On Thursday 6th June the 31st Ladies Loch Style Fly Fishing International was held for the first time at Draycote Water, one of England’s top competition venues.
England were convincing winners with 54 fish. A fine team performance saw them take Gold with nearly twice as many fish as Ireland who were second with 28 fish. In tricky conditions Scotland had 18 fish and Wales, the winners of last year’s Ladies International held at Llyn Clywedog, took the wooden spoon with 17 fish.
The ladies had found strong fighting rainbows all over Draycote during the two days of official practice, but conditions changed on match day and a hailstorm battered the Warwickshire reservoir so the fishing during the match was trickier.
The overall top rod and Brown Bowl went to Gwyneth Mooney of England who used the bung method to land eight fish in often choppy conditions. The match was fished fully to catch and release with the length of all fish measured by the boatmen. Lianne Frost of England took the Longest Fish trophy with a fine rainbow of 58 cm. England Captain, Louise Callow, received the trophy and said how proud she was of the team performance, especially the sharing of information during the match. Anglers from all teams commented on the high quality of the fishery.
England will be hoping to defend their title when the Ladies meet again in Scotland for the 2020 International.
