Edinburgh teenager Eryk Janik goes for gold as Scotland’s shore angling team open their campaign in the Home Nations sea angling championship in Northern Ireland from Tuesday, July 1.
The Trinity Academy pupil (pictured) is in a four-strong team which also includes Jai McKinney, Louis Wemyss and Frankie Hamilton. The manager is Nuno Santos with Billy Buckley, a Scotland international and world championship competitor, as his assistant.
Ian Campbell from Falkirk earns his second cap after winning silver 12 months ago, Scotland cruelly denied on fish countback over two days at Riverside Drive in Dundee.
Campbell, who is retail manager for Edinburgh Angling Centre in Granton, casts a line alongside David Neil, a well-known bait supplier, and Brian Maxwell, both from Ayr, plus Bruce McLean from Stranraer.
This time, fishing is over three days at two venues, an estuary on two of the days and a beach for one and .
Scotland’s squad also includes debutant, Arbroath-based Stewart Falconer, a regular attender in the Edinburgh Winter and New Year sea fishing matches in and around the Capital.
He has been a fishing buddy of Campbell for around 30 years and Scotland are fielding a strong team as they bid for gold in Coleraine.
Campbell said: “We’re competing against the best in Britain here and to win gold we will have to be at our best over the three days.”
The anglers fish the Foyle Estuary near Coleraine on the first and last day, fishing between 11.00 and 15.00 on Tuesday and 11.30 and 15.30 on the Thursday, and cast a line on Benone Beach on Day 2. Fishing there is from 18.00 to 22.00.
The squad are doing their homework on the venues and Campbell said: “Two of the boys have fished Benone before. It is a shallow beach and the Foyle Estuary is a big basin, not like the Forth or the Tay, and so we don’t expect the tide to run hard.
“We also don’t expect to have to cast a long distance, but we will if we have to.”
There are no ladies from the Lothians in the women’s team now that Buffy McAvoy has moved from Edinburgh to Fife but they are also anxious to make a real impression. The team is Gill Coutts, Joanne Barlow, Lesley Maby and debutant, Margo Robinson, a member of Scotland’s world championship fly fishing team. Manager is Kevin Lewis.
