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Round 1 of the NSW fly fishing championships was held over the weekend of 15th to 16th September 2012. For full details follow this link: www.flyfishaustralia.com.au/cms/ffa-nsw-act-201112-3

There was a lot of interest in this competition and a strong filed of competitors including 2 from Tasmania and 3 from Victoria as well as a number of Eucumbene specialists. The reason for the record number of registrations was no doubt the fact that the two sectors being fished were two of the 4 sectors to be fished in the 2012 National Fly Fishing Championships in November.

I had always intended to fish the competition sectors on half a dozen occasions with as many as possible different fishing friends prior to the competition but horrendous windy weather (winds up to 90 kilometre per hour) reduced the opportunities down to just 3 outings.

The first was 3 weeks before the competition with my regular non competition fishing partner Chris. On that day we concentrated only on the Buckenderra sector where we methodically fished the areas we had from past experience known to hold fish. Unfortunately fish were scarce and our catch rate was much lower than expected with only seven fish coming to the net. One of those was a big brown that took a booby stripped in very skinny water right up a creek inlet which was water that was only accessible with the aid of an electric motor so that didn’t really tell us much to help with the competition. The traditionally best water was remarkably void of fish. I knew that others had also been there practising so presumed that the better water had been well fished and knew that would be the case right up to the competition. We took away from that outing a feeling that fish would be hard to find and that you may have to think out of the square a little to find appropriate holding water. The best flies for the day were the booby which took 4 fish, woolly buggers which took 3 (one was my standard brown woolly bugger fished on the point and the other was a very ordinary black bugger and the third was a red and black hot head bugger fished on the bob). My dunkeld variant which is my go to middle dropper fly for Eucumbene and Jindabyne did not get a look in which is unusual.

The second session was a week later with good mate Rick. He is a very handy competition angler and I knew we would both learn heaps from each other. Because neither of us had fished the Rocky Pains Bay or Wainui bay for some time we decided to focus on that area. It was a really tough day and only 3 fish were landed. Nothing came close to the booby, the black or the red and black buggers previously fished or again the dunkeld and instead I took one on a shrek, one on a green TBH olive/black bugger and one on a standard brown woolly bugger. I also had a fish on for a short time that I lost and am pretty confident that was on the point fly. Two of the fish were taken in Brookwood and only one in Wainui. What I took away from that days fishing was that as the competition was only 2 weeks away was yes it was likely to be tough and ideally I still had a lot of work to come up with a starting line up of flies.

Prior to my third and final practice session I spent quite a lot of time reviewing notes in my fishing diary over about 10 seasons picking out the flies that had worked in the past at this time of year. That final outing was with another friend and competition angler Peter. Our intention had been to fish close to each other but in separate boats but as luck would have it Peter’s boat broke down first thing (which was probably better than it breaking down in the actual comp just 3 days away) so it was about 11am before we got onto the water both in my boat. We again focused on the Rocky Pains Bay or Wainui Bay competition sector and found the going very tough. The only fish I got was on the brown woolly bugger I had used on the previous two occasions but to which I had added a pink collar to make it more visible in the water that was carrying a lot of plant and mud sediment. Peter had also spent some practice days fishing the competition sectors and he showed me his beer bottle blob which had taken something like 4 fish on previous outings.

From the 3 practice sessions I did lean a few things and I am confident that those snipptes of knowledge were significant in the competition itself. I like stripping flies pretty quickly and first and foremost I found that didn’t work and the majority of fish were coming to flies stripped just a bit off slow. I had also worked out as best I could from the patchy fishing my fishing diary notes and intuition my starting line up of flies and a competition fly box that gave me some options. I decided to fish with was a 4cm long brown and pink hot head woolly bugger on the point, I had Peter’s beer bottle blob in the middle and the small red and black hot head woolly bugger on the bob. I should mention at this stage that I had always wanted smallish flies on the middle dropper and top dropper as I find that when fishing is tough that teams with only one larger point fly tend to work best for me. My starting line for lakes is on 9 out of 10 occasions a type 5 so that was the line I would start with and of course as is my practice I resolved I would only fish a bead head fly on my sinking lines as a last resort. I just don’t like the combination of fast sink flies and fast sink lines with slower retrieves. Because of the relatively dirty water all the flies in my starting line up had coloured thread on the heads and for the Rocky Pains Bay or Wainui Bay competition sector I decided that subject to the wind conditions I would focus on Brookwood bay and the next 2 bays east and only go to Wainui under protest.

For session 1 my boat partner was Christian. I hadn’t had the pleasure of fishing with Christian in the past and he hadn’t fished a competition before but he was well skilled up and a good caster. I took control of the boat for the first 1.5 hours but basically we ran the session on a cooperative basis which was great. The fist place we went to was where I had taken 3 or 4 fish in practice and I was fortunate to connect to a rainbow there quite early. Other than for that one take the bay was very quiet so after about 2 hours I mentioned the Christian that from my cabin at Buckenderra I had heard running water entering the lake from a small creek just 100 meters up from the boat ramp and as a consequence I had looked at the run in area when I got up and given the current wind direction I thought it worth a look. We fish that small area for about half an hour and I was fortunate to pick up my second fish for the session there. After that we fish the shore just north of that running soak but to no avail and eventually spent the last 15 minutes back in the original bay also with no luck. Throughout the session we saw a lot of boats making big position changes which to me is always a sign that competitors are looking for fish so I was not surprised when my 2 fish for the session still managed a 3rd place for me.

My draw for session 2 was the Rocky Pains Bay or Wainui Bay competition sector with Brian which I was very pleased with as Brian is a friend and a very handy lake angler. We both had similar plans for the sector and headed of toward the back of Brookwood bay. A second boat obviously had similar plans and travelled along side us always making sure that they were just in front. As we got closer I indicated to the other boat driver, who I know quite well and I knew was one of the people it would be hard to beat in the competition, as to where they were going and he pointed to our destination. In response I indicated to him that we would break off and fish the bank off to the right and peeled off to do that. Both Brian and I were mildly amused when the boat we had given way to after travelling just another 50 meters so, after we peeled off, turned round and set up a drift behind us. In the next hour Brian got 1 fish and I hooked and dropped 3. We then saw a couple of fish midging and Brian swapped over to a ghost tip line and a team including first one bibio but later 2 bibios and managed a second fish. For about 15 minutes I swapped over to an intermediate line with a bibio on the bob but could not find a fish, and as no more fish were visibly midging, so swapped back to my starter set up. Things went very quiet so we moved over to the north shore where we had heard some yahooing and swearing as fish had been hooked and possibly lost. We spent just 15 minutes there with no takes and then moved round to the next bay east in accordance with my plan for the competition. We set up a good drift with an easterly wind (not any anglers favourite) and I got hit and would you believe it lost another fish. Just minutes later Brian hit and landed a good brown and was 2 up. I then managed to boat both a good brown and a good rainbow bringing our fish count to 2 each. We each managed a final fish and as luck would have it my sizes just pipped Brian’s to give me a first for the session relegating Brian to a very good second place. I was lucky and have to work harder to land all hooked fish.

I should note that I don’t look at score boards during competitions and consequently didn’t know that Brian and I were in equal first place at the end of the first day both sitting on for points.

The following morning my draw for session 3 was the Rocky Pains Bay or Wainui Bay competition sector but this time with Grant . Grant has fished a couple of competitions with mixed success but has not as yet hit his straps. He hadn’t practiced on the competition water and allowed me initial control of where we would fish. I always knew I would fish where I had finished up the afternoon before and expected Brian and his session partner to be there also. Not wanting to give any thing away I travelled with that part of the fleet that was obviously going to fish Brookwood bay and only turned of the my bay just east of Brookwood at the last minute. I managed a fish in the first few minutes which was a great start to the session. We progressively fish that bay with a light north westerly wind constantly pushing us along and at some times out and I managed three further fish including a very good brown from close to the shore. At almost the end of the first bay Grant hooked a fish which got out of control and swam round my end of the boat. Grant held his rod high rather than low and his line was all over me. His line got tangled in the electric motor so I released that for him (that was intuitive and probably wrong in a competition) and Grant started to get some control back. Unfortunately he dragged his top dropper across my thigh and then when the fish made another run hooked me which was no fun at all. I released that fly and again put the leader back below the gunwale of the boat and Grant eventually landed the fish. %$**#. We then moved to the next bay east where I managed a further two fish giving me a total of 6 and a win for the session. Prior to setting out in the morning with Grant I arranged with him that I would do all the motor and drogue work on the boat if he would just hold my rod for me as we changed positions during the session and make sure that both rods didn’t get tangled and that neither of our line got hooks on trees or ran fowl of the motor. No problems. Imagine my surprise when as I was changing position just half an hour or so before the end of the session when Grants called out “stop the motor”. I instantly flicked the motor out of gear and turned round to see Grant standing there, my fly rod was in the water with just the butt sticking out toward the front of the boat and instantly recognised that my fly line had been sucked into the motor … had it eaten my rod? Grant explained that was not what happened and that whilst driving a straight line I had caused the problem and he had chucked my rod into the water to save it but had kept hold of the loop of line between the reel and the first runner so that we wouldn’t loose the lot. The leader and a small amount of line were firmly wrapped around the prop but fortunately I had cut the motor before it turned my 4 piece rod into a pack of chicken skewers. We drifted to shore and Grant, because he had wader on, unwound the mess for me. I hastily replaced the leader and except for small incident with a tree the last few drifts of the rest of session were uneventful and fishless.

The final session was always going to be the hardest session but I was determined to get at least one fish. My boat partner was Tim from Victoria and we were fishing the Buckenderra sector. Tim and I decided we would do as Rick had done on the previous afternoon session (when he got 6 fish) and to forsake the Middling bank part of the sector and concentrate on the bays along the western shore short of the cut off point a the south point of Wainui Bay. When we headed that way we found ourselves in the company of 5 other boats obviously all with similar plans. I pulled the boat up in the middle of the lake and after discussion with Tim we turned off to fish the front end of Tom Trys Inlet. I knew it didn’t have much water but was still hopeful of a fish or 2. I started the session of with a tangle of my own making and whilst I sorted that Tim hit a fish but didn’t hook up. We finished fishing the whole inlet right down to the island and I managed a good brown of 505 mm about half way down. I also raised a second brown right down close to the island but it just wouldn’t take the fly. Unsure what was happening elsewhere we headed back to the bay opposite the boat ram where I had caught 2 or 3 fish in the practice sessions and 1 in session one but could not find a fish there. Others were obviously having trouble finding fish as there were boats zipping across the bay in all directions looking for that spot where fish were holding. We fished from that bay far another couple of hundred meters along the east shore toward Middling Bank through some very fishy water but didn’t have another hit. As it turned out the fourth session was tough for everybody except for Bass from Tasmania who had boated 4 fish. Two others had 2 fish and as it turned out my 505 mm brown was the biggest of the other 6 single fish that were taken in the session giving me competition score of just 9 and an overall win for the competition. Second was Craig with 12 competition points and in third was Brian with 18 points.

Ironically even though I did make some fly changes during the competition I started and finished with the same selection of flies in my team.

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