awwaffic 2008 – another great catch for WaterAid over £21,800 raised 

Winning Team 'Computer Recycling Technologies' Fly Fishers - from left to right, Paul Gibbs (Director of Waste Water Operations Anglian Water), Martin Griffiths (front), Nick Donald (back), Wallace Dickson, Dave Lewis.

Near perfect weather conditions met the 36 teams arriving at Rutland Water from all over the UK  for the seventh Anglian Water WaterAid Fly Fishing Challenge. The scene was set for some excellent fishing for the 130 anglers entered in this years event and a good haul of cash for the charity WaterAid. 

Rutland Water Fly Fishers (RWFF) were on hand again this year to provide support and expert tuition to the 50 novices participating in the event. Novices have been encouraged over the years and this has become both a popular and important feature of awwaffic. It is introducing more people to the fantastic pastime of Fly Fishing each year. 

At the start many of the boats travelled to the top of the south arm around the Manton Bay area and the rest headed for the main basin and dam. Teams got into fish early on, with the help of the 20 RWFF experts afloat, and caught steadily through the day. A change in wind direction and a drop in wind speed made the fishing slightly more difficult in the afternoon. Of the 132 anglers on the water 73 caught 156 fish giving a rod average of 1.2  Fish were caught on mainly Dry Flies and Nymphs on floating lines. 

The winning team (sponsored by Morrison Construction) emerged as Computer Recycling Technologies Fly Fishers from Cheshire with 15 fish for 38lb 0oz. In second place were IWS Wranglers (Lichfield) with 12 fish for 28lb 5oz and third place went to Morrison South Wales with 11 fish for 27lb 10oz. 

The top individual experienced angler (sponsored by Projective Ltd) was Nick Donald from CRT Fly Fishers with 8 fish for 19lb 12oz. Nick also caught the largest fish (sponsored by LES Engineering) of the day a cracking 5lb 7oz rainbow on a dry fly. 

The best individual novice (sponsored by RSK Group PLC) was Carl Dearden (May Gurney) with 6 fish for 12lb 14oz. The largest fish caught by a novice (Sponsored by J N Bentley) weighed in at 3lb 3oz and was landed by Adam Brookes from IWS Wranglers.

The Top Gillie trophy went to Al Owen for the second year running. Al was supporting the IWS Wranglers Team who finished in second place.

A dinner (supplied by Horseshoe Catering, sponsored by May Gurney) was held after the event where Paul Gibbs, Director of Waste Water Services for Anglian Water, presented the winners trophies.  The evening was finished off with an auction (run by Jeff Dale of Oakham auction centre) and a raffle to raise money for WaterAid. 

The total raised by awwaffic 2008 was over £21,800 taking the total raised by the event to over £105,000 in the seven years it has been running. 

Event organisers Chris Evans and Paul Dimbleby would like to thank all those individuals and organisations that have made this years event possible including Anglian Water (particularly AW Fishery staff and AW Volunteers), Rutland Water Fly Fishers (organised by John Wadham and Malcolm March), Nick Flatt (graphics and Photos), WaterAid committee,  Horseshoe catering, the event sponsors, contributors and all the companies who entered teams. 

Results Summary         Individual Places

Photos of the event can be found on Cliff Waters excellent web site www.fishypics.co.uk. 

Next years event will be announced before the end of the year.

Event Sponsors;

Morrison Construction, ABS, Hewitt, Projective Ltd, Cory Environmental, LES Engineering, J N Bentley, RSK, Lintott, Air Technology Ltd, May Gurney, Anglian Water, GPS pipe systems, Bloom and Wake, Claret Civil Engineering Ltd, ICS, n-power, Turner and Townsend.