Early Days.   Thanks to Steve Dawes

In my earlier days I lived and worked in Tewkesbury and my first job was at Masterline the fly line manufacturers , through the late 70’s and early 80’s the company was changing and a new marketing man was put in place Bruce Vaughn who later went on to set up Wychwood tackle , one of Bruce’s earliest ideas was to set up an international trout competition , the inaugural event was at Witcombe lakes below Birdlip outside Gloucester, the day started with teams from all 4 nations being invited I had the pleasure of being chief weigh in official, an hour before the whistle England found they only had 7 of the 8 rods required , Bruce asked me if I wanted to fish for England , of course I would , having fished Witcombe a lot I had a good knowledge of the best spot , I then amazingly drew number 1 , I walked round the lake to my favoured spot with 31 anglers muttering who is this lad walking behind me up until I dropped my net on the bank and watched them scurry past , during the match Bruce wandered around talking to the guys and eventually got to me “ how you getting on “ was the question 7 fish was my reply “ whaaaat hardly anyone is catching” was the reply , I knew one guy was catching because he was opposite me fishing off the road casting under a power line and over a fence right where the fish were stocked in the lake , he knew somehow, 5 hours later the weights were in I had 10 fish for 31lb he had 16 for 33lb , I was runner up 2nd to 31 international trout anglers my MD was chuffed to present me with a new rod and reel , soon after this Ryobi bought into the company and I left to pursue other ideas, a great little company in the early day’s with great bosses .


nb   This post reminds me of the days when Masterline ran an annual competition at Rutland called the Masterline Classic.   Somehow Danny Price from the Three Counties Hotel and I managed to get a last minute ticket for the match,   No idea of the year but decades ago.
We arrived to find the draw had been made which had not included us as last minute entries so they allowed us to fish together.

We went down the South Arm of the reservoir and fished around browns island.  If was a good fishing day,  the fish were up for it and took a good liking to out dry seals fur |Shipmans buzzers that we were always using at Blagdon and Chew.   By mid afternoon I had my limit and sat and spotted fish for Danny who was only recently into reservoir fishing.  To cut a long story short he got his limit too and we finished early.  Turns out I won the match and Danny was third or fourth.  Never fished the match again and not sure how many years they continued it but Masterline was a top company then.  No idea whatsoever what the prize was.