Scotland “B” Team Captain’s report.
The 2007 Species Championship was fished over two day’s fishing from Vestmannaeyjar (Westman) Islands, Iceland.
 |
 |
|
Harbour almost closed by 1974 volcanic eruption |
2007 Euro Species Champion |
Transport to Keflavik from Inverness via either Gatwick or direct from Glasgow was used with the only hold up reported being the inevitable queues at Gatwick. No problems being encountered once in Iceland. Weather for the duration of our stay was remarkably good with calm seas and sunshine. The boats were from the local fishing fleet and carried 3 to 7 anglers each. Icelandair gave a most valuable 20Kg baggage allowance, greatly appreciated considering we all were correctly kitted out in uniforms, foul weather gear and casual gear as and when required.
101 international anglers from Belgium (A and B teams), Denmark (A team), England (A and B teams), Iceland (A and B teams), Ireland (A and B teams), Norway (A team), Russia (A and B teams), Scotland (A and B teams), Wales (A team), Italy, Canada and Switzerland competed in the event.
From team talks following practise day, tactics adopted were to target Haddock if the boats were seeing good numbers otherwise target Tusk and hopefully pick up a Ling or Catfish. Haddock in the 2 – 3 Kg class around 50 metres deep tended to be more plentiful to the boats venturing South from the harbour. Tusk tended to be more plentiful in up to 100 metres water for the boats travelling North. Ling were taken in the deeper water along with Tusk. Catfish being taken in slightly shallower water. Landing a third species on the day made a huge difference to scores and for several anglers was the only difference between boat winner and also ran.
Simple two up tangle free rigs proved ideal for Haddock with the other species being caught on two down or spreader rigs which proved most successful. Bait provided was four Squids and ten Herrings. I found the Herring best if wrapped. Squid head being my most successful bait. Tusk definitely seemed to prefer Squid. From practise day we found Whiting and Coallie flank made excellent bait for Tusk with the added attraction that it stayed on the hook.
Fishing targeted four species and points were awarded for each fish landed: Ling 15 points, Catfish 12 points, Tusk 8 points & Haddock 5 points with a limit of 25 fish of each species. In addition 30 points were awarded for each in size species landed. Cods, Whiting, Coalfish and two types of Redfish tended to make a nuisance of themselves as they did not count in the competition.
Assembly each morning was at a very early 0600 hrs on the pier and fishing was from 0700 hrs to 1500 hrs each day. Quality of fishing could only be described as wonderful and shows what the UK used to own until that simpleton law lord from Ullapool removed the UK 3 mile limit in 1986. Iceland retains her 3 mile no trawling limit and a very profitable commercial industry.
Any report on this perfectly organised competition would not be complete without reference to the overall results of the Scottish contingent. I say contingent as in addition to two teams we included photographer Joe and kilt attired standard bearer Hamish with wife.
Scotland’s Results:
2007 Species Champion: Dougie McKendrick. Inverness. Scotland “B”
2007 Pairs Champions: Dave Proudfoot & Derek Yuille. Both Thurso & Scotland “A”.
2007 Team Champions: Scotland “A”. Dave Proudfoot & Derek Yuille. Both Thurso. Bill Murray, Edinburgh. Donald Morrison, Stornoway and Robbie Robertson, Luchars.
2007 Senior Champion: Dan Mackay. Inverness. Scotland “B”
2007 OpenTeam: Alastair Forsyth Scotland “B” and Robbie Robertson Scotland “A” Geir Solland, Norway and Nigel Hearn, England.
Scotland “A” was clear gold medal winner, dropping only 5 points out of a possible 800. A tremendous score. After that the places became very tight. The difference between silver medal and Scotland “B” in 5th place was only 13 points out of a possible 800 and the difference to bronze medal was only 5 points. One more fish! Considering our “B” team included two anglers fishing at this level for the first time, an excellent result and overall a fantastic result. The best result at European level Scotland has achieved for a long time.
| Dougie McKendrick | Inverness | 100% | 100% | 1st |
| Alastair Forsyth | Inverness | 100% | 88.58% | 16th |
| Dan McKay | Inverness | 74.19% | 100% | 31st |
| Raymond McKay | Inverness | 51.18% | 94.15% | 54th |
| Iain Ferguson | Inverness | 68.84% | 63.56% | 69th |
