Scotland celebrated after winning the Bank Fly Fishing Home International at Newhaylie Trout Fishery near Largs.
The six-strong Tartan team totalled 112 points with Ireland second with 135, Wales third on 170 and England fourth on 176.
Ireland’s Sean Kirwan was the best individual angler on the day with 13 fish, seven in the morning session and six post lunch, with Scotland’s captain, Graeme Lynch from Beith, Ayrshire, second with ten fish, seven in the first session and three in the afternoon.
David Neilson of England was third with nine fish (three am and six pm) while Scotland debutant, David Harrington from Uphall Station, was fourth with eight fish (five am and three pm).
Michael Ward (Johnstone) was 12th with five fish and Peter Cowie from Stuartfield in Aberdeenshire 14th.Scotland had four anglers in the top ten, Mark Hopkins from Hamilton, the national champion, was seventh with one fish in the morning session and four in the afternoon, with Kyle Courtney from Drongan, Ayrshire, ninth with one fish am and four post lunch.
Wales were the favourites going into the event but Hywel Morgan, a former world fly casting champion and a consultant to Lanarkshire-based tackle manufacturer, Daiwa, 19th with three fish and Rhys Wadley, a well known face on YouTube, with 20,000 followers, was 21st with two fish.
Lynch said: “I am over the moon, brilliant, and I am very pleased for the boys who have had a tough week. The weather conditions have not been great but we got gold.
“The boys were inexperienced and I am the only man in the team with a previous bank cap. They have worked hard and we have worked well as a team.”
He revealed that the ‘hot’ pegs on practice did not produce and he added: “We were lucky that we picked up fish on the very hard pegs. The conditions were different, morning and afternoon, and there was a bitter, cold wind after lunch.
“This morning was good and it was fishing better but the wind killed it. We were winning at lunchtime and we held on to it. We told the guys to keep at it, we had the flies and we knew the tactics and we didn’t changed anything, we just kept going.”
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