Angling Trust Team England Fly Fishing

It is with great sadness that TEFF announces two of its most valued volunteers have now either stood down or taken more of a ‘back seat’.

The two people in question are our Secretary, Alan Tonge and Exec member Paul Page.

Paul has been heavily involved in all things TEFF for more years that I can remember. His input cannot be over-emphasized, being involved in virtually everything that TEFF does, from World and European teams to our Home Nations events on Loch-style, Rivers and Bank competitions. He has for many years been our link to Angling Trust, and was the main controller of all our budgeting and merchandise supplies. Paul has indicated that he is to step back from much of this work, but will remain on the periphery to help during handover. 

Alan too has dedicated an untold amount of his own time, over 20 years, to many roles, more recently as General Secretary, giving support to all the other TEFF volunteers. He has become a close friend of mine and I recall several meetings with him and AT representatives over the years.

These people work at their own cost, dedicating many hours a week to the cause. On behalf of all at TEFF I’d like to thank them for their dedication and commitment – I hope all of you will do the same.

TEFF is working hard to find replacements for the two roles, and a volunteer role job description will be made available soon via the AT website.

Ian Colclough

The loch-style working group met on 2nd November to discuss some major issues facing us over the coming months / years.
Top of the agenda was the format for the 2023 National Final.
Much discussion took place and as was expected, several ideas were tabled with differing opinions over one or two day finals and the catch rules.
A ‘vote’ was taken and it was apparent that a two day final is still preferred. As for catch rules a small majority of those that wanted a 2 day final also favoured catch and release in some form.
The Exec has looked at the proposal and agreed that next year’s final will be held over 2 days to a ‘kill 3 fish then catch and release a further 13 then a time bonus’. Returned fish will count as 2lbs and the bonus will be set at 8ozs per full quarter hour.

Other items discussed included the use of boatmen at the final. It was felt that this option was not feasible.

Discussion took place around those anglers that might be tempted to falsify their match cards. The cards for next season will be redesigned and both anglers in the boats will be required to complete the card simultaneously – one angler records his catch on one side of the card and also his partner’s catch on the other side.

Other subjects briefly discussed included:
How to increase entries especially amongst younger anglers.
How does TEEF generate more income to support its teams through grant allocations (fundraising below).
Is it necessary to always have a 100 rod final.
Perceived angler issues with Angling Trust.
The cost of representing your country.
How to counter possible cheating.
If ‘carry overs’ should be reintroduced – there was a resounding ‘no’ to this idea.
Fundraising – this will be looked into by some group members.
The above will be addressed at a future date.

Morning
The Angling Trust reports: We’re 10 minutes into the day’s fishing and Simon Caddy, the angler I’m controlling, has a 26cms Grayling on the card.
River is quite swollen but still accessible, weather progressing as to the forecast, showers and cloudy with the odd break of sun.
More news as the competition progresses.

Afternoon
Our anglers have returned from the river, after completing both the morning and afternoon sessions. As stated earlier, the river was still relatively swollen from the spate earlier this week. However as the river had settled below a metre of flood water the match progressed today.
Due to the trout season finishing at the end of September, this competition is purely for grayling, tweaking the weight of flies and finding fish is paramount. This time of year the grayling move into shoals rather than being spread across the river.
It can be a bit of ‘feast or famine’ and also ‘location-location-location’, however grayling are wonderful fish and our competitors love fishing for them.
Today’s Rivers National qualifying rods are: Kevin Moran, Mike Dixon, Simon Clarke, Carl Nixon, Pete Buckey, Simon Caddy, Phil Dixon and Gary Hedges.
Today’s top angler was Phil Dixon, who amassed 17 fish for 828 points, an excellent performance, due to the river beginning to rise again and the afternoon session proving a little more taxing than this morning.
Big thanks to Peter Scholes for organising a great match, Llangollen & Maelor Angling for hosting, and all our competitors for travelling from across the country to compete.
Safe journey home guys.

The Bank International Committee approved and authorised the following rules for the 2023 International. They include the 2021 FIPS-Mouche amendments.

The 2022 Home International Bank competition is being held at Garnffrwd trout fishery in Wales on Wednesday 19th October. Teams from Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland are competing.

Representing AT TEFF are: Mark Harrison (captain), Andy Taylor, Phil Shaw-Browne, James Stephenson, Josh Piper, Tim Joyce and Anthony Meadows.

The Angling Trust reports: The teams have been piped down to the pegs and this year’s Championship is under way.
We’ll aim to keep you updated as the match unveils, however, no official results will be available until they’re ratified this evening.
The klaxons sounded and lines are looping out across the lake, let’s see what the day brings.
Good luck to all.

The first of the sessions completed and our competitors have moved onto the second.
The rough report for session one is: Josh Piper has 2, Tyler Hay 2, Rhys Wadley 2/3, Kevin Lafford 1 & Shane Bird 1.
Apologies for the low quality photos, it’s quite a large lake to cover from the lodge.

The second session concluded, Brian Keer has one as have Kevin Andrews and Rhys Wadley.
Josh Piper is now on three fish adding to the first session score. Andy Taylor landed two in this session and Mark Harrison’s off the mark too.

PM update for the Bank International, the current position after lunch is still provisional, however it’s safe to say that Wales & Eire are both on thirteen fish, while England & Scotland are on eight.
It’s looking like Wales have the handle on the day, with Eire pushing for second, whilst England & Scotland tussle for third.
Conditions are bright, but the wind has lifted considerably.

This year’s Home International Bank competition is fished and results in, congratulations to Ireland on a fantastic performance pipping host nation Wales into Silver, this was by a single fish and 600 fish points. England landed the Bronze by three fish and 2460 points, over Scotland.
Wales took top rod as Dai Jones on the same six fish as Ireland’s Brian Keer, however one placing point clear. Rhys Wadley landed the longest Trout of 55cms as well as placing third in the individual table.
Paul Page announced the results and thanked both the fishery for their brilliant support and volunteer stewards for their diligent attention to detail whilst scoring and invigilating. As well as to our competing anglers whose dedication and commitment makes this competition such a fascinating as well as intriguing match.
We’re looking forward to next year already, roll on 2023

The 2022 Home International Bank competition will be held at Garnffrwd trout fishery in Wales on Wednesday 19th October. Teams from Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland will compete.

Representing AT TEFF are: Mark Harrison (captain), Andy Taylor, Phil Shaw-Browne, James Stephenson, Josh Piper, Tim Joyce and Anthony Meadows.

The best of luck to everyone taking part.

The Angling Trust reports: This year’s Home International Bank competition is hosted by Garnffrwd trout fishery in Wales, Wednesday 19th October. The teams from Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland have been on the venue for official practice Mon 17th and today, dialling into the most likely methods and techniques to compete with tomorrow.
Representing AT TEFF are: Mark Harrison (captain), Andy Taylor, Phil Shaw-Browne, James Stephenson, Josh Piper, Tim Joyce and Anthony Meadows, managed by Paul Page.
The weather always plays its part in match fishing, and tomorrow’s forecast is for a mainly overcast day with light winds, usually a good scenario for targeting rainbow trout, and as the fish have been pressured during practice, this all helps. Garnffrwd also have a stocking of sparctic trout, a cross between brook trout and arctic char, they’re stunning looking fish, with distinct marking and fantastic colours. However, they do favour cooler weather, yet it’s likely some of the guys will manage to net a few during the match.
We’ve more pictures to follow this evening from this afternoon, they will accompany the details from this evening’s draw, Ceri Jones was on hand to do the official pictures, however the images here will give our comps-savvy audience some idea of the nature of the venue and general atmosphere of the guys fishing.

The Angling Trust reports: This year’s Home International Bank competition draw and rotations for tomorrow’s match are in the photographs attached, this includes updates and team changes etc. Every peg will be fished by a member of each nation’s teams and no angler will fish the same peg twice. The competition is strictly catch and release with points available for each fish and its length.
Good luck to all our anglers tomorrow, this is a long-awaited comp that all our nations and their anglers have looked forward too. We’ll keep you abreast of some the news and culminate with day’s final results tomorrow night.

Country: WALES
Venue: Llyn Trawsfynydd
Dates: 26th to 30th September (incl.)
Match date: Thursday 29th September
Accommodation: Celtic Royal Hotel, Caernavon

RESULTS

1st Scotland 112 fish 4477.1cms 6764pts
2nd Wales 92 fish 3731.5cms 5601pts
3rd England 77 fish 3085.3cms 4652pts
4th Ireland 74 fish 3029.3cms 4534pts

Best Basket: Ronnie Gilbert (Scotland) 16 fish 634.3cms 961pts

Largest Trout: Robert Flaherty (Ireland) 50.0cms

Full Results here>>

Congratulations to Scotland on a convincing victory.

AT Team England FF was represented by: Craig Barr (captain), Sam Bailey, David Currie, Bart Farmer, Ryan Faber, Si Gaines, Neil Hodgson, John Horsey, Pablo Mullings, Terry Phillips, John Pearn, Mark Rose, Tony Smith, Daniel Tranter & Ian Colclough (manager).

Ian Colclough (Team Manager) reports: Ten members of AT Team England Fly Fishing gathered at the lake on Monday 26th for the unofficial practice day. Despite unfavourable conditions, a rod average of 6.5 was attained.

Day 2 saw the whole team practicing. It was similar conditions, but the rod average fell to 4.6. This was to be expected as there was a lot of pressure on the main fish-holding areas, and we had decided not to fish them so intently.

The final practice day saw a change in weather with light breezes and sun / cloud. The fish appeared to remain in the same areas and our average catch increased. The feeling of the team was that we knew areas to try on match day, five or six with plenty of fish, and that we had about 10 patterns that were working for us. It was felt that the fish were no deeper than 3 feet so most were using Slow Sink or Di3 lines. Many fish were hard on the bank and a fly cast to within a foot or two had a good chance of taking a fish. The problem was that we had no idea what the other teams were averaging, but the team and I felt that a catch of around 80 fish on the day would put us in with a change of gold.

Match day arrived. and the breeze had freshened and swung to the North East. It was generally sunny and cool. Many boats went to one main area – an area that we had identified as being the one with the highest concentration of fish. As the day wore on boats began to move from this area and seek out other places. Many anglers had their most fish in the first three hours. As the match ended it was apparent that, as a team, we had not improved on our average. Both the Scots and Welsh had some large bags in their team weights. As England weighed in first it was nail-biting to see if the Irish had beaten us. Thankfully, our 77 fish beat their 74 so we attained a third place bronze.

Congratulations to first cap Terry Phillips for weighing in the best England basket with 13 fish for 784 points. Well done to Scotland for a resounding win. Thanks to the fishery and Welsh organisers.

I’d like to thank the whole team for what was a tremendous four days. The team spirit was second to none, all were fully committed and determined, but on the day we came up a little short. Thank you, especially to Craig Barr team captain, who took much of the pressure off me. Also to Paul Angell who came along on Day 1 to help.

Ian Colclough – Team Manager

The 41st FIPS-Mouche World Fly Fishing Championship was held in Asturias, Spain, from 25th September to 1st October 2022.

AT Team England FF was represented by: Howard Croston, Lewis Hendrie, Andy Taylor, Mark Withyman & Gilliaum Vermeulen

COMPETING TEAMS

Australia – Belgium – Canada – Czech Republic – England – Finland – France – Hungary – Ireland – Italy – Japan – Lithuania – Mongolia – Netherlands – New Zealand – Portugal – Rumania – Scotland – Slovakia – South Africa – Spain – USA – Wales

PROGRAMME

Sunday 25th September
10:00-12:00 Registration at the hotel
15:00 Captains Meeting & Draw
18:00 Opening Ceremony

Monday 26th – Friday 30th September
10:00-14:00 Session in rivers
10:00-10:30 First subsession in lake
11:45-12:15 Second subsession in lake
12:30-13:00 Third subsession in lake
13:15-13:45 Fourth subsession in lake
14:00-14:30 Fifth subsession in lake
14:45-15:15 Sixth subsession in lake

Saturday 1st October
10:00-14:00 Closing Congress
18:00 Medal Ceremony & Closing
21:00 Closing Banquet

SECTORS

Sector 1 CAUDAL RIVER

Sector 2 PILOÑA RIVER

Sector 3 TRUBIA RIVER

Sector 4 NARCEA RIVER

Sector 5 ARENERO LAKE

RESULTS

Session 1

AT Team England ended their first session in 11th place out of 22 teams. Howard Croston came 8th on the Piloña River, Andy Taylor 9th on the Narcea River, Lewis Hendrie 10th on the Caudal River, Gilliaum Vermeulen 12th on the Trubia River, and Mark Withyman 16th on Lake Arenero, in a session which saw 1st-placed Julien Daguillanes (France) catch 58 fish. With two 1st places and two 2nds, Spain dominated the river sections, and were leading the team placings with just 10 placing points, ahead of France 2nd with 22 placing points, USA 3rd with 29 placing points and Canada 4th with 37 placing points. Wales were 14th, Scotland 15th and Ireland 18th.

Session 2

The second session saw AT Team England slip one place to 12th, with Howard Croston coming 7th on the Trubia River, Gilliaum Vermeulen 13th on the Narcea River, and Lewis Hendrie 14th on the Piloña River, while Mark Withyman was unable to avoid a blank on the Caudal River. On Lake Arenero, which saw reduced scores after the high totals in the first session, Andy Taylor came 16th. With several more good placings, Spain remained top of the team championship with 27 placing points, still some way ahead of France in 2nd with 43 placing points, and the USA 3rd with 59 placing points. Finland overtook Belgium to move into 4th place, as Canada dropped to 7th. Ireland moved up to 15th, with Scotland 16th and Wales 17th. Individually, David Arcay (Spain) was leading with two 1st places, with Julien Daguillanes (France) 2nd and Ruben Santos (Spain) in 3rd.

Session 3

Session 3 saw AT Team England retain their 12th place, with Lewis Hendrie coming 4th on the Trubia River, Howard Croston 12th on the Narcea River, Mark Withyman 13th on the Piloña River, and Andy Taylor also 13th on the Caudal River. On Lake Arenero, which continued to show diminishing returns, Gilliaum Vermeulen came 17th. Two 1st places and a 3rd saw France narrow the gap between their 2nd place with 62 placing points and Spain in 1st place with 50 points, while Finland remained 3rd with 97 points, three ahead of the Czech Republic at 4th. Ireland moved up to 14th, with Scotland 15th and Wales 17th. Julien Daguillanes (France) and David Arcay (Spain) still contested the two top Individual places with 4 points each, one ahead of Ruben Santos (Spain) who remained in 3rd. Sean Dempsey (Ireland) was in 9th place.

Session 4

AT Team England remained at 12th place after the 4th session, with Andy Tayor scoring a 5th place on the Piloña River, Lewis Hendrie 10th on the Narcea River, Gilliaum Vermeulen 14th on the Caudal River and Mark Withyman 15th on the Trubia River. In the Lake Arenero session Howard Croston came 16th. Both the Spanish and French teams continued to put in good performances, which saw them remain in 1st and 2nd places respectively, with 65 placing points to 80. Finland stayed in 3rd place with 128 points, with the Czech Republic 4th with 139 points. Ireland remained in 14th place, with Wales 16th and Scotland 17th. Individually, another 1st place for Julien Daguillanes (France) saw him top the listings with 5 points, with Ruben Santos (Spain) 2nd with 7 points, and David Arcay (Spain) 3rd on 8 points.

Session 5

AT Team England finished the 2022 World Championships in 13th place, with Howard Croston getting a 6th place on the Caudal River, Gilliaum Vermeulen 9th on the Piloña River, Andy Taylor 16th on the Trubia River, and Mark Withyman 17th on the Narcea River, while in the session on Lake Arenero Lewis Hendrie came 15th. With both the Spanish and French teams continuing to set the pace the end result was close, with Spain the 2022 Team World Champions with 95 points, and France 2nd with 104 points. The Czech Republic moved up into 3rd place with 154 points, ahead of Belgium 4th with 178 points. Wales finished in 15th place, with Ireland 16th and Scotland 17th. Individually, Julien Daguillanes (France) added another session win to finish the 2022 Individual World Champion with four 1st places and one 2nd for 6 placing points (to add to the title he won at the 2016 World Championships in Vail, Colorado). David Arcay (Spain) was 2nd with 11 points and Ruben Santos (Spain) 3rd with 12 points. Sean Dempsey (Ireland) finished 12th, with the top AT Team England performer being Howard Croston in 43rd place.

You can find more information on the Championship website here>> on their Facebook page here>> and on Instagram here>>

The Angling Trust reports: The 41st World Fly Fishing Championships held in Asturias Spain on 4 highly technical wild trout rivers and one small, stocked stillwater that also proved to be a frustrating venue at times with the small, stocked fish reacting to changeable winds and the intense pressure of very tightly spaced pegs.
The fishing in the rivers was highly technical, centred around light tippets and perfect fly drift, with often only one chance to a target fish, second drifts after an initial refusal often resulted in a spooked fish that then in turn spooked other fish close by.
Team England enjoyed good practice results in the run-up to the event, supported by an excellent local guide, and despite the relative inexperience of the team at World level had hopes for a reasonable finish.
In the end a combination of tough and changeable conditions, combined with some difficult draws didn’t see the result materialise as hoped.
Successful methods for the winning teams varied from single nymph and dry, to dry dropper and double nymph, depending on the beat and water conditions, one common theme was the use of low diameter tippets down to as low as 0.075mm.
Our team led by Howard Croston (fishing and managing), Gilliaum Vermeulen, Andy Taylor, Mark Withyman & Lewis Hendrie are pictured below. Along with images of the beautiful wild river inhabitants landed by Andy & Mark and an amazing lump of a trout returned by Howard, who masterfully brought it to the net on a 0.08mm tippet.
Host nation Spain landed Gold, neighbours France Silver, and the always-in-the-picture team Czech Republic Bronze. England placed thirteenth on unfamiliar and heavily pressured water, however with new caps it’s a reasonable spot. Well done guys, such a difficult venue to tame without a decent set of peg draws.

The 2022 Five Nations Fly Fishing Championship took place on the 18th – 23rd September, at Macroom Ireland, on Lough Lene, Gougane Barra Lake and the River Blackwater.

Teams from Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Belgium & Norway competed.

AT Team England Fly Fishing was represented by Lee Cartmail (Manager & Captain), Del Spry, Chris Micallef and Joel Beeney.

The Angling Trust reports: The 2022 Five Nations Fly Fishing Championship took place this week from the 18th – 23rd September. Hosted in Macroom Ireland, with fishing on Loughs Lene, Gougane, Barra Lake and River Blackwater. England’s team included: Lee Cartmail (Manager & Captain), Del Spry, Chris Micallef and Joel Beeney.
With little time to practice and acclimatise to venues, our guys had to share all their knowledge and angling skills to find themselves amongst the medals. Competing against teams from; Ireland, Scotland, France, Belgium & Norway.
Paul Page, Chair of the AT TEFF Executive, called us from Canada with this quote:
“An exemplary demonstration of teamwork by England’s 5 Nations Fly Fishing team has brought home the Team Silver from the recent 5NFF Championship in Balavourny Ireland.
With only 1 day’s practice and the 4 competition sessions available to build a strategy, pooling information was vital.
Congratulations to the team especially as there were 3 Irish teams fishing the Championship on home ground this year”.