support, and particularly Craghoppers for supplying the team clothing for the event and we look forward to 2016.”