The 76-year-old said that she didn't lose her balance and fall on rocks near the river while casting, but slipped on the concrete steps in her eagerness to register her score at a Scottish national competition in the UK last May.

Mrs Forsyth was advised to have an operation to set the bone, but declined because that would have meant missing next weekend's Commonwealth Fly-Fishing Championships around Northern Tasmania.

``It's all calcified now, so I'm OK, but there is still a little muscle and nerve trouble,'' she said.

Mrs Forsyth said that she had been fishing for 56 years and had fished all over the UK before becoming part of the Scottish team and fishing internationally for the past 10 years.

This year's event is her sixth Commonwealth competition and Mrs Forsyth is one of the five-member team visiting rivers around the North to learn what they can about local conditions before the competition starts.

Team captain Helen Philp said Mrs Forsyth's newly knitted bone had taken nothing away from her angling skill as she had caught the largest fish each day she accompanied the team on its fact-finding trips.

Mrs Philp said the Scotts were the first country to enter a women's team at the championship.

``That was about 10 years, or six competitions ago,'' Mrs Philp said.

``We do OK - our best finish so far has been sixth out of 16 teams, so we're looking for better than that this time around.

``We've had a lovely time trying out your rivers over the past week - we've been on the Meander, Little Pine Lagoon, Arthurs Lake, Woods Lake and Penstock Lagoon.''