As always there is a
qualifying match each year (The England Ladies National Championship)
Qualifying criteria has changed in that only 8 qualify automatically
on the result of the match . It is then at the Manager’s discretion
to pick the rest of the team from CV’s sent in by those who failed
to qualify or who were unable to fish at the National Championship.
I did not automatically
qualify. My fishing for wild brownies is limited so l was not a
first choice thereafter. Still, I had put my CV in and sadly some
of those selected had to drop out owing to injury or personal
reasons. So I got a last minute call from our Manager, Chris Bobby,
asking if there was any chance of my getting to Carron Valley
Reservoir for the Home International to take place on the 26th
May 2016. This was an opportunity I decided must not be missed!
It was a perfect excuse
to leave my other half to deal with painters for the week I was to be
away, and a slight mishap, slipping in the garage while packing the
car to go, resulted in a couple of cracked ribs! However my country
called and I made it for two friendly and two official days
practice.
It was a great honour
to represent England and gain my third cap, and to do this in
Scotland in such magic surroundings as Carron Valley was just a dream
come true. Being unable to join the team immediately it was my good
fortune to miss the wettest day and only experience lesser extremes
of weather, wet, cold and hot. I have to say that the wind at times
was the biggest challenge.
On nice clear days the
scenery was just magical with fabulous viewings of Osprey, many
Oyster catchers and plenty more - including catching my first ever
Powan (something I had never even heard of before). It all added to
the joy of this wonderful experience.
Team mates were all
great and special mention has to go to Tricia Cooke – the only new
cap in our team this year. Tricia started fly fishing by
participating in a “Casting for Recovery” retreat about 3 years
ago. It is just fabulous what CFR does for women who have had or are
suffering from Breast Cancer. To have one lady come this far so
quickly is special indeed. Congratulations Tricia.
Match day dawns and I
am drawn with a Scottish Lady. This slightly unnerved me as I felt
they were the main competition, and this proved to be so. Still, if
they knew where the fish were hopefully I might catch a few of them!?
Nothing venture nothing gained!
My day was great as I
landed 8 fish, but one was undersize and two were Powan which did
not count, so I only counted 5 - which bettered my boat partner who
had 2. We had a charming Boatman and the day passed very quickly. I
was shattered going back to car park with all my gear having put my
all into the day!
I was pleased with my
personal performance being 15th
out of the 48 fishing and 4th
within our own team. All fish were measured by the boatman before
being released. Scotland won with two ladies having large bags of
fish measuring far more than the rest of us, and Ireland beat
England into bronze position.
Scotland
71 fish total length 2694 cm, best fish 55cm, best bag 17 fish =
666cm
England
40 fish “ “ 1291 cm
Wales
35 fish “ “ 1224 cm
Rosemary
Gunn - England - 5 Fish – 171cm Longest fish 44 Total
length 171cm
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