spring 2019 - SANACC

Match day at Grafham was fished in bright conditions with an occassional light breeze and areas of flat calm.  The practice days had been cold with bright days, windy days and days providing a mix of torrential rain and hail.

England ran out convincing winners with four of their team in the top ten (Tony Curtis 16 fish - 3rd; Kim Green 16 fish - 4th; John Horsey 13 fish - 5th and Tim Joyce 10 fish - 7th) which went a long way towards their total of 109 trout for 229lbs 2ozs.

Scotland were second with 84 trout for 184lbs 13ozs with their top rod being Keith Renton with 9 fish for 19lbs 13ozs.  Keith was 8th overall.  This was a good team performance by Scotland with 7 of their team in the top 20.  Derek Marklow was 13th with 8 fish;  Ronnie Gilbert was 14th with 8 fish;  captain Kevin McCabe was 15th with 7 fish;  Andrew Barrowman was 17th with 8 fish;  Grant Osler was 19th with 7 fish and Stuart McLean was 20th with 7 fish.  Captain Kevin McCabe had the heavest fish of the day that went to the scales at 5lbs 3ozs.

Wales were third with 78 fish for 163lbs 7ozs.  Their top rod rod Alan Banwell took the Brown Bowl with 17 trout for 33lbs 10ozs.  Ireland were fourth with 70 fish for 148lbs 15ozs.  Ireland's top rod was Nigel Greene with 17 trout for 33lbs 3ozs which put him in second place.

Keith was drawn with Dewi Reece who won the toss and took them to Church Bay where they stayed for the day.  They had various drifts inside the bay and came out as far as R buoy. Keith started off with a fab and three nymphs on a 6ft slow tip and had one straght away.  He was soon 3 to 1 down and changed to a bung and steadily picked up fish.  When things went quiet he changed to a 5 sweep but returned to the bung and at the end of the session he had 9 trout and Dewi had 8.

Derek was drawn with Tony Curtis of England who won the toss and took them to Church Bay where they stayed all day working the bay and the two points.  Derek started off with nymphs on a 6ft tip and took a good fish.  After Tony had dropped 2 and picked up 4 on the bung Derek changed over to a bung and Tony picked up 2 while he was changing.  Tony finished with 16 trout and did nothing after 3pm. Derek picked up 7 on the bung to finish with 8

Ronnie was drawn with Darren Maguire of Ireland and having won the toss he opted to go to the area between C and K bouys.  He set up with fabs and nymphs on a 12ft fast tip.  Ronnie had 1 in that area and moved to G bouy which was unproductive.  They moved to Pylon Point where he picked up 7 straight lining buzzers.  They later tride G bouy before the end of the session.  Ronnie finished on 8 and Darren had 11.

Kevin was drawn with Shay Cash of Ireland and they agreed to start off at the area between C & K bouys.  They were not successful there and moved to Gaynes but finding the water to be dirty they moved to the area around G bouy where Kevin picked up a fish straight away on a 6ft tip and crunchers.  After dropping a couple of fish they moved to Church Bay and went to the back of the boats in the bay.  He picked up the heaviest fish of the day there (5lbs 3ozs) along with another 5.  Towards the end of the session they moved to the harbour area where Kevin dropped one.

Andrew was drawn with Stuart Pickard of Wales who won the toss and opted to start at Church Bay.  Andrew fished three buzzers under a bung and took 6 fish there throughout most of the day.  About 2pm they moved out to open water where he picked up one pulling a blob on a 5 sweep.  They later returned to the bay where Andrew picked up his last fish to finish with 8.