World Fly Fishing Champs 2008 - New Zealand

[MCC]

Terry

Our team will be a little short on competition experience, but we will work hard.

Cheers and enjoy your stunning river. (Want to swop?)

[dpammenter]

Hi there Devlin

They will take place during the week of 20 October 2007. We will fish at Lakensvlei, Elandspad and Smallblaar.

There will be a maximum of eight teams and we will stay at Merwede Lodge for the event.

Cheers
MC

thanks MC

definitely something to consider

[Nymph+O-]

oops, sorry about that

[TJB]

Terry

Our team will be a little short on competition experience, but we will work hard.

Cheers and enjoy your stunning river. (Want to swop?)

There is no doubt that we are spoilt with our lovely river but It does very little for the skill levels in comparison to yours, imagine if we were as technically adept as your guys are.

[MCC]

We only have "spotted livebait" in our rivers. We have to make ourselves sound really technically superior and the Trout really difficult to catch. Did you know that these fish only eat dry flies?

Deep down, all Capetonians would love to have your (easy ???) fish that fall to Chuck Nymphing and other dubious methods.

[pieterkriel]

maybe if your streams where closer, i would have been there so much you would get sick of me mr. MCC

[KevinE]

I'll be fishing the Wanganui and Whakapapa rivers next month so will be sure to report back and give what insights I can into the rivers.

Incidently last month I loaned some tackle to a visiting Finish trout bum who had all his belongings stolen in Rotorua (yes it does happen in NZ!). He was intending to fish the Whakapapa but I advised him not to because of the bad weather on its way. Luckily he ignored my advice and caught three 6lb rainbows and a 9lb brown on my gear the next day! Grrr

[Michael]

Whoaaaaaaooo....who said fishing the Vaal is like shooting fish in a barrel, and that fishing the Cape streams are much harder?
On a good day on the Vaal you can catch a lot of fish...but the last time I fished the Smallblaar I was catching almost cast for cast...and that was on a parachute adams that wasn't even the correct colour for the day. Armand Flies agrees...the Cape streams are much easier.

The NZ rivers are MUCH bigger...and the fish few and far between most times. You have to make each cast count...wheras the cape streams you know there's fish in the likely spots, much more than the NZ rivers. NZ rivers have much bigger fish too, much more spooky and weary than the Cape river fish.

A place like Sterfontein will better prepare you, where you have to stay out of sight, make your first cast count, look for fish, etc etc.

I love the dry fly fishing on the Cape streams...but THAT can become like shooting fish in a barrel. The NZ streams are way different, and much more challenging and technical. Maybe the Witte when it was really in it's prime was comparable with some of the rivers over there, but not that is even the same anymore. I've paid my dues on the Witte and got my brown there (only fished it once) but it was way more technical than the Smallblaar, etc. Most cape rivers you can blind-fish (or have to actually, casting to likely lies) but NZ is more sightfishing, like the Witte was.

[KevinE]

Michael, the Wanganui and the Whakapapa have pretty resonable fish populations, unlike some of the South Island rivers. That is probably why these rivers have been chosen for the Champs. There will be a few decent sized fish in most pools. Blind casting can be productive but spotting the fish will always give you an advantage. An even split between rainbows and browns, fish going from 2 to 7lb, with the odd bigger brown. To generalise: browns in the tails and looking for the dry, rainbows deep at the heads of the pools needing a tungsten nymph.

Since numbers is the game in competitive fishing I suspect that most anglers will be targetting the rainbows with a team of deeply sunk nymphs.

[Michael]

Hi Kevin

Sounds awesome!!! You are correct though...in the Cape streams the numbers get caught on dry. If what you say is true, the guys will have to nymph and maybe go dry and dropper or even two droppers. I suppose you could only evaluate the situation once you've practiced the actual rivers, and of course on the day you get there and to your specified beat.
Depends on so many factors though...light conditions, time of year, water depth, speed of flow, air pressure, etc etc and more etc.

I prefer social angling No pressure to get numbers and you can actually sit back on a rock and enjoy the enviroment.