I am fed up hearing about all the bad aspects of comp fishing lets hear some of the good stories and restore my faith that it's still worth doing.

I remember fishing an AW semi at Rutland and was really struggling up in Manton. One of the members of ACA went out of his way to come across and give me a clue, I really appreciated that and it's not the first time that anglers from other teams have helped me out. I have seen this happen on many occassions. The genral conduct of the masses of competition anglers is exemplary.

As far as I am concerned there is no place for cheating or violence in the sport.

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The first competition i fished was the Ulster in 2007 on Lough Erne ,and was paired with a gentleman ,he showed me a few places on Lough Erne i had never been before and realy enjoyed the day out with him we exchanged flies and ideas throughout the day and have kept in touch since and we always have a good yarn when we meet at competitions or out on the lough ,to me making friendships is just as important as taking part in the comp .

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Come when the leaves come,angle with me,Come when the bees hum,crossing the lea,Come to discover the angling delights,of the Melvin with me.

Great thread Simmo and a great idea. There is much much more good in comp fishing than there is bad.

One thing that stood out for me this season was at the Irish National Championships on Lough Owel.

I was paired with ITFFA Chairman, John Behan, one of life's true gentlemen and a proper talking machine. Our guille for the day was my good friend and drinking partner (the Grasshopper) Anyway it was proving to be a tough day with the odd fish being caught.

John had already caught a lovely Owel fish of about 2 lbs+. We were motoring back to come around on the drift again and I was on the engine. As we motored up, John's flies were hanging just over my shoulder with the point fly bouncing on the waves, just about four feet from the engine. What I saw next I had never seen before. A fish came up and took John's fly as we motored, at pretty much full speed.

But the great thing about this story is that as soon as John hooked the fish the words that came out of his mouth were "It's going back". I know i would have done exactly the same thing as many many others would have done, but it was extremely refreshing to witness this myself.

A few hours later John was rewarded with the heaviest fish of the day, a lovely 3.5lbs Wild Lough Owel trout. John won the trophy for heaviest rout and finished second overall qualifying for the 2010 Autumn International. It turned out if he had of bent the rules and killed the fish and counted it that he would have been Irish National Champion, but that didnt happen and what actually happened is much much better to hear.

It makes me sick to my teeth to hear stories of cheating or violence in fishing. I suppose thats why I stand up against it so much on these forums, mabye sometimes, too much . But there is a much much greater side to comp fishing. I have met many many friends through comp fishing including some of my closest friends. Friends that hopefully I will have for life and friends that I would never have met if it were not for comp fishing.

So again, great thread Simmo, lets here you stories boys and girls even the funny & dirty ones.

OO

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Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate
YOU DONT NEED EYES TO SEE YOU NEED VISION

Good story OO, just shows honesty is the best policy.

A wild brown taking at full throttle I remember earlier this year I got the strangest thing ever in a match I was motoring at full speed at Stocks and hooked into a good stockie blue with a size 14 buzzer on the dropper - couldn't believe my eyes the hook was right in the scissors. Needless to say although my boat partner said take it I shook it off the hook pretty sharpish. If only the b**** would have taken on the drift instead It certainly wakes you up when your line tightens at full throttle!

Sam

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see "eliteflies" username, for all my products thanks.

I remember fishing a National Prelim at Carron, fishing across Carron Bay and hitting plenty fish on DI7`s (my line was a Rio 7 at the time) by Boat partner bagged up (it was a time bonus that day) and I had 3 fish to get.......my line went into a ball that was not for coming out......knackered............switched to a DI5 not an offer for about 30mins when my boat partner offered me his DI7............bit his hand off and got my remaining 3 fish within 20mins........

He didnt need to do this but i was very grateful.................he`s also a forum member..............remember that day?

I must at admit 99% of the time I have an open flybox in comps and i feel its better to work together than the secret squirrel stuff..........

Gus Shepherd

I've not done to many comps myself, but I've never seen anything remotely bad in any of the ones I've fished. In fact I can't remember ever having more fun when fishing.

Well said John,
I have had many good experiences, and shared many a talks with anglers about flies, tactics etc. The best was at the World Champs got talking to a czech guy and he gave me some of his flies and said how he would fish them.... he didnt need to show me, but he was a great guy!!

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Please......Just one more cast

One of my favourite stories did not happen in a match and I don't recall the anglers involved, but it goes along the lines...... of a bank angler fishing of the dam at Grafham without much luck while the boat guys are having it away about a hundred meters of the dam. The guys in the boat felt a bit sorry for the guy on the bank and motored towards him with the offer of taking his flies out to the distance the fish were. They explained that it had to be fished super slow, and the takes would come. The bankie duley accepted the offer and cast his flies into the boat. The boys motored out to the extend of the guys fly line and backing and gave him the thunbs up. After half an hour the bank angler had retrieved all his line with no takes. It was only after another ten minutes he realised he had no flies on .....The boat guys had had them away before dropping the line in the water. Aparently they were all good freinds and were having a laugh, don't know if I would have found it funny at the time but in hind sight it's a cracker

When does the season start again

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http://www.iflyfish.info

Thats a cracker Simmo,some great yarns there,great to see a positive thread on competition fishing,sometimes its all the taken to seriously and we can miss the bigger picture ie.the enjoyment of this wonderful sport we have.
Jeez that day with OO is a day ill never forget,was a heat wave all week,flat calm and sunny and up to 26 degrees prior to the match,then on match day,hard icy north winds ,bucketed down all day and 7 degrees,the coldest day ive ever spent in a boat and to make things worse we had no whiskey in the boat.

I know mate, at one point I thought the three of us were going to start hugging each other to keep warm

That was a serious soaking you gave me on the ride back up the lough Dont think ive ever been as cold in June and felt such warm water in my face every 10 seconds

But as usual we had a laugh. Still remember when you left your phone on the shore, at lunch and you used my phone to ring Brian to see if he could find it. But you pressed the re dial button on my phone and rang my house by mistake. But it was when you told me that some black fella answered, that I nearly fell out of the boat In fact so did you m8 cause you were laughing so much.

---------- Post added at 06:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:48 PM ----------

Truly brilliant Simmo.

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Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate
YOU DONT NEED EYES TO SEE YOU NEED VISION