Angling Trust Team England Fly Fishing

Saturday 14th September, Grafham Water 

Pre-match practice had identified two main areas – Sanctuary Bay and Gaynes Cove. On match day the wind swung round to more NW and with Sanctuary Bay not living up to expectations, many of the boats here moved to join those already in the Gaynes Cove-Dam area. Overcast conditions meant that fish were generally high in the water, and as the wind dropped in the afternoon nymphing tactics appeared to win out over the pulling that had taken earlier fish. There was a great range in the size of fish taken, with the top specimen a magnificent 7-13-12 brown to Phil Dixon, the second time he has taken the Loch-style Championship. The 28 qualifiers will be representing Team England in the 2014 Home Internationals at Lough Owel in Ireland, and Llyn Brenig in Wales.

2013 National Champion, Phil Dixon

TEFF Team Qualifiers

1. Philip Dixon (Severn Trent) – 8 fish – 22-13 7/8

2. Philip Longstaff  (Severn Trent) – 7 fish – 22-8

2nd: Phil Longstaff

3. Tony Baldwin (Peninsula) 8 fish – 22-4 1/2

4. Tony Curtis (Anglia) 8 fish – 22-1 5/8

5. Clive Perkins (Southern) 7 fish – 21-15 5/8

3rd: Tony Baldwin

6. Dave Currie (Severn Trent) 8 fish – 20-5 5/8

7. Ryan Feber (Northern) 7 fish – 20-3 7/8

8. Andre Gysler (Southern) 8 fish – 19-14 1/2

9. Lee Bartlett (East Anglia) 8 fish – 19-14 

10. Leigh Pond (East Anglia) 8 fish – 19-11

11. Mark Rose (Army) 7 fish – 19-7 1/2

12. Paul Bebb (Northern) 8 fish – 18-14 5/8

13. Gary Morris (East Anglia) 8 fish – 18-13 5/8

14. Joel Beeney (South East) 8 fish – 18-5 1/2 

15. Bill Rankin (Southern) 6 fish – 18-1

16. Simon Robinson (Northern) 8 fish – 17-15 1/8

17. John Pearn (Southern) 8 fish – 17-10 3/4

18. John Hood (Northern) 7 fish – 17-10 5/8

19. Vince Brooks (South East) 7 fish – 16-15 1/8

20. Mark Withyman (Southern) 7 fish – 16-7 1/8

21. Mike Laycock (Severn Trent) 7 fish – 15-7 1/2

22. Gary Owen (Severn Trent) 8 fish – 15-4 5/8

23. Tim Joyce (East Anglia) 7 fish – 15-3 3/4

24. John Humphry (Southern) 4 fish – 14-11 5/8

25. John Bowen (Southern) 6 fish – 14-1 7/8

26. James Atkinson (Northern) 6 fish – 14-1 1/2

27. Dave Johns (Southern) 5 fish – 13-8

28. Peter Elliott (Severn Trent) 6 fish – 13-1 3/4

Full Results: 2013 Loch-style National

(Images courtesy of Cliff Waters, Fishypics)

As of today, 21st August 2013, due to an Environmental Agency issue, Westlow Mere trout fishery has been closed to the general public.

The venue for 2014 was to be Chatton trout fishery, which has now been brought forward to hold this year’s event.

Could I ask anyone who has qualified for this year’s Individual or Team Final, and who will not be attending, to please email me at jimtuckfisherman@hotmail.co.uk ASAP

Jim Tuck

Fourteen of the top English loch-style anglers will be travelling to the Lake of Menteith, Scotland, in mid-September for the Autumn Home International against the host nation, Wales and Ireland.

Paul Angell, Captain of Team England Fly Fishing

The England team comprises the top anglers from the National final fished last year at Bewl Water in Kent. The team is captained by Stafford angler Paul Angell, who had this to say about the team’s prospects in Scotland.

“With just over a month to go until the Autumn International at the Lake of Menteith, the anticipation and excitement are really starting to build. The England team has a good mix of new caps and experienced internationals, and a great team spirit is emerging. We are all looking forward to pitting ourselves against the other home nations and believe we have the talent and the qualities needed to produce a winning result.

“All the teams are strong, but the Scots, on their home water, and with their excellent organization and recent record, will certainly start, on paper, as the favourites. Having said that, we are going to be fishing for stocked rainbow trout, which is something most of the teams will be very used to. Who will emerge as the winning team on the 20th September will be largely down to who has prepared best and who has been best able to adapt to the conditions on the day. Of course a little bit of luck is always important, but at this level, luck only plays a minor role.

“The Lake of Menteith is a top quality fishery, with clear water, and hard fighting fish. What more could you ask for in an International venue? At 700 acres it is big enough to provide a real challenge, but not so large as to make fish location a major problem on the practice days leading up to the competition.

‘Team England will be going flat out to go one better than in the Spring International where the Scots were victorious, beating us convincingly into second place, but no-one should forget that there are four teams of dedicated anglers, all at the top of their sport, all of whom will be giving their all in pursuit of victory. May the best team on the day win. All I know is that I am immensely proud to be leading a great bunch of guys, and captaining my country at the sport which I love.”

The full England team will comprise: Paul Angell (Captain), Glenn Appleby, Tom Bird, Martin Burgess, Howard Croston, Tom Davies, Paul Davison, Anthony Fox, Martin Griffiths, Gary Hedges, John Hood, Paul Kitchen, Mark Macleod, and Steve Smalley

Good luck to them all!

Courtesy of the Angling Trust

The 33rd FIPS-Mouche World Fly Fishing Championships was held from 11th-18th August, in the Vefsna region of Norway. 

There was more information on the championship website and also on their Facebook page and YouTube channel

New this year was Live Center, delivering live statistics on how competitors were doing, during the sessions! You could see whether our boys could save a blank with half an hour to go! You could also follow John Horsey on Facebook.

Results after 1st session: England had three good results, with Scott Nellins winning his river sector, John Horsey coming 4th= on the lake (bank) sector and Simon Robinson 7th on one of the river sectors, along with a 15th place and a blank, and ended 6th. France were 1st, (on 14pts – a 1st, two 2nds, a 3rd, and a 6th), ahead of Poland on 29pts, and the Czechs on 37pts. 

Results after 2nd session: England dropped to 9th place, with Scott Nellins 6th on a river sector and John Horsey 8th on the lake (boat). The Czechs overtook the French with 73pts to their 76pts, ahead of Italy on 111pts. Individually, Andrea Adreveno (Italy) and Tomas Adam (Czech) were joint leaders, winning both their morning and afternoon sessions. Scott Nellins was 8th and John Horsey 12th.

Below: Highlights from the first day

Results after 3rd session: England recovered to 6th place and 229pts, thanks to Phil Dixon and Simon Robinson coming 3rd and 9th on two of the rivers sectors. The Czechs had just a two point lead over the French, 134pts to 136pts, with Italy third on 150pts. Three people were sharing Individual 1st place – Andrea Adreveno (Italy), Valerio Santi Amantini (Italy) and Martin Droz (Czech), on 8pts each.

Below: Highlights from day two

Results after 4th session: England moved up to equal 5th place with the USA on 297pts, after a win for Scott Nellins on the lake sector (boat), plus a 3rd for John Horsey and a 14th place for Phil Dixon on two of the river sectors. The Czechs were lying 1st with 172pts, ahead of Italy (208pts) and France (237pts). Valerio Santi Amantini (Italy) was the top Individual on 13pts but would be facing the tough sector 3 on the rivers in his last session. With many of these sessions about saving a blank, these positions were likely to change by the end of the day.

Below: Friday highlights

Final Results: 1st Czech Republic 231pts 2nd Italy 283pts 3rd France 295pts 4th Finland 362pts 5th USA 366pts 6th Norway 376pts 7th Poland 383pts 8th England 393pts 9th Australia 399pts 10th Luxembourg 405pts

Individuals: 1st Valerio Santi Amantini (Italy) 14pts 2nd Martin Droz (Czech) 19pts 3rd Julien Lorquet (Belgium) 26pts 4th Antonin Pesek (Czech) 37pts 5th Sebastian Delcor (France) 39pts 6th Bertrand Jacquemin (France) 40pts 17th John Horsey (England) 55pts 21st Scott Nellins (England) 58pts

Below: Saturday highlights

27 teams formally registered (24 as teams + 3 as individuals), including first-timers Chile and Mongolia. A full list of registered teams is here

Sectors that were used for the competition included the Austervefsna (river), the Fiplingdalselva (river), Nedre Svenningvatn (lake), Storvatnet (lake) and the Vefsna (lake). You will find an illustrated guide to the sectors here 

Programme: Sunday 11th – Parade, Opening Ceremony, Captains’ Meeting & Draw; Monday 12th – Training Sessions 1 & 2; Tuesday 13th – Training Sessions 3 & 4; Wednesday 14th – 1st & 2nd Competition Sessions; Thursday 15th – 3rd Competition Session; Friday 16th – 4th & 5th Competition Sessions; Saturday 17th – Seminar & Prize Ceremony

The whole event was given TV coverage on TV2 Norway, TV4 Sweden, Yle TV Finland, Sportska Televizia Croatia and Fox TV Australia through media company IEC in Sports, who delivered daily highlights, plus an event summary. Live results were updated from the competition days, along with videos, interviews of national teams, and other highlights and information directly from the World Championships in Mosjøen. Vive! Deportes, Chile, plus The Sports Channel, Israel, were the confirmed broadcasters of the daily highlights between Wednesday 14th and Saturday 17th August.

The Team England FF team was: Ian Greenwood (manager/captain), John Horsey, Simon Robinson, Phil Dixon, Howard Croston, Scott Nellins & Tony Baldwin (reserve).

17th-24th January, 2014 – Aysen Patagonia Chile

Anglers over 50 with at least two International caps are required to make up a four-man Team England FF team for the World Masters Fly Fishing Championship, to be held in Chile in January 2014. There will be two days of official practice, followed by two River and two Boat four-hour competition sessions. The rivers will be the Simpson, Emperador, Guilermo, Nirehguao, Toqui and Manihuala rivers, along with Lakes Frio, Juncos and Misterioso. No funding is available, so all costs will be borne by the team members. The participation cost for the Championship will be US$2,000 for each team member and accompanying guest, which excludes flights, transfer charges and any private practice costs. If you are seriously interested in representing England in the World Masters, please contact Paul Page by email: William@wpage.fslife.co.uk

Full Details: 2014 Chile Masters Web Page Invitation

Grafham Water, Saturday 14th September

Invitations have been sent out to all qualifiers to the Team England FF 2013 Loch-style National. Cheques for £60 (covering costs of boats, fishing, food and administration for the day) must be sent to organiser John Mees no later than Monday 5th August.

Commemorative Greys shirts are also available at £30 for qualifiers and officials from John Ball. All boats have been reserved for the official practice days on the 12th and 13th of September. There will be enough places for everyone who books before Friday 30th August (after this date spare boats may be allocated to other anglers). Also, on each practice day, if any booked boats are not manned by 10.00am, they may be re-allocated by Grafham lodge staff to other anglers.

To book a practice boat or to ask for information on local accommodation, telephone 01480 810531. Note: Both you and your boat partner must have qualified for the 2013 National. If you do not already have a boat partner who has qualified, then you will be allocated a place in a boat with another qualifier by fishery staff on the morning of that particular day’s practice.

The National Rivers Final fished on the East Dart and West Dart on Dartmoor was a supercharged event with competitors competing not just between themselves and the fish, but also with the extreme heat and low water! 

The length of the beats were considerable and involved long distance walking which in waders was no joke in 27 degrees.

Pre match banter was about it being a very tough match with possibly few fish caught, the actual day proved that wrong and highlighted the quality of the anglers involved, the rod average was 12 which was stunning.

The organisation of the event was superb and my congratulations go to Penisula Federation and all the people involved in organising the event and big thanks to all of the controllers.

Clive Collier Chairman Team England Fly Fishing, Terry Phillips 2013 National Rivers Champion, Russell Weston Snowbee UK Ltd Managing Director

The following are the match qualifiers.

Terry Phillips 1st (National Champion)
Andy Cliffe 2nd
Robert Brown 3rd
Simon Robinson 4th
John Tyzack 5th
Lee Bartlett 6th (Reserve)

My congratulations to the qualifiers, well deserved in such tough conditions.

On a personal note I competed in this event, and found it a real eye opener to fish this style of fishing the pots, more than challenging!

My excuse was that I fished like a real Plonker!

Clive Collier
TEFF Chairman

Report: 2013 Press Release

Full Results: 2013 Rivers National results

More Pictures: Rivers National 2013 Gallery

Sunday 23rd June 

Windy conditions had made practice difficult the day before, and the wind only lightened slightly for the match. Fish were also preoccupied with small green midge and half-inch jelly fry in some areas, so that although they were often seen moving, they were tricky to catch. Gilliam Vermeulen finished the clear winner with an exceptional bag of 7 fish, followed by Joel Beeney on 5 fish, and Vince Brooks, Andrew Green and Mike Heritage, all on 4 fish. Vince and Andrew caught the bulk of their fish at the top of Hook Straight, which was relatively sheltered. Some good fish were moving here, with Vinces’s best going over 4lbs. This took him all round the boat, and was only landed with the co-operation of boat partner Pete Thomason.

With a combined score of 4 points, Vince Brooks took the overall top spot, followed by Joel Beeney (9pts), Nick Cox (9pts), Gilliam Vermeulen (12pts), Len Childs (14pts), Ray French (15pts), Andrew Green (16pts), Mike Heritage (21pts) and Clive Collier (22pts).

Qualifier 2 Results: 130623 SEFF Second Leg(1)

Overall Results: 130623 SEFF1&2 Combined

(Picture courtesy of Ray French, Bewl Angle)

Team England FF were represented by Andy Croucher, Lewis Hendrie, Paul Lee, Andrew Scott, John Tyzack (captain) and Dave Drake (reserve), with Mike Tinnion (manager).

Results

1. Wales        43 fish  2010 points  36 placings

2. England    25 fish  1249 points  55 placings

3. Ireland     20 fish  1031 points  60 placings

4. Scotland   19 fish   907 points  61 placings

Top Individual: Terry Bromwell (Wales) 5 placings

Largest Fish: Terry Bromwell (Wales) 63.4cms

Full Results: 2013 Rivers International – Results

Congratulations to Wales for a convincing victory.

Thursday 13th June, Blithfield Reservoir, Abbots Bromley, Staffs WS15 3DU

Thanks to generous donations (including many items from Snowbee) the total prize fund has now grown to over £650. There is a buffet after the weigh-in, and those who have fished this before have remarked what a friendly event this is. Entry is only the cost of a day’s fishing at £33. Fish from 10.00am ’till 5.00pm. Six fish limit then catch and release. Prizes down to 10th place, plus Best Fish. The closing date has been held until 8th June so get your entries in! Current reports are that the Blithfield is fishing very well, with fish on top taking dries and wet flies. See you there – Ian Colclough, Event Organiser on behalf of Blithfield Anglers

Results: Blithfield Individual Championships

Thanks to Blithfield Anglers for sponsoring the event and all their staff for a great day. Also to Snowbee for providing some tackle prizes. Next year’s event will probably be held on a weekend in early/mid-June.