European Championships 2009
European Police Fly Fishing Championships
Scotland played host to the 1st European Police Fly Fishing Championships on the week of the 11th - 15th May 2009 with anglers from Austria, Rep. of Ireland and from the four home nations all competing in this event.
The event commenced with an Opening Ceremony at The King Robert Hotel in Stirling, with Mr Smith Chief Constable of Central Scotland Police saying a few words of welcome. The anglers were entertained that evening by the dancers of Keltika a local dance group from Stirling, the Band Amadan (A fiddle group from McLaren High School, Callander) and Pipes and Drums of Central Scotland Police Pipe Band,
Band Amadan
Over the four days the anglers enjoyed the delights of fishing in Scotland: visiting the River Tummel, River Tay, River Clyde, Loch Leven and Carron Valley Reservoir. Loch Leven provided some magnificent brown trout to the fly, three of which were around the 6lb mark, all fish caught were returned, with the exception of one of the big browns weighing 6lb 03oz caught by a Scots lad Bill Neilson on a size 12 Viva on fast sinking line.
The event culminated at the Lake of Menteith, with a practice day (13th) and the actual championship match on Thursday 14th May 2009. The anglers were greeted on the shore by retired Superintendent Stewart Marshall (CSP) playing the bagpipes.
The weather for the event could not be more glorious though a strong and cold east wind was present throughout. Given the recent problems highlighted about the Lake of Menteith it was great to see anglers back on the water and the fishery producing good baskets of fish on both days.
The match commenced after a Health & Safety briefing by event organiser Sergeant Calum Fraser (CSP) at 0930hrs.....it ran till 5pm, with anglers set a three fish limit, before using a catch & release score card, to record the total number of fish caught for the day. Anglers were given a 2lb bonus for every returned fish once they had despatched their first three fish.
John Comer (Vice Chair of the newly formed English Police Fly Fishing Association) bringing a nice fish around the 2lb mark to the net in Hotel Bay.
A Presentation Dinner was held at the King Robert Hotel on the evening of the 14th where the winning anglers and teams were awarded the medals and prizes they had won.
THE COMPETITION
It was apparent from the previous day, that a good mornings fishing would prove vital if anglers were going to feature in the prizes. During the previous days practice match the fish went off around lunchtime with only a few coming to the net during the rest of the afternoon day, though late on a brief flurry of activity occurred and a few more the mid afternoon.
The day of the competition proved no different:
John Donohue (Garda, Rep. of Ireland) made the most of the morning fishing by having five fish in the first hour, fishing olive dabblers on a floating line, he encourage previously unseen fish to splash and thrash the water surface. His boat partner John Comer (England) quickly realised his sinking line with blobs was not going to be the method of the day and changed to a "Kelly Green" a very slow intermediate tweaking finely tied olive buzzers with an orange thorax through the water. The two anglers finished the day with seventeen (17) fish to the boat an excellent days fishing. They concentrated their efforts along the shore from Hotel Bay to Reedy Point, however found that the fish of quality were to be had fishing from Reedy Point into the Rookery and those fish were in the top twelve inches of the water.
John Donohue ended the match as the overall individual champion with ten trout collecting a Crystal Bowl donated by the Trophy Centre Ltd (Stirling).
Although some individuals in each team were catching fish others were struggling with the conditions and it was clear that it was becoming a two horse race between Scotland and the Rep. of Ireland.
Scots angler Constable Alan Hill (Strathclyde) was the Scots angler keeping pace with the leaders, he was closely followed by his Scottish team colleagues Jim McBride, Graham Niven (Lothian & Borders) and David Mateer (Northern). The consistency of the Scots team, using the tried and tested method of sink tip or floating line presenting a fine leader of buzzers and comarents paid dividends in the end. No mean feat given the pressure was on the Scots team to do well as it was their home water.
The Scots team in the end justified their position as the competition favourites by winning the championships and lifting the Police Sport UK European Fly Fishing Cup.
Well done Scotland the current British and European Police Fly Fishing Champions...!
Results
Team name # fish Bag lb oz Bonus lb oz T lb oz
Scotland 20 38 10 24 0 62 10
Republic of Ireland 20 40 10 16 0 56 10
England 13 26 2 18 0 44 2
Wales 14 29 15 4 0 33 15
Northern Ireland 13 25 14 6 0 31 14
Austria 2 4 0 0 0 4 0
Anglers name Team name Bag lb oz Bonus lb oz Total lb oz
John Donohue Republic of Ireland 5 8 14 0 19 8
Noel Campbell England 6 3 8 0 14 3
John Comer England 6 2 8 0 14 2
Alan Hill Scotland 5 8 8 0 13 8
Jim Taylor Northern Ireland 6 5 6 0 12 5
Jim McBride Scotland 5 15 6 0 11 15
Simon Davies Wales 7 0 4 0 11 0
Dave Mateer Scotland 6 6 4 0 10 6
Graham Niven Scotland 6 2 4 0 10 2
Dave Summers England 6 1 2 0 8 1
Simon Davies (Wales) Heaviest Fish a Rainbow Trout at 2lb 14oz.
A total of 116 fish were caught with being 34 returned.
The Officials caught 20 fish all were returned..
Michael Bradley (Secretary) Republic of Ireland announced that the 2nd European Police Fly Fishing Championships would take place in Ireland in 2011.
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