The 2008 World Fly Fishing Championships will be held next week in New Zealand. One of those events we find out after the fact, as no media stateside appears to be covering the proceedings.
Despite our insistence the sport shouldn’t be made competitive, the rest of Europe has had fly fishing competitions for many years. It’s our amateurs against their “Dream Team” – and last year’s 11th place finish was our best showing to date. Considering all of the forces arrayed against a competitor, it’s amazing that they can assimilate everything foreign and catch fish in the same week.
Probably half the field has never fished there before, the flies are new, as is the stalk, tactics, and presentation – all of which are assisted by a couple of Time Zone changes and unfamiliar everything.
A good outing is preceded by frying your razor in an international socket, the shower draining in the opposite direction, driving on the wrong side of the road, and night when they’re shouldn’t be any. All this and asked to produce more fish than any other angler?
I sure hope they’ve guides and assistants to figure out all the exchange rate, local customs, and to assist in the driving – because with everything else to worry about, you sure won’t have much time to tie flies.
Fips-Mouche is three phases, the Waihou (spring creek), the Waimakariri, and the final stage, the Otamangakau and Rotoaira lakes. All fish must be greater than 18cm (7 inches) to be counted.
Luck to our fellows, they’ll surely need it.
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You’d think with all the cable stations in the US we could get atleast on to air the event. I’d much rather watch a fly tourney than a bunch of women bowling or shooting pool.
Gotafish
Half the time, I show up at my local river without something critical (waders, boots, reel, etc). How someone deals with fishing halfway around the world (under time pressure) is beyond me.
KB,
We are talking New Zealand, right? Why didn’t they recruit me? Seven-inch fish are my forte’ (do they insist on trout?).
Actually, it is relatively simple in NZ to outfish your competitors; it’s just a matter of managing the “beats”. Once you arrive at your beat you send notice through an anonymous intermediary to all the local pubs that free beer is available on your neighbors’ beats. You might even plant a single bottle in each part of the stream beforehand. The result will look something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH3GH7Pn_eA
Then just quietly enjoy your fishing.
~~Reed
Do they hose everybody down with Formula 409 at the awards ceremony?
SMJ – Yes, they’ve even modified the rules to allow for the cleansing process. In short, “all contestants get the same amount of time on the water even though it may take different amounts of time to clean them.”
Reed – the beer angle is insidious, and worthy of an EIR. I don’t know if I could part with any bottles – as NZ beer is worthy of the label (in contrast to yellow US Pisswater).