Lexus Fly Fishing Championships

 World Flyfishing Championships

What a busy month August was!  I spent almost 3 weeks in Norway fishing for England in the World Flyfishing Championships.
We finished in 8th place from 25 countries and I had a top 20 placing individually, coming 17th from 128 competitors and becoming Top English Rod.
All but 3 anglers had at least one blank and those 3 ended up in Gold, Silver and Bronze medal positions.  I had just the one blank, but some poor soles had 5 in a row!

The Championships were very hard, with many of the river and lake pegs not producing a single fish for 15 hours of fishing - basically not good enough for a host nation such as Norway, where there are so many great rivers and lakes!
The Norwegian controllers were superb and very friendly.  Scenery spectacular.  Prices of everything were rediculous though.
We didnt complain too much, but I really felt for countries like Australia and the USA who travelled on up to 7 flights and a team spend of around 100,000 dollars to fish bits of lakes and rivers that were completely devoid of fish!

The organising body, FIPS Mouche should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen!

Lexus Team Final

On 23rd and 24th August I returned and ran the Lexus Team Final for 22 Teams and 132 anglers.  Rutland Water was the venue and the match was excellent.
The new Lexus Team Champions are Seighford Sharks, with Harvey Angling Margam runners-up and 3rd were Hanningfield.

Sweden trip

Then it was off to Sweden, with a few days of guiding on Chew before I went.  We were taking the Lexus Prizewinners to fish for trout, pike and other species in an exclusive venue near Ribbinforrs.  Rob Honour and Andrew Esplin were the guests and Martin Founds of Anglers World Holidays provided the holidays as a main sponsor.

Both Rob and Andrew caught trout, pike and perch, while I had a day on Lake Vanern - the biggest freshwater lake in Sweden - and had pike on lures to double figures, but I also had 3 Asp - the biggest of which went over 12lbs.  Asp are predatory fish and this was my first introduction to them.  I certainly want to go back and catch some more - they are awesome!

Lexus Individual Final

A few days after I returned from Sweden, I had the Lexus Individual Final to run on Chew Valley Lake.  100 qualifiers were coming from all corners of the UK, plus Belgium, Norway and France.  Anglers were practicing on Chew for days prior to the Final and the lake fished really well.

The new Lexus Champion is Ben Dobson who runs Stocks and Bankhouse Fly Fisheries in Lancashire.  Ben not only won the car, but had the biggest fish as well so won the holiday prize too.  Well done Ben.

You can read the full story of both the Team and Individual Finals in Trout Fisherman Magazine and on-line in the Total Flyfisher site.

Ireland filming

Next week I go to Ireland to finish filming for the Irish Tourist Board.  Des Taylor and I will be fishing for bream and pike, while Baz Smith will also be joining us for some of the same.  

Guiding on Chew & Blagdon

I've recently been guiding on Chew and Blagdon and both lakes are superb!  Quality trout with loads over 3lbs and most feeding in the top 2 feet of water at the moment.  Dries or Washing Line tactics are the best methods and the back-end looks like being as good as last year - and that was incredible!!!

Once I return from Ireland it will be guiding until the end of the season.

I still have some availability, so if you fancy a day, then please drop me an email.

I am now on Facebook & Twitter and update these social media sites on a daily basis.  

 The last 2 weeks have been pretty hectic.  First I guided each day on Chew and then filmed a "special" on Chew with Keith Arthur and the Sky TV cameras for Tight Lines.
We started off the day fishing for trout and had some cracking rainbows to over 4lbs - with Keith taking the best on a floating line with a Diawl Bach Nymph.
Then we had a go for the pike and both of us had one pretty quickly, but as the day went on, the rain got heavier and heavier.  We were about to call it a day when we landed a beauty - but you'll have to wait until Friday 5th July to see the action on Sky's Tight Lines when I am joining Keith in the Bothy for a "Chew Special" programme.

Ireland and Lough Derg

The very next day I caught the ferry from Liverpool to Dublin and then drove the 3 hours route down to Portumna and the mighty Lough Derg.  At 29 miles long, this is a brute of a lough, but full of fish.  We were filming for the Irish Tourist Board and along with top matchman Baz Simth, we landed over 200lbs of quality roach, bream and roach/bream hybrids over the two day-sessions.

I also lure fished for pike and along with top Irish Guide Dave Harris, we landed plenty of fish with 3 decent doubles and a couple of big fish lost upon the way.

There were also lots of mayfly coming off and I had a few chances at the big brownies, but sadly blew my chances when I was broken twice and then missed the best take of the day by striking too quickly - BAD ANGLING!!!!!

Back to Chew

Lexus Heat on Blagdon

Today I held the first ever Lexus Individual Heat on Blagdon and it was a raging success.  In the sell-out Floating Lines Only Heat, the average catch per rod was 8.5, with an amazing average weight of 2lbs 11ozs.

Top rod was Mark Stevens, who qualified for the Grand Final at Chew in September and won an emboidered Greys jacket and a pair of Ugly Fish Sunglasses.  The other qualifiers, who all won Greys reels were John Piper, Wayne Aitken, Jim Purvis, Mark Thomas, Alex Johnstone, Steve Ebdon and John Glanfield.

The Renegades lead the challenge for Lexus Team Champions 2012 after the 1st day of competition, having amassed the lowest total place points score of 235 points..  22 Teams are battling it out over 2 days here at Rutland Water and the sunny, windy conditions did little to help the elite field of 132 anglers.

Although the fishing was hard, the quality and size of the Rutland trout was extraordinary.  Average weight was 2lb 9ozs and the best fish to the scales was a Brown Trout weighing 7lbs 3ozs and fell to the rod of Trout & Salmon Magazine's editor Andrew Flitcroft.

Top rod on Day 1 was Warren Gain of the Fishhawks, with 6 fish for 20lbs 12ozs, including a 6lb 1oz Rainbow Trout.  Warren was closely followed by Blagdon's Mark Miles with 7 fish for 20lbs 8ozs and Margam's Rob Honour with another 7 fish weighing 19lbs 15ozs.

The match is fished to FIPS Mouche World Rules where points are allocated to individuals based on their position in the match, so no one individual can dominate the Team's results and every team member's contribution counts - with a blank adding 132 points to the Team's score.  So every angler is now trying to avoid the dreaded blank at all costs and team work is everything!

In 2nd place are the reigning Champions, Alba Orvis FF from Scotland with 282 points, 3rd are Anglo Welsh FF with 284 points, 4th Seighford Sharks with 329 points and 5th are Rio Masters with 338 place points.  In 6th place are previous Champions Team Airflo with 342 points, 7th are another previous Lexus Champion Team; the Ospreys, with 342 points, 8th are Sonik Sports Pitsford Pirates with 358 points, 9th are Nymph-O-Maniacs with 367 points and in 10th place are Iain Barr Team Costa with 378 place points.

The conditions at the start of Day 2 were far better, with lighter winds and a cloudy sky.  There was another even split, with boats heading for both Arms and some to the main Basin.  I predict more fish being caught today than the 253 caught yesterday!

On Saturday I ran the Lexus Individual Final on Chew and today (Monday) I am flying out to the USA - Jackson Hole to be specific.

I have been invited by my American World Team friends to share a few stillwater secrets.  Having done the same in Australia, Canada and Tasmania, I had no reservations about doing the same in the US of A!

More of this trip when I return.

Lexus Final a raging success.

We have a new Lexus Champion for 2012 - Alistair MacGillivray from Scotland- and SKY TV were there to record the entire event.  Alistair's name is now the 12th name on the prestigious Lexus Trophy.

Alistair caught his 10 fish limit weighing 26lbs 10ozs by 3:30pm and was the clear winner on what was a cracking fishing day on Chew.  Craig Barr was the only other competitor to take his maximum bag, but it took him until 5:15 to finish and his weight of 23lbs 15ozs meant that Alistair's time bonus got him the ultimate prize in fly fishing - a Lexus RX450 Hydbrid SUV - and what a prize!

The Bronze medal winner was Charlie Abrahams, with 9 trout for 21lbs 6ozs.

The holiday prize for the biggest fish of the Final went to Andrew Esplin for a magnificent 8lb 9oz Brown Trout.  This is the 2nd time on the trot that Andrew has won the holiday prize for the biggest fish of the Final!

In 4th place was Lee Patten, 5th was Peter Andrews, 6th Steve Docherty, 7th Marco Orsi, 8th Lee Bartlett, 9th Alan Williams and 10th was Bill McIlroy.

Lexus Team Final.

The next Lexus Final is the Team Championships, where 132 competitors representing 22 Teams, will be competing at Rutland Water on 15th and 16th September.

More on that in my next blog.