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Spring 2015

Loch Internationals

Spring International
Rutland, England
29th May 2015

Jim Youngman Carpets

Scottish Team sponsored by Fishers, Lake of Menteith Fisheries,
Albert Bartlett, Principal And Prosper, CEF, Jim Youngman Carpets, Glencorse Reservoir, Newey & Eyre, 7 Plus 7 Construction, Jewson, BVG Airflo and Flyfish Europe
(click on sponsors logo to go to their website)

Spring International
Rutland Water
29th May 2015

The four home countries made their way to Rutland Water for the IFFA Spring International well aware that the weather forecast was predicting winds gusting to 40+ mph at some point during the practice and match days. It was generally bright on the Wednesday and Thursday with steady winds blowing down the South Arm towards the main basin. The conditions gave the teams a good opportunity to assess the water and set out their plans for the match day and all teams were keeping their findings and the number of fish caught in practice close to their chests. The match was fished on a partial catch and release basis with the first four trout being retained and an allowance of 2lb being given for returned fish.

The competitors arrived at Rutland on the Friday to fairly calm conditions and hopes were high that the weather forecasts would be wrong. It started to rain before the four countries marched down to the boats and when the rain passed the wind gradually increased in strength and pretty quickly it was making fishing difficult.

At the off a couple of boats set up outside the harbour with one of them into a fish pretty quickly. Most of the boats turned left with some competitors setting up inn East Creek while others made for the Sailing Club, New Zealand Point, Berry Butts and Gibbets. a couple of boats turned right and headed for Fantasy Island.

By noon the wind was really beginning to pick up and fishing became pretty difficult at Fantasy. Quite a few boats opted to move from the south shore to try Yellowstone and Old Hall Bays where there was some shelter to be found and late on a couple of boats moved over to May Tree Bank.

As the boats returned to the pier the team managers sought out their anglers to get the number of fish they had caught and at the same time they tried to get an indication of how the other countries had done. It was too close to call and the teams had to wait for the weigh-in for the result.

photo: Scotland's Captain Paul Garner
receiving the Captain's Badge and winners
trophy from IFFA President Tom MacTaggart

England were first to go to the scales and produced 61 trout for 118lbs 11ozs. Their top rod was John Hardy with 8 fish for 16lbs 2.625ozs and their Lloyd Pallet weighed-in the heaviest fish of the day at 2lbs 15oz.

Ireland went next and their team recorded 45 trout for 87lbs 6.375ozs to take third place. Their top rod was Mike Keady with 10 trout for 20lbs 4 ozs which individually put him in third place.

The Scotland team knew that they had more fish than England but the result was decided on weight and they had to wait until their last man had weighed-in to find out that their 66 trout weighed 125lbs 1.125ozs which gave them the Gold medal.

Wales were last to the scales and their 43 trout for 84lbs 10.375ozs put them in fourth place. Their top rod was Gerallt Hughes with 7 fish for 13lbs 12.25ozs

This was Gus Shepherd's first international as the Scotland Team Manager and throughout the practice sessions and the team meetings he had been impressed by the volume of information that had been gleaned by all the team members on how Rutland was fishing and by the effort that had been put in by all of them to identify patterns and areas.

Scotland had three of the top four rods with outstanding performances by Derek Purves, Alan Gilbert and Andy Dunn. Derek Purves was the top individual rod with 12 fish for 23lbs 2.375ozs which won him the Brown Bowl. Alan Gilbert was close behind in second with 11 fish for 21lbs 6.375ozs and Andy Dunn was fourth with 10 fish for 20lbs 0.25ozs. Gus Shepherd was over the moon with his team's performance and when congratulating them he pointed out that it was the work put in by all the team members that was the key to their success.

2015 Gold Medal Spring Team at Rutland

Back Row: Tyler Hay Alan Brock Dererk Purves Chris McAllister Ian Wilson Gus Shepherd(manager) Allan Smith
Front Row: Tom MacTaggart(IFFA President) Ronnie Gilbert Brian Mackenzie Brad Chalmers Kevin McCabe Paul Garner(Captain) Alan Gilbert Andy Dunn Nigel Burns George MacKenzie(International Secretary) Ian Campbell(IFFA Secretary)


2015 Spring International
Rutland Water - 29th May 2015

Position		Fish	Lbs	Ozs
1st	Scotland	66	125	1 1/8
2nd	England	61	118	11
3rd	Ireland	45	87	6 3/8
4th	Wales	43	84	10 3/8

Derek Purves (Bank of Scotland East AC) - Brown Bowl Winner
12 trout for 23lbs 2.375ozs

I was drawn with England Captain Tony Baldwin. He won the toss and as he had charge of the boat he opted to go round the corner from the harbour into the bottom end of East Creek. I hadn't spent a lot of time here during the practice days but knew from others in the Scotland Team that there was fish there. I set up with a 4 fly cast of a Fab , Diawl Bach and Buzzers on a 6 foot midge tip line while Tony had a similar set up.

On our first drift I took one on the buzzer, dropped one on the Fab and on the very next cast picked up another on the Fab. Tony hit a couple on the booby but they did not lock up. We proceeded to repeat this drift and before the wind picked up at 12 o'clock and by that time I had landed 6 and Tony had 4.

photo: Derek Purves receiving the Brown Bowl
from IFFA President Tom MacTaggart

We tried a few more drifts there but in the high winds it was impossible to control our flies properly so we decided to try Yellowstone which had some protection. The Scotland team had found fish at Yellowstone on our practice days so I thought it worth a try. After an absolute soaking in the rollers motoring over it turned out to be a good move. Tony picked up a fish on virtually his first cast and then missed another. We had Yellowstone to ourselves for a time in which I picked up another 5 fish before 14:30. Four of them fell to the Diawl Bach.

As boats started to arrive more Blue caps started to show as well two of which were Alan Gilbert & Andy Dunn both of whom were fishing the bung and picking up fish.

I decided that for the last 40mins I would try this as I had not had a take for a while. After changing I picked up my 12th and last fish at 17:20 on a buzzer and after a struggle as my leader was massively too long a nice Brown trout slipped into the net.

I finished the day with 12 trout to Tony's 8 and many thanks to our boatman on the day Dave Newing who was on hand with the net at all times.

Alan Gilbert (SPRA West AC) - 2nd Place
11 fish for 21lbs 6.375ozs

I was drawn with Pete Kempton of England with boatman Paul Angel (manager of the English autumn team at Lake of Menteith).

I won the toss and knowing the weather forecast was for high winds to pick up by 1200hrs I opted to get fishing as quickly as possible. I turned right outside the jetty and set up a drift immediately off the jetty wall drifting towards the church. Fishing with a bung and buzzers which had worked well on all practice days I picked up 5 fish in three drifts. Pete picked up one fish.

When Pete took control of the engine he headed for East Creek where I picked up one more fish. The wind had now got up and there was a big wave making fishing unpleasant. Pete opted for Yellowstone Bay and some shelter and we headed over there. Yellowstone had already drawn a few boats and I immediately started to pick up the odd fish. I took another 5 in Yellowstone before facing the waves back to the jetty. I Finished 11 - 2 up on Pete and finished the day with the same line, cast and buzzers that I started with.

Andy Dunn (Change FF AC) - 4th Place
10 fish for 20lbs 0.25ozs

After the previous practice days I had set in my mind that if most of the boats turned left towards the East Creek/ New Zealand point I would gamble and head down to Fantasy. 1hr 45 mins later and only one fish in the bag( on a blob pulling a di7) so I decided to leave the two other Scottish boats and head back up to the Berry Butts where I had caught steadily on "the bung" the day before.

By this time it was 13.15 and with the wind picking up the bung and three buzzers went on again and in the first long drift three fish came to the net. This long drift up and down from Gibbets to New Zealand point continued with me picking up another two fish until the wind picked up too much and coloured the inside drift so I suggested one more move.

Yellowstone had three boats moving up and down a drift and with the wind around 20mph some shelter would be found to my 'preferred'method. Short drifts from the corner of Hambleton Point across Yellowstone Bay saw me pick up another six fish but I dropped two at the net trying to bully them in quick.

Before I knew it the clock struck 17.40 so that was time. After passing a few fellow and other nations boats on the way in they had mostly all struggled with the wind so my bag of 10 fish seemed a good day. The Boss ( big gus) was counting us all in and with the totals that were being talked about it sounded promising............. The weigh in confirmed it GOLD.

Massive thanks to all involved with the trip to Rutland especially the team... One of the best yet.....

Alan Brock (Crieff AC) 9th Place
7 fish for 13lbs 3.75ozs

I was drawn with England's Steve Cullen who won the toss and after we discussed options he opted to go to East Creek which I was happy with.

I set up with a Di3 with a fab, two buzzers and a diawl bach and used a steady fig 8 retrieve. I picked up a fish here and a fish there and in that area I had 4 to Steve's 1.

As the wind picked up we tried the Sailing Club and New Zealand Point without success.

From there we moved over to Yellowstone and tucked ourselves in at the corner and tried to hold near the weed bed. I picked up another 3 and Steve picked up 1 there. The last of my fish there was about 3pm. More boats came to Yellowstone with the result that we had to continue drifting further down the bay as we couldn't get back in to where we started.

Kevin McCabe (Change FF AC) 12th Place
6 fish for 11lbs 5.125ozs

I was drawn with Pete Thurnall of Wales and we agreed to start just outside the harbour.

I set up with buzzers and a fab on a midge tip line and we drifted back and forward from the pier area to the church. I picked up 2 on the buzzers and 1 on the fab there while Pete picked up 1.

Pete later called for us to move to New Zealand Point and it seemed to take about an hour to get there. We only stayed for about 15 minutes as it was busy with boats and nothing was doing.

We retruned to our drift from the pier to the church and I picked up another 2. About 4pm we moved to Yellowstone where I dropped a fish and picked up my last one. By then we couldn't get back into the drift and that was end of our day.


Spring International - Rutland 29th May 2015
Scotland Team Individual Placings
( The full result can be seen at www.iffa.net)

Position		Fish	Lbs	Ozs
1	Derek Purves	12	23	2.375
2	Alan Gilbert	11	21	6.375
4	Andy Dunn	10	20	0.25
9	Alan Brock	7	13	3.375
12	Kevin McCabe	6	11	5.125
16	Allan Smith	5	9	9.5
20	Ronnie Gilbert	5	9	0.5
31	Chris McAllister	3	4	11.25
42	Brian Mackenzie	2	3	10.625
43	Paul Garner (captain)	2	3	7.250
48	Bradley Chalmers	1	1	15.5
49	Ian Wilson	1	1	13.125
51	Nigel Burns	1	1	11.875
54	Tyler Hay	0	0	0