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SCOTLAND WIN GOLD AT SPRING INTERNATIONAL
LOCH CONN IRELAND MAY 14TH 2010
Three members of the Orkney Trout Fishing Association - Sandy McConnachie, Erlend Hutchison and Brian Watt - were part of the Scotland team that won the gold on Loch Conn, County Mayo, Ireland on the 14th May 2010. They took their place by virtue of winning through the qualification process the previous year
Loch Conn is a 12000 acre wild brown trout fishery and it was hoped that the experience of fishing for wild brown trout in the Orkney lochs would help the Scotland team to hit the ground running. Unfortunately the only thing in common was the wild brown trout. Where fishing in Orkney is sometimes fast and furious on Conn it was the exact other end of the spectrum, with fish so hard to come by it was often felt there were no fish in the loch.
Although it was a one day match of 8 hours the teams had three days to practice. It soon became evident that very few fish would be required to secure a win, the problem was how were they going to be caught.
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Erlend Hutchison , Brian Watt and Sandy McConnachie |
Following the practice sessions and painstaking attention to even the smallest detail Scotland had formulated a plan. A large amount of credit for this work has to go the Scotland officials, John Ross Manager, Tom MacTagart, George MacKenzie and
Stan Headley
Sandy McConnachie, said it was the hardest fishing he’d ever experienced and managed only one fish for four days fishing, thankfully it came on the day of the match. It was a total team effort with everyone pitching in with information, fly tying ETC. Sandy was particularly pleased that the flies he tied had accounted for a fair percentage of the Scotland catch.
The final result was calculated on a points basis but I wont bore you with the details.
Numbers of fish caught per 14 man team were: Scotland 20, Ireland 18 Wales 17,England 13
There were also two anglers from Shetland in the Scotland team - Stevie Leask and Davie MacMillan, stevie won the phoenix salver for the best catch in the Scotland team.
The spring international will be held on Harray Loch on the 10th June 2011, so let hope a few Orkney anglers once again find there way through the qualification process to represent their country on home water.