Angling Trust Team England Fly Fishing

Day One, Session One

We are here at Draycote Water, Rugby for the 4th Angling Trust Loch Style Team Championship. The weekend of high octane focused, nip and tuck competition started at 09:00 this morning.
Here are some of the images from the morning prep and Le Mans style start, as our competitors line up boats ready for the off.
09:00 was the off, as all the boats but one shot off in search of the Shoals, and feeding fish. Boat 13, carrying Richard Slater and Ian Donaldson of Elinor slipped back out of the melee. They slowed up off the back of the pack to have a couple of exploratory drifts onto J buoy, just off the jetty.
More updates thoughout the day

Day One, Session One Results

We’ve had our first session change, and processed the results for update one, the current standing is Renegades on 17 fish for 765 points, Greenwell Persuaders 14 fish for 651, Rio Draycote 14 for 635 & Fish Hawks 14 for 633. So the morning session sees the teams off to flying starts, we’ll have our second update in about three hours from now.

Day One, Mid Session Update

Mid session update – 14:00.
The half hour window, when the team members fishing and stewards change over, is also an opportunity for the various teams to get together and discuss tactics. Word is, the fish are up in the first six foot and this is where anglers are concentrating their effort.
Though this is very much a team comp, it’s always interesting to note the individuals who are pushing the field.
1 David Eames RAF Fish Hawks 7 fish 316 points
2 Lee Henfrey RIO Draycote 6 fish 265 points
3 Mark MacLeod Greenwell Persuaders 5 fish 234 points

Day One, Second Session

Update from the 2nd session of the day. We find out teams swapping positions on the leader board with Renegades still in 1st place on 44 fish – 1971 pts, RAF Fish Hawks moving into 2nd 40 fish – 1794 pts, Rio Draycote 3rd 35 fish – 1571 pts and one fish separating the next two teams.
Teams swapped anglers and stewards, as well as information and tactics, for the 3rd and final session from 16:00 to 19:00.

Day One Results

Day Two, First Session

Day two session one. We popped out to petrol the boats and see if we could catch some of the action.
Here’s Mark Rose of Renegades landing one of his four fish, adding 216 points to his team’s total.

Day Two, First Session Results

Results from the first of today’s sessions. This morning’s fishing has seen Fulling Mill Team Tequila squeeze in between current leaders Renegades and yesterday’s runners-up RAF Fish Hawks.
The accompanying picture is of some of the teams motoring out for session two.

Day Two, Second Session

2nd session of Day Two.
Things are heating up as the teams begin dialling in to where the fish are.
Rainbow Corner is still the most popular, yet it’s getting crowded and some of the teams are taking the gamble of finding new water to drift and fresh shoals that have not been pressured.
While out patrolling the boats we saw one boat with two fish on at the same time as other boats around them also began bending into fish.

Day Two, Second Session Results

Results, Second Day, Second Session.
Just like last year, it’s really got close at the top and for the first time Renegades are off the top spot. It would still be a brave bet to say it’s all over with three hours left to fish.
The boats are off at 19:00 and results won’t be far behind

Mid Session, Day Two

Mid session update, the boats are off the water in 10 minutes.
We popped over to take a look at the action from Barn Bank, the boats were fishing short drifts off the shallows, within ten minutes we saw a double-up as one boat landed two trout at the same time. Boat 15, substitute for Boat 1 from yesterday with anglers from Renegades bending into fish as were Fulling Mill TT.

Final Results

The weekend of competition is over and the results are in for 2022.
An amazing two days of top flight elite competition over and here are this year’s placings and top places.
Third – picking up £600 RAF Fish Hawks
Runners Up – taking £800 Renegades
This year’s winners and turning around yesterday’s results:
Fulling Mill Team Tequila
Well done on all on a fantastic performance and great match!

Report

1st Fulling Mill Tequila 133 fish 5988 pts £1,200
2nd Renegades 105 fish 4683 pts £800
3rd RAF Fish Hawks 103 fish 4641 pts £600

The AT reports: The Angling Trust’s 4th Loch Style Team Championship, contested over the weekend, was as exciting and dynamic as ever. The very first session’s results read: Renegades 17 fish, Greenwell Persuaders, Rio Draycote & RAF Fish Hawks all on 14 fish, with just 132 points separating the top four places.
Leaving Fulling Mill Tequila with 8 fish, Elinor 4 fish and Fly Boys 2 fish, after the first three hours. All comfortably on the score sheet but certainly playing catch-up, over the next five sessions the team placings would swap again and again. As during each angler change-over, teams would meet in huddles to discuss tweaks to tactics and methods employed. As Sherlock Holmes would say to Watson “The game’s afoot”!
By the second session, RAF Fish Hawks, FM Tequila, and Rio Draycote had slipped in between Renegades and Greenwells. For the next two sessions (PM Sat & AM Sunday) the teams would vary, both in position and points. Only the bravest pundit would place a bet on any specific outcome.
Then during the midday session on Sunday, Fulling Mill Tequila made a break for the lead, going into the final session with 16 fish on Renegades and Fish Hawks. But as we witnessed last year teams can drop and gain placings by 20 fish or more, and the size of fish targeted can also have a huge impact on results.
The final tally saw Fulling Mill Team Tequila lift this year’s trophy, and only two fish separating third place from the runners-up, Renegades and RAF Fish Hawks.
Matthew Griffiths, FM Tequila’s captain, explained how they changed tactics and the fortune of their campaign this year.
“On Day One we fished a Fast Glass from the outset, pulling as we had during practice. We also tried fishing Booby Bashers if struggling, as this had also brought fish the boats whilst practising too.
Realising this wasn’t working, we took advantage of our time stewarding, noting other teams were fishing higher in the column, generally on the washing line. For us we got our best result in the last session with Tequila FABs hanging a pair of Superglue Buzzes.
Sunday, we kept this going from the off, finally dialling into the use of six-foot Slow Tips, fished on short drifts over relatively shallow water around Rainbow Bay, action was swift at times and occasionally frustrating. On one session I bumped and lost eight fish, before netting a further eight to the boat.
It was great being back in this compition, as FNF Nymphomaniacs we picked up this trophy in 2018 & 2019. It’s great to be fishing the AT Loch Style Team Champs again. Even better to lift the trophy for a third time, with a fresh team and new team mates and our first major win as a new team too. We’re off the Loop Inversion from our next comp with the confidence this win brings under our belt”
Angling Trust wishes to thank, Fly Fish Store and Draycote Fishery and the team for hosting this event, New Leaf Catering for providing the Sunday fare for our hungry anglers, and Chris Bobby of Greenwell Persuaders for support with our technical scoring system. Most importantly of all, to all our teams and anglers whose dedication to the competition makes it such a great competition.

24th June 2022

Results:

1. Scotland 65 fish 2968 pts 47 placing pts
2. Wales 55 fish 2589 pts 50 placing pts
3. Ireland 59 fish 2621 pts 51 placing pts
4. England 56 fish 2517 pts 56 placing pts

Individual Winner: Ross McKeen, Scotland 5 placing pts

Largest Fish: Terry Bromwell, Wales 73.3 cms

AT TEFF was represented by: Cameron Craigs (capt), James Atkinson, Harry Fox, Chris Micallef & Carl Nixon. Congratulations to Scotland on their convincing victory.

Carl Nixon reports: Arriving for pre-match practice on Sat 18th, we were greeted with strong 35mph+ winds. Looking at the forecast we knew match week would be settled, very warm and with sporadic cloud, all teams were in for some excellent fishing.

These gusts stayed until late Sunday where we covered Beats B & C in relative shelter from the weather. On beats B & C, known as the Streams and Upper Parkhill, we were soon experiencing the excellent fishing we had been told about. Although the deceptive flow to the river and some of the hardest wading we’ve experienced made the fishing unsteady under foot, the practice was off to a great start.

Monday we were joined by current EPP & National Champion James Atkinson, who had been taking part in an EPP event on the River Ure. James joined us on Parkhill, Beat D. Where we were lucky enough to encounter some brilliant fishing, with several of the team landing fish to 5lb. As the day progressed, a pattern and a possible match plan was starting to take shape. To that point we decided that to hopefully save increasing fishing pressure, we limited catches to 2/3 fish and move on. We progressed to Beat E in the afternoon. Where yet again we stuck to the 2/3 fish plan and steadily put together a comprehensive beat map and approach.

Tactics were discussed at length at the regular nightly team debrief, practice flies, thoughts on set-ups, and tales of lost monsters.

Beats were drawn Wednesday evening, with the surprising outcome of all teams having several anglers fishing their team mates’ water from the morning sessions. This alone made all teams have a slight rethink to their match plans.

Small drab flies in the 14-18 range, either fished at distance with floated sighter or nymphing style on the level line.
Emerger style patterns for the slow water
Duo in the streamy riffles.

Match Day

As we all headed off to our respective start points, the weather was extremely warm for the 09:30 start, 24 degrees, mist in the air, and a very high air pressure made fishing very sticky.

Harry drew Beat A, James Beat B, Beat C for myself, Chris drew the lovely beat D and Cam drew Beat E.

As we met for lunch after session 2, the scores were tentatively worked out, tales from all teams of blanks on some sessions, and some high catch returns for all teams, made the halfway score very tight. Scotland 20, Wales 26, Ireland 25, England 29. Unfortunately Harry failed to get on the score card in the morning session, which meant we needed a great afternoon session. Having a chat, we knew our match plan was correct, we had all generated fish or chances, so we regrouped and knew we could make the afternoon session ours.

As we met after session 4, we knew the scores would be tight, and after doing some quick maths, we knew that we had won both session 3 & 4, all we could have asked for and more.

As the result was announced, Scotland were congratulated and deserved winners. Sadly our session wins in 3 & 4 weren’t enough as the place points just weren’t where we needed them to be.

We stuck to our individual & team match plan, and unfortunately it didn’t quite pay off as we had hoped.

I couldn’t have asked any more from the rest of the team during practice & match day, we were 110% committed, just not our day.

Thank you to Team Captain Cameron Craigs who led from the front all week.

Fellow team mates Chris Micallef, James Atkinson, Harry Fox, Mark Lynch & myself.

Thank you to the following who kindly supported Team England.

Jason Lieverst & Nicole Darland of MasterNymph USA
Mike Laycock of Craghoppers
Franta Hanak of Hanak Competiton.
Glasgow Angling Centre.

Last but certainly not least, every angler, and family members who very kindly bought raffle tickets, bonus ball tickets and donated where they could.

1. Ireland 36 fish 1030.8cms 1761pts
2. Scotland 31 fish 894.8cms 1526pts
3. Wales 21 fish 604.8cms 1029pts
4. England 18 fish 517.3cms 882pts

Best Basket: Denis Goulding (Ireland) 7 fish 190.3cms 332pts

Largest Trout: Toby Bracey (Scotland) 33.4cms

Top England rod: Tony Baldwin 3 fish 79.1cms 140pts

There is more coverage of this event on the BBC News website – Northern Ireland, see here

AT Team England Fly Fishing was represented by: Paul Angell (manager), Andy Cottam (captain), Tony Baldwin, Martin Burgess, Peter Crowe, Graham Currie, Ashley Davis, Kim Green, John Hood, Alex Johnstone, Eamon Mounter, Ben Race, Richard Slater, Paul Sweatman & Tim Wellman.

Congratulations to Ireland on a convincing victory.

Full Results:

What is the EPP?

The EPP is the Elite Performance Programme, which is a competitive fly fishing programme established in 2018 in order to develop elite anglers and provide a framework for selections teams to represent England in World, European and now 5 Nation Championships.

Who runs the EPP?

For the 2022 programme the official is Scott Nellins, however assistance is requested to peg river sections.

The programme is supported by staff at the Angling Trust (AT) and Team England Fly Fishers (TEFF).

What is the timeframe for EPP?

The Elite Performance Programme will run between June 2022 and September 2022, running over 7 days (2 x 2 days and 1 x 3 day).

What is the format of the EPP?

The programme will have 16 places available and is based on 4 events

Rivers: 3 x 2-day events
Lake: 1 x 1-day event

For more information, open the document below

The Angling Trust reports: We are delighted to announce the appointment of Steve Fitzpatrick as the new Head of Competitions at the Angling Trust.

Steve (48) joins the Senior Management Team following a 25-year career with Bauer Media’s angling portfolio where he was lately Editor-in-Chief, having stepped down earlier this year as Angling Times’ longest-serving member of staff and Editor.

Angling Trust CEO Jamie Cook described Steve as the “right person to take our competitions offering across sea, game and coarse to the next level.”

During his time at Bauer, Steve edited Match Angling Plus magazine and led the teams on Improve Your Coarse Fishing, Sea Angler, Trout & Salmon, and Trout Fisherman print titles along with their websites, video production, and social media channels.

A passionate match angler, sea fisherman and carper, Steve brings a wealth of experience from all sides of the angling industry, with experience of running a tackle shop while studying at the University of Liverpool where he completed a Master of Science Degree in Environmental Biology.

As Head of Competitions, Steve will lead the strategy and development of competition angling across all disciplines, ensuring gold-standard events are delivered both now and in the future. He will also play a leading role in driving the success of the England teams on the World and European stages.

“When the opportunity arose to work with the competitions side of the Angling Trust, I knew it would be a perfect fit,” Steve said.

“My most enjoyable role on Angling Times was as the title’s Match Editor and this saw me covering events from small club matches to National Championships and World Championships, travelling all over Europe with the England teams.

“I’m also proud to have launched and run the Clubman Supercup and Maver Pairs events and worked closely with the team in organising the Angling Times Team Championships (Winter League) for many years.

“This is an exciting new role and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to help shape the present and future gold-standard domestic events managed by a superb team at the Angling Trust and deliver competitions for every level of match angler from grassroots right up to the elite levels.

“I’ll be working hard with all the England teams and managers to ensure we not only bring home gold medals, but also host a World event on English soil within the next few years.”

Steve will take up his position in mid-April and will report directly to Jamie Cook.

Jamie said: “Competitions are a key part of what we do as the National Governing Body and in Steve I am confident we have found the right person to take our offering across sea, game and coarse to the next level.

“As a not-for-profit organisation our commitment is to invest back into promoting, protecting and developing angling at all levels. Steve’s appointment builds upon the work we have done for our customers and members in the competitions sphere over the past two years and will provide greater focus on developing the Team England brand to deliver international success at the highest level.”

The Loch-style Rules and FAQs have now been updated.

See the link from the National Loch-style menu.

Loch-style Rules 2022 – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q6smcFtXlDCnN9vs1PjLbdDvWQMtK59dM6oojE4AgVM/edit?usp=sharing

Loch-style – FAQs 2022 – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l4raW5f_hC2hA5wLS9PekIhSn3k8XNIAU-2raUiDjO4/edit?usp=sharing

As well as accessing the AT TEFF Match Calendar via the link on the top right, you can now download the full Angling Trust Game Competitions Calendar for 2022, including all current Angling Trust, AT TEFF, EYF, ELFF – Domestic, Home Nations (Home Internationals) and FIPS-Mouche – European & World events. (see link below)

This is their current programme and will be updated as the season progresses for all disciplines.

Note: The ‘AT TEFF Rivers National’ events on the 23rd January – R.Dee, 20th February – R.Dee, 10th April – R.Ure & 15th May – R.Wear are actually AT TEFF Rivers Qualifiers. The AT TEFF Rivers National Final is scheduled for 3rd-4th September on the R.Tees.

As you might have seen, the first ever Team England Fly Fishing email newsletter is now out. Its purpose is to engage with those that enter Team England Fly Fishing events, be that loch-style, rivers or bank competitions at national or international level.

For some time anglers have been saying that they struggle to get the latest information on what TEFF is doing, so the TEFF Executive has decided that the best way to engage with its entrants is by direct email, though much of what is in this newsletter is also here on this website.

Please spread the word, and encourage others to sign up, via the ‘TEFF Newsletter – Click To Sign Up’ panel on the right.