A Perthshire angler has defied cancer to land the world title he’s always dreamed of.

Retired plumber Milos Vasiljevic won the masters competition at the annual Spey-O-Rama contest in San Francisco.

The gathering is regarded as the world championship of Spey casting – a highly skilled and specialised fly-fishing technique.

Milos, 67, has competed there in the past, but never quite hit the top spot.

And he entered this year’s contest with zero expectations after being diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2024.

Surgery and chemotherapy had left him 10 kilos lighter and too poorly to practice for long stretches of time.

But Milos triumphed against all the odds, winning the overall masters title AND the prize for longest cast.

To cap an incredible weekend for Scotland, Milos’ son Sacha and tutor and friend James Chalmers finished 10th the fourth respectively in the men’s championships.

Milos told The Courier: “It was one of the best days of my life.

“My heart was full to the top.”

Fishing is escape from troubles

Milos’ two trophies have made him the toast of the Stormont Angling Club.

The Rattray grandfather is a long-time member of the club, which fishes a stretch of the River Tay between Scone Palace and North Muirton.

It’s been his happy place for many years, even more so since he received his bombshell diagnosis.

The prognosis isn’t great.

He has cancer in his bowel and his liver. He’s been told he might have two or three years to live.

But salmon-fishing is his passion and he’s determined to spend as much of his time on the river as he can.

“Fishing is in the blood, in the genes,” he said.

“Out there you’re away from all your troubles, away from the grind.”

Hopes Milos can defend title in 2026

Milos moved to the UK from the former Yugoslavia in 1988.

He’d been fishing at home in Serbia since he was four or five, mostly coarse fish and trout.

It was only when he came north to raise his young family – Sacha, 35, and brother Stefan, 32 – that he fell in love with salmon fishing on the Ericht, the Isla and the Tay.

Since then, he’s won various competitions and travelled as far afield as Canada and New Zealand on fishing trips.

Milos has just started a second round of chemotherapy.

But all being well, he’ll go on fishing for as long as he can.

And he’d love to be in a position to defend his title at Spey-O-Rama in 2026.

“Before I had the power, but maybe I got stage fright,” he said.

“This time I thought ‘I have no power left so I’m just going to go there to enjoy myself’. All the pressure was off.”