Tight lines, Martin Cottis

Day One Registration was at 10.30 a.m., with the rather long briefing at 11.30. Each team collected a goodie-bag which contained vouchers for special discounts on the Nomad range of clothing and fishing accessories, such as two boxes of Kamasan hooks, two spools of Kamasan double strength line and information on the Peregrine range of trout rods. The organisers had a mild panic attack when all four members of Aberaeron A.C. failed to register, but were mightily relieved to see their two cars arrive at 11.25 believing it to be a two o’clock start! The briefing over, the anglers took to the boats. Only local Lester Booth had to change boats, he had managed to get into the electric start – Jon Marshall was to have none of that! There was a fairly even split between the South Arm and the Main Basin. Just five boats ventured up the North Arm. This was quite an interesting split as, with the pressure of 40 boats at the end of the South Arm, and the water being still pretty clear, it would be interesting to see if that area would fish for long. It turned out that there were actually three quite different areas targeted by the boats that headed off that way. The Bunds wall was probably just about the favourite, but many boats drifted between Browns Island and the Green Bank and of course, there was a good number in Manton Bay. There was little chopping and changing during the day. With an eight o’clock finish, most of the anglers were hoping for a good rise to top up their daytime bags. The organisers, sponsors and fisheries staff had plenty to do during the day but still found time for an alfresco lunch! Incidentally, as we were enjoying our lunch on the harbour breakwater, we were entertained by one of Rutlands ospreys as it quartered the water looking for a trout for its own meal. In the late afternoon, once I had finished all of the work that I needed to complete on the computer, I took Phillip Wright out in the spare boat as he had never fished Rutland before. We were more interested in checking a few of the competitors flies – match organisers generally do a few random checks and to see how the fishing was progressing, but I still took out my rod and waistcoat! Fly checks completed (all the anglers we looked at were using very tidy flies well below the legal limit) we had a good look around the lake and briefly chatted to a few of the competitors. It seemed that they had been having mixed fortune. Rumour had it that Tony Curtis had caught his limit, we met a couple of anglers with seven or eight fish in the boat, but mostly there were bags of two or three plus the odd blank. I mentioned that I was out in the boat with Phillip Wright. Now, Phillip is the owner/manager of Nomad U.K. the company that has kindly co-sponsored the event. Through Phillip’s generosity, every team that had qualified in an earlier round for the final had already won a prize (teams in first place on each day won fleeces, whilst any other team to go through won hip-flasks). The first three teams in the final would all win one of Nomads amazing waterproof fleeces surely a revolutionary concept? These garments retail at over £150, so you can see how much Phillip and his company contributed to the event! On our return to the harbour, I couldn’t resist a brief fish – my excuse was that I had to show Phillip my stillwater dry-fly technique! I quickly tackled up and slowly motored down the arm looking for signs of moving fish. It was now six-thirty so we were expecting to see the odd fish on the surface. The wind was dropping and lovely oily slicks were appearing. I looked around Berrybutts nothing, Yellowstone nothing, then over to one of my favourite spots, New Zealand Point. As I stopped the boat we saw a fish move, then another. They were right on the point, only just off the weed beds. As we drifted past, I rose a fish but missed it. Back up to drift past them again and this time I covered a fish which very gently supped in the point fly. A typically strong fighting Rutland fish of just over three pounds was soon played out and released without being touched. We had proved our point! Dries would certainly work during this evening session. As we motored in slowly, we were amazed by the number of fish that the boat disturbed. Just outside the harbour was the biggest concentration of fish. Any angler returning early and fishing out the last half hour around here would surely catch a few! Mark Miles almost ended his first day in glory just there! He had decided to have a few minutes outside the harbour and managed to hook a huge trout, which ran round the boat several times before he lost it. He was still in a state of shock when he came to the weigh-in. As eight o’clock approached, the majority of boats were within sight. We were blessed with an amazing sunset. This, coupled with the fleet advancing on the harbour, made for an image which will stay in my mind for a long time. The weigh-in was soon to commence; thirty-five teams, one hundred and forty anglers. How long would this take? It actually took just over the hour for the weighing, and ten further minutes to work out and check through the results. The anglers were treated to either curry or chilli with rice, with the half-way results given out before they left. Day one of the final saw 563 fish brought to the scales. This represented an average of just over 4 fish per angler. The leading team on the first day was the local Cormorant Fly Fishers. They provided top bag in Tony Curtis who caught his eight fish, then returned a further four and then had a time bonus to add on! This gave him 28lbs 5oz, a pretty respectable return! Dave Shipman wasn’t far behind him with 11 fish. Blagdon Flyfishers were in second place, with consistent team weights, whilst Bob Church Tackle were FOUR OUNCES behind them. Surprise team on day one were the French team APNLE, who were lying sixth overall. Most teams went back to their digs and sorted out tactics for day two. It seemed that all areas of the lake produced fish. Tony Curtis fished in the main basin, Dave Shipman fished at the Bunds. There were three good bags from the North Arm. Day two with its six o’clock start was going to be most interesting. Not many teams had taken advantage of Rutland’s special early morning sessions. Would the Basin produce top bag again? Would there be so few boats in the North Arm? Could the Bunds cope with all those boats again? We were soon to find out. The competition started with as little fuss as any I have ever taken part in. The anglers turned up, registered, found their boat, their partner, decided where to fish and at the appointed time, off they went. There was a much more even split for this early morning start than there was for the first day. It was virtually one-third to the North, one-third to the South and one-third to the Basin. With all the organisational aspects under control, John and I decided that we would love to fish Rutland early in the morning. We checked with Jon Marshall that we could take boat 66, the spare one with the electric starter. He assured us that we could, but suggested that Nathan had the keys to the petrol store, so we would have trouble using the motor without petrol. Luckily he was able to collect the keys within the hour, so we were still out early. We motored slowly along the South Arm. It was still. There was little evidence of fish moving. We carried on. We went to check the boats. Past Browns Island and right up to the Bunds. Plenty of boats and at last we started seeing fish topping. Unfortunately they were oncers – in other words, they would only move once, making it very difficult to work out in which direction they were moving. We saw a few fish being caught. Chris Guthrie was tucked right into the corner and he had three fish in very quick succession. He actually went on to build up a respectable bag and end up fourth individual. We saw Dave Shipman net a couple of fish, whilst another angler had three fish in ten minutes – we couldn’t identify him! John and I left this group, to find some quieter water near Browns Island. Immediately we were into fish. Using our favourite red and claret bits, between us we managed to catch six fish in about forty minutes. All except one of the fish was over three pounds. We returned to the harbour and thence to our digs to settle our bill. We sorted out all of the arrangements for the afternoon presentation, helped to wash the dishes from the previous evening, checked through the software and generally started to get worried about things! When the anglers returned we discovered that the fishing had been tougher than the previous day. There were a few more blanks and a rod average of three and a quarter. Dave Shipman had ably led his team to the top prize by catching the only limit bag of the day, his 28lbs 6oz leading him to the overall top bag over the two days. Andrew Green caught a magnificent brownie of 5lbs 14oz to claim the prize for the heaviest fish. Below are the weights of the top six teams: 1. CORMORANT FLY FISHERS 63 fish 134lbs 6oz 2. BLAGDON FLYFISHERS 49 fish 108lbs 11oz 3. BOB CHURCH TACKLE 51 fish 107lbs 3oz 4. TIGHT LINES DIRECT 47 fish 106lbs 12oz 5. BEWL BRIDGE FF 46 fish 95lbs 7oz 6. APNLE 39 fish 95lbs 7oz The fact that the French team APNLE came sixth surprised most of the competitors, but when you consider that they had booked local guide Graham Pearson to take them out on the water for several days before the event, things drop into place. Individually, the top six look like this: 1. Dave Shipman 23 fish 49lbs 7 oz 2. Tony Curtis 20 fish 44lbs 10 oz 3. Fabrice Monnel 18 fish 44lbs 2oz 4. Chris Guthrie 16 fish 38lbs 3oz 5. Pete Johnson 17 fish 36lbs 10oz 6. Ed Foster 16 fish 35lbs 4oz At the presentation, there were thanks all round. Prizes were awarded, meals were eaten and plenty of wine was drunk! A lovely touch was shown by Dave Shipman who, when collecting his prize for overall top rod, suggested that this was the friendliest competition that he had ever fished. The staff at Rutland received a special award, and plenty of cheers from the anglers present. Personally, I have to say that Jon Marshall and his assistants are the most amazingly hard workers that I have encountered. They were on duty from dawn till dusk, They helped in all areas and were encouraging to anglers and organisers. They really deserve all the credit that they can get. The standard of fish that were caught was also very high, Rutland certainly is setting the mark for other waters to follow! The season has been most enjoyable for me and included my first attempt at helping to organise an event like this. Almost all of it was a pleasure, but I must say that the power failure as I was working out the final placings almost gave me a heart attack! Fortunately, I lost very little time as I had saved the data just seconds before! Finally, thanks to the two sponsors: PEREGRINE and NOMAD UK, as without their generous support this event would not be able to take place. I am off to the West Coast of Ireland for a weeks guiding, so I may have some news of that visit in future articles. Next month I will give a report on the National and the Hardy Final.

Tight lines, Martin Cottis