SCOTLAND finished among the medal winners for the first time at the World Fly Fishing Championships yesterday after an amazing final day team recovery.
Hosting the ‘blue riband’ event, the Scottish team under manager George Mackenzie rallied to climb from 9th place on Tuesday to take the bronze medal behind England and France at the top of the scoreboard.
Newton Stewart’s Calum Crosbie took 5th spot in the individual medal table. England’s Ian Barr lifted the gold and with it the title of the world’s top trout angler.
Loch Leven and Loch Awe again provided poor returns – a total of just 12 and 24 fish respectively for 96 rods wielded by some of the world’s best fly fishers – posing questions over their reputation as world-class trout venues.
But it was the Scottish team’s experience of these stillwaters which was to be the decisive factor in helping to produce a medal winning position. While the majority of competitors blanked at the two venues, David Chalmers had three from Loch Leven, while on Loch Awe Donald Forbes was the top rod in Session 1 with two and Calum Crosbie had one in Session 2.
Glasgow’s Forbes had a blistering day, also heading the catch returns in the afternoon session on Lake of Menteith with five fish.
England’s Ian Barr, one of the UK’s most successful competition fly fishers added to his existing haul of competition medals with two golds, in the team and individual awards
Capped 24 times for his country, the Peterborough angler already has two European individual medals and several world team medals to his credit and has consistently proved his form in UK and international matches.