Source: Angling Trust / England Youth Flyfishing
The 2013 England Youth International fly fishing team headed to Llyn Brenig in North Wales hoping to defend the gold medals they had won the previous year in Ireland. With eight new caps in the team it wouldn’t be easy but the team was well prepared and up for the challenge.
Practice had shown the fish to be deep – very deep. However, cooler weather before the championships resulted in the fish moving up in the water where became far easier to catch.
Official practice saw all teams catch well. The England lads all caught and a pattern started to emerge. After the second day’s practice, areas were confirmed and tactics finalised.
The lads found some large pods of fish that the other teams didn’t seem to know about and these areas were ‘banned’ during the second day’s practice with just an occasional cast allowed to prove they had not moved. It was also noticed that once a couple of fish had been caught from an area that it would go dead; to combat this the team plan was to never repeat a drift and to find clean water.
During practice it was also noted that early on the fish would readily take a fly moved on the surface but as the day wore on they became more reluctant to take a fly if it wasn’t down at their cruising level. Having observed fish cruising in the wooded bays it was ascertained that the fish were cruising 4-6ft down. Di3 sweep was the most effective line with coral & white Humungus Boobies the deadly flies.
Match day arrived and the lads were met with light winds and cloud cover – perfect!
The fleet split to all parts of the lake and after just 45 minutes news began to filter through that England lads already had 8, 6 and 5 in just three boats. Keeping those pods of fish quiet appeared to have worked! After a nervous and seemingly long day on the bank for the coaching team and parents the lads came back to the boat dock exhausted.
The England team had put together a total of 64 fish……was it enough?
The result:
England 145lb 10.25oz
Wales 132lb 2.5oz
Scotland 128lb 3oz
Ireland 80lb 3.25oz.
England also had the Brown Bowl winner for the 4th year in a row. An outstanding performance by Tom Adamson saw him take the individual title with a haul of 11 fish for 23lb 9oz. Other outstanding performances in the England team were recorded by Oliver Avis (11 fish) and Adam Worker (9 fish). It was Alex Waddington who caught the overall biggest fish at 3lb 9oz. That said it was the team performance that won the gold medal with England the only team not to record a blank.
After a celebratory dip in the lake the team headed back to Llangollen for the presentations at the White Waters Hotel.
To read the full story visit the England Youth Flyfishing website HERE
