So I was controlling today for the Scottish rivers championship on the River Tummel. A controller is essentially someone that tags along with the angler making sure that they start and stop when required, are fishing with the correct hook size and measure all fish caught. I also got to carry the spare rod.
In most competitions fish are measured for length then returned alive to the water, scores are given by awarding points for everycentimeter of each fish’s length plus points for each fish caught. Scores are then tallied up and the highest scores transferred into a possible place in the final. The day was split up into four sessions. A blank in any one session can effectively kill off any chance of winning; two would almost certainly put an angler out of qualifying.
I was controlling for David Chalmers who scraped through although to be fair the fishing was hard and a few people blanked so a mighty fair play to him. I am also a little bit fitter as my tiny legs had to work twice as hard to keep up with Davy dashing from place to place.
Has it made me want to fish a competition? To be honest maybe just the one but a lot of these guys do it quite a lot and I don’t think I could put up with the stress of thinking that losing a fish would also mean I had lost the competition. However, if there is anyone out there that fishes the fly on the Kelvin and wants to give it a bash next year and represent the club let me know ïŠ
Tummel looks like a lovely big river. Is it near to where you live?
It is around 1.5 hours from Glasgow, I have only been a couple of times- planning a wee evening session this year at some point 🙂