spring 2017

Loch Internationals

Spring International

Chew Valley Lake, England

19th May, 2017

Malcolm

Group

www.malcolmgroup.co.uk

The Edinburgh Mortgage Company Ltd

Tel: 0131 6609738

Scottish Team sponsored by 7 Plus 7 Construction, Fishers, Lake of Menteith Fisheries,

Malcolm Group, Angus Angling, Steadfast Scotland, Principal and Prosper, Gallery Fishings North Esk,

St Andrews Timber & Building Supplies, MGM Timber, Bruce Stevenson Insurance Brokers, Bell Donaldson Steele,

Magnet, The Edinburgh Mortgage Company Ltd., McKenzie Skip Hire, Middlemiss Embroidery Ltd. and N Hogg Joinery.

Spring International - Chew Valley 19th May 2017
Position	Country	Fish	Lbs

1st	England	43	112.85
2nd	Scotland	29	84.11
3rd	Wales	21	58.96
4th	Ireland	15	38.12

The teams at the Spring International were faced with bright conditions and some rare moments of light cloud cover. The wind was light at the start of the session and picked up as the day progressed. The practice days provided a fair bit of variety in the weather conditions with one having strong winds, another with constant rain and one on the bright side. The fish were in excellent condition and were to be found high in the water but were not easy to tempt. The bulk of the fish had been found behind Denny Island in the practice sessions and Herons Green had been noted as an area of free rising fish.

On competition day the teams caught a total of 108 trout for 294.04lbs. The match was fished with a four fish kill followed by catch and release. All brown tout were returned and an allowance of 2lb was given for each returned fish.

England were convincing winners and outfished the other three countries with a total of 43 trout for 112.85lbs. Scotland were 14 fish behind with 29 for 84.11lbs. Wales were third with 32 fish for 58.96lbs and Ireland were fourth with 15 fish for 38.12lbs. English rods were 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th and and these four anglers provided 26 of the team total of 43. Scotland had three anglers in the top ten at 4th, 6th and 9th who accounted for 13 of of Scotland's 29 trout. Wales also had three in the top ten at 7th, 8th and 10th and they accounted for 12 of their team's 21 fish.

photo:

England captain Nikki Long

receiving the winners trophies

from IFFA President Wynnora Thomas

The heaviest fish of the day went to the scales at 5.5lbs and was caught by Stuart McLean of Scotland. Stuart took the fish from behind Denny Island on a size 14 copper diawl bach fished on a floating line.

photo:

Stuart McLean of Scotland

receiving the trophy for the

heaviest fish from IFFA president Wynnora Thomas

The winner of the Brown Bowl for the best basket and top rod for England was Andy Cottam with an excellent 8 fish for 20.77lbs. Nick Dunn of England was second with 7 fish for 17.6lbs and Matt Kingdon of England was third with 6 fish for 15.9lbs

Top rod for Ireland was Noel Shiels with 2 fish for 5.54lbs. Top rod for Scotland was Stuart McLean with 4 fish for 13.01lbs and top rod for Wales was Dewi Rees with 4 fish for 12.05lbs.

photo (left)

Andy Cottam of England

receiving the Brown Bowl

photo(right)

Noel Shiels of Ireland

photo (left)

Stuart McLean

top rod for Scotland

photo (right)

Dewi Rees

top rod for Wales

Stuart McLean (4th overall)

Stuart McLean of East Kilbride AC was Scotland's top rod and was fourth overall. This was his third cap. He was drawn with England's Nick Dunn who finished second overall. Stuart won the toss and opted to go to the Wick Green area where he was using a black booby and two diawl bachs on a 6ft slow tip.

After two fruitless drifts there they moved to the back of Denny Island and initially stayed clear of the 12 to 15 boats that were already there. He quickly picked up two fish to Nick's one and a bit later picked up his third while Nick rapidly picked up another 3.

About 2pm they moved to Herons Green but after half an hour of no action they returned to the back of the island.

Stuart changed to a floating line and picked up the best fish of the day to finish with four. Nick finished with 7.

Alan Porteous (6th overall)

Alan fishes with Dounreay FF and captained the Spring Team. This was his sixth cap. He was drawn with Michael Linehan of Ireland and they discussed where the should go before agreeing to the back of the island. Alan set up with a damsel, diawl bachs and a black booby on a floating line.

He picked up his first fish within five minutes of starting and picked up another two fairly quickly. It slowed down after that and the next few fish were hooked and dropped.

They moved to the front of the island to try there but without success and quickly returned to behind the island.

Alan picked up a further two fish in the afternoon to finish with five.

Scott Reith (9th overall)

Arbroath AA

This was Scott's first cap and he was drawn with England's Matt Kingdom who was 3rd overall. Scott won the toss and opted to go behind the island at the right hand side drifting towards the reeds. He started off with a black booby and three diawl bachs on a floating line.

His first fish, unfortunately, was a good sized pike. Matt was having success on a 3ft tip so Scott changed to a 5ft midge tip and a couple of casts later he picked up his first trout. He picked up another two and by the end of the first two hours he had a total of three.

It dried up for Scott and trying different locations behind the island didn't help so he moved to Herons Green and put on dries. He had offers to the dries but no takers and after an hour they moved back behind the island. Matt continued to steadily pick up fish and and finished the session with 6. Scott managed to pick up one more and finished with 4

Rab Maxwell (12th overall)

Clatto & Stratheden AC

This was Rab's second cap and he was drawn with Jimmy Bond of Wales. Jimmy had the first two hours and went behind the island. Rab set up a Snowbee buzzer line with a booby on the tail. They found it slow going and when it looked as if the fish had moved out a bit they did likewise and Rab picked up his first fish.

A bit later they moved back closer to the island and Rab got his second. He had a few pulls after that but did not connect.

He picked up his third fish at 2.30pm on a diawl bach and later lost one and finished with the three.

Gerry Rattray (13th overall)

Soldier Palmers

This was Gerry's first cap. He was drawn with Steve Smalley of England and was taken to the back of the island for the first two hours. Gerry had put a damsel, two diawl bachs and a dry on a floating line but with neither of them getting fish at the island they moved to Herons Green.

On the first drift there Gerry got one on the dry when retrieving a figure of eight. He took another on the dry on the second drift.

They went back behind the island at 2pm and returned to Herons at 4pm but didn't pick up any more.

back row Gerry Rattray, Paul Garner, Neil Anderson, Derek Purves, Scott Reith, Kevin McCabe, Rab Maxwell, George Mackenzie(International Secretary), Stuart McLean, Dave Carr and Ian Campbell(IFFA Secretary)

front row Wynnora Thomas(IFFA President), Sean McCaffrey, Andrew Glasgow, Alan Porteous(Captain), Gus Shepherd(Manager), Ally Middlemass and James Gardiner

Scottish Team - Individual Positions (The full resut can be seen on the IFFA website at www.iffa.net)
Position		Club	Fish	Weight in Lbs
4th	Stuart McLean	East Kilbride AC	4	13.01
6th	Alan Porteous (Captain)	Dounreay FFA	5	12.08
9th	Scott Reith	Arbroath AA	4	10.79
12th	Rab Maxwell	Clatto & Stratheden AC	3	7.87
13th	Gerry Rattray	Soldier Palmers	2	7.52
14th	Derek Purves	Bank of Scotland East AC	3	6.93
15th	Kevin McCabe	Change FF AC	2	6.87
16th	Dave Carr	Tweed Valley Tanglers	2	6.77
19th	Ally Middlemass	Kinross AC	2	6.00
30th	Paul Garner	Alba Orvis FF	1	3.62
39th	Neil Anderson	Monikie AC	1	2.65
46th eq	James Gardiner	Alba Orvis FF	0
46th eq	Andrew Glasgow	Ferry FF	0
46th eq	Sean McCaffrey	North Shetland FF	0