11. My team

I have visited four different lakes in the past fortnight and in all of them the fly life has been really good for this time of year. One insect seems to be predominating the interest of the fish that are moving and that is the humble corixa. On my home water Chew Valley, corixa feeders are to be found in most parts of the lake now, but especially in the shallow weedier areas. At Rutland this week I also encountered many corixa feeding trout and I can assure you that they were the big fellows that knew what they wanted to eat. I will come back to those fish later.Let me start in Scotland this week. I took the long road up to Loch Leven last Friday, accompanied by Nick Hart (John Horsey had a couple of bookings on Chew Valley that he felt he needed to honour). Match day was on Saturday and we actually ran three competitions on the same day! I have suggested to John that three on the one day is really difficult to manage and we should not go for more than two next year. However, moans out of the way, it was a great experience yet again to get out on the great loch at such an early hour – Nick and I decided that there was no point in returning to the hotel once the fishermen were all out. We had a drive around, caught a trout apiece at Castle Island, and then moved on to the South Deeps. Here the odd fish that were rising stayed too far away from the boat to be worth spending time on, so we again moved on. Along St. Serfs we saw a few more promising “movers”, but again struggled to get close enough. We carried on driving – slowly, as there was not much ripple, thus ideal spotting conditions. As we rounded the far point of St Serfs (I think that the locals call that area “The Willows”), we saw loads of trout feeding well on the spent Caenis. Soon we were both playing a fish, and without exaggerating, we had one of the most memorable sessions of the past few years. The rainbows of Loch Leven are truly amazing fish. They are beautifully marked, proportioned and they fight like the clappers. In our short session before returning to the hotel for breakfast, Nick and I caught nine of the beauties and a fine brownie too.The competition boys seemed to ignore the area that we went to and very few of them actually saw rising fish during the session. The winning team were the ever-consistent D&B who managed to catch 11 trout between the four anglers. Interestingly, Dave Downie caught his fish in the morning session on dries, as did a couple of the other anglers with respectable bags. Port Glasgow was not too far behind with 10 fish, though almost 5lbs in weight different. Top individual was Iain Lindsay who caught five trout for 10lbs exactly. Iain also landed the largest trout of the session, so the prize shirt for the biggest trout went to Derek Barclay with his 3lb 9oz fishThe day session saw a slightly higher average number of fish caught, but it was also fished over eight hours rather than the six that the earlier session took. The Falcons came out top team boating 17 fish for 25lbs 4oz, and Country Sports qualified in second with ten for 19lbs 5oz. Two anglers tied on top weight, so I had to award the shirt to Craig Cowan who caught eight trout rather than to Alan McGoldrick who caught six to make up their 12lbs 10 oz bags. George Barron had a trout of 3 –13 for best fish.The evening period was grim! The cold easterly wind blew in from the North Sea and killed the fishing. Nick and I gave it a go again and although we both rose at least a dozen fish, neither of us actually landed one of them. Competitors complained of the same problem with lots of fish prepared to come and look but few actually taking the fly. In the end the 48 anglers landed only 31 fish. Top team were Newton Stewart – they were the only team in which all four members caught a fish. Their combined five trout weighed – in at 6lbs 7oz. Neilson FFB came second with only three fish that weighed 5 – 2. Top individual was Frank McShane who had 4lbs 6oz, whilst Callum Crosbie caught the biggest fish weighing 2lbs 5oz. I must say that it was a great relief to get back to the hotel at half past midnight and “hit the sack!” I admire the staying power of our Scottish fishers, you certainly wouldn’t get many anglers around here wanting to go out from 2.30am as they may do at Leven.The English final of The Hardy took place at Rutland on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week. At the time of going to ‘press’, I am awaiting the results of Friday’s competition. I was lucky enough to be fishing on Wednesday, a day which was perfect for fishing. In practice, most of the teams had sussed that there were plenty of fish to caught in the main basin – mostly these would be taken by lure fishing, but there were better fish down the arms feeding on corixa and pin fry. To me there is no option but to go for the feeding fish as there is always the chance of a really big fish at Rutland. I had a most memorable day. I had great company in Ken Wanless of the Northumbrian Badgers, who kindly accepted my decision to head to the end of the South Arm in spite of doing better in practice at Three Trees! I contrived to lose my first two fish, but then caught a couple quickly – both were moving fish feeding on corixae. As I caught my third fish, my old team mate Chris Ogborne came up behind (about 150 metres behind) and ordered us to report in to him. He claimed that we were in breach of the 50 yard rule that Rutland has. I have no wish to cheat in a match and have never attempted to catch fish by foul method, or illegal flies. When ordered to hand over the fish that I had just caught I willingly obliged. But I can assure all readers that I caught it well outside 50 metres. When Chris called us over I was busy undoing the tangle that one inevitably gets when one catches a fish on a top dropper, and hence the boat drifted in closer than it should have. That fish was my best up to then. I was undaunted by that though, as this past year has presented many far more worrying misfortunes to me!! I went back to the far side where I couldn’t possibly be accused of drifting too close and shortly hooked the fish of my season. It was certainly bigger than the 6lb 7oz fish that I caught at Chew a couple of weeks ago. I will never know its true size though as after it had swum around the boat for a couple of minutes it decided that it needed to hit the far bank and quickly! In a flash the trout set off and I had this great pile of flyline hit my bottom ring – Disaster with a capital D. Even that didn’t throw me! I managed to lose two more really good fish – small compared with that one, and I landed three further fish, the best going 3 – 11. My team – a revamped BRFFA came in a disappointing 12th out of 15 teams, but I had a memorable day! The winners were convincingly clear of second placed ACA Masterline in second. Ospreys had done their homework and targeted the stockies in the basin to land 49 fish for 105lbs 10oz. ACA weighed 92lbs 10oz.Day two saw top West Country team Blagdon just pip Bewl Bridge on weight. Both teams had 34 trout, but skipper John Braithwaite suggested that more of their trout were from the South Arm and therefore larger. I will report on day three next week.I have been enjoying my fishing off the bank this season – I try to get to the Barrow Tanks as often as I can. I had one old myth dispelled big time on my last trip there. For years I have been puzzled by the complete lack of sedge pupae in trout in spite of there being so many sedge obviously hatching. I have stated publicly that trout do not eat pupae on our bigger waters – I base that on the fact that I spoon 99% of my fish and have never found more than the odd pupa in the stomach contents. The last two fish that I caught had distended stomachs – full of green and orange sedge pupae. Egg on my face I think!I have to apologise again for not printing the results of our regional qualifier for the National. I was sorry to hear of the sudden illness to Jeff Loud – the regional secretary, who was rushed into hospital last week with a suspected heart attack. I wish him all the best for a speedy recovery.Tight lines for this week!Martin CottisPostscript Note: Update on the HardyHot off the press – the final day of the Hardy competition was predictable as were the other days. I seem to be saying that a lot this season don’t I? Winners were the Weald of Kent, a team who seem more at home on Rutland than their own Bewl Water! They amassed 33 fish. Second place went to locals Cormorants – Dave Shipman’s crew, who between them caught 30 trout. Individual winner on the final day was Paul Canning. I should have reported that Thursday’s individual winner was Ray Burt. One final team to qualify was Fish Hawks who came third on Thursday and had the best percentage of the winning team on that day as compared with third placed teams on Wednesday and Friday.English teams to qualify for the Hardy FinalDay One: OSPREYS A ACA MASTERLINEDay Two: BLAGDON BEWL WATER SPECIALISTS FISH HAWKSDay Three: WEALD OF KENT

CORMORANTS