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Ayrstrike could be Scotlands answer to Fish 'o' Mania

Dynamite Baits Sponsors what could eventually be the Scottish equivalent of Fish'o'mania!

16 qualifiers in 10 weeks and a nail biting final, Chairman of the SFCA – Gus Brindle – gives us his personal accounts of the Ayrstrike 2008 Final which took place on Sunday 25th May.

Despite the less than ideal conditions on Sunday (it was bright sunshine and blowing and absloute gale making any sort of presentation almost impossible) I think that the final was brilliant. The feedback I am getting from the finalists and spectators on the day was extremely positive with many stating that those who didn't enter or come along on the day missed a great event. The low weights if anything added to the excitement as right up until the last hour anyone who managed to latch onto one of the venues big tench of carp could have won it. Indeed 19 year old Mark Lyons was a good example.  After the free lance journalist crushed his No 8 secton he feed a new tench line at 6 mtr and in the last hour landed one for 2.700kg to move into second place and win the heaviest fish prize.

On behalf of everyone associated with the event, I would like to open by again formally congratulating David McAuley on a great result yesterday, to become the first Ayrstrike Champion and collect a cool £3000.00 in the process.  I would also like to congratulate Mark Lyons, who showed a lot of composure after his No 8 section was broken to change tactics and land the biggest fish of the day to collect a cheque for £225.00.

Despite having to cram in 16 qualifiers in less than 10 weeks, at the worst time of the year for coarse fishing in Scotland, 73 anglers have participated in the competition buying 215 tickets. I therefore strongly believe that the event has been a huge success, capturing the imagination and bringing a lot of anglers back out onto the bank to compete.  On the Magiscroft Forum alone there have been 34 separate Ayrstrike topics with 504 separate posts which have been viewed almost 7500 times over a 16 week period.  And, if the number of emails, texts and calls I have received since the final hooter sounded yesterday is anything to go by, individuals are already looking forward to the next one and tickets will be in great demand.

It must however be recognised, that without the assistance of a number of key individuals and organisations this event would have never got off the ground.  I would therefore, on behalf of the whole Federation, like to take this opportunity to formally thank; the staff of the Liz Hobbs group for their hard work, not only this weekend but during the whole build up to the event, and particularly Liz Hobbs MBE as without her vision, drive and determination that this event could succeed it would probably have been shelved in the planning stages.

Thank you to ‘fishscotland’ for setting up and allowing us to use a ‘clients’ account for all of the entry fees and for providing and lovely shield to use for the winners for years to come, and particularly Iain Woods for all of his assistance.

A big thanks to Dynamite Baits for providing caps and goodie bags for all of the finalists and prizes for the top three individuals and finally Chris Hughes, Stuart McCowan and Bob Goodwin for acting a scalemen for the final and finally all of the fishery owners who provided facilities, Wullie at Springwater, Ronnie and George at Magiscroft, John at Broom, Andrew at Orchill, Martin at Dormont, Ewan for Loch Ken, the Barony College and the Forth & Clyde Canal authority, George Glen for keeping the SFCA website up to date and most importantly to all of those who so enthusiastically supported the event by entering.

Details of Ayrstrike 2009, which will be bigger and better, will be published very shortly