WFFC Norway report 2013
I thought it was time I put some thoughts together on my experiences at this year’s world championships in Norway. Both Jason Garret and Christopher Bassano have done a great job in reporting throughout and maybe you have all had enough of hearing about it. But I know how much I enjoy reading reports from competing anglers and how much I have actually learnt from reading them. I have done my best to explain how I went about it from a personal point of view and hopefully some will get something out of it that may help you in the future. Here it goes.
The team arrived in Mosjoen Norway on the 1st August with 12 days of practice in front of them before the competition began. We spent the first few days fishing the biggest of the rivers being the Vefsna. First impressions were “wow that is big, how do we go about fishing this" but it soon became apparent that this river was not that scary and quite a pleasant river to fish. We had a good few days catching quite a lot of browns and also the odd grayling. Lots of tactics were used with many of them successful but it soon became clear that if a fish was to rise then it was quite easy to catch if covered quickly. They took a dry beautifully and it was obvious that dry fly was going to play a major role in this competition. Another successful tactic was one which Craig Carey was to come up with, he was fishing a 40plus fast intermediate with a bead head nymph on the point and an orange tag dry caddis pattern on the dropper. He would cast across and down, throw a mend to let the dry have some time to drift naturally then when the dry was dragged under he would stick the rod under the water and let the flies swing across and down with a slow figure 8 retrieve. He and Chris Dawson had some great success on this technique with most fish taking the sunken caddis. I also found a black leech pattern on the point very good doing a similar technique.
Practice on the other comp waters was very limited to non-existing so we had to go further afield to find some good water. The river we found which we shall call the bear track river (as we found bear footprints in the sand on the edge of the river) was teaming with small browns and a great place to work on techniques. This river was superb and the mind boggles as to why it was not used as a competition venue. It was nothing to catch 30 fish each in a couple of hours on dries, nymphs or a combination of both.
Practice for the lake was difficult as most of the waters available were nothing like the competition venues. The best water we found was a small private lake which our guide organised for us. It had the small sections of weedy bays just like the comp waters and we caught many small browns to around 35 cm. The best tactics were to fish around the weedy shores twitching small muddler style dries. They just couldn't resist. We also found an intermediate line with a small black Frits taddie and green bead was deadly when they weren't up on top.
Throughout the practice time flies and tactics were sorted into a list that we had confidence in so that when competition was upon us we were ready to go.
My first session was to be on the Austavefsna River and my beat was 23 which was on the lower section. I wasn't particularly happy as I made my way to the river as my mind was made up that the upper beats were the ones to get. I was remembering what Chris Bassano had said about the beats closest to the bottom bridge and how you don't want those. Beat 23 was directly below the bottom bridge!
On first impressions this beat didn't look too bad. It had a bit of structure on the bottom with some boulders and a nice run and bubble line that ran most of the way down the beat. A small gravel island split the river slightly and created what looked to be another reasonable area on the other side. As I set up my rods I noticed a couple of rises in the bubble line towards the end of my beat. This eased my mind a little as at least there were 2 fish in the beat I just had to catch them now. I made the decision to start with double dry fly fishing the shallow margins working my way out to the bubble line runs where the fish had risen.
I carried two rods the 2 weight dry fly rod in my hand and another 5 weight rod down the waders with an intermediate line for swinging. I also set up a nymphing rod and nymph under dry rod but left them on the bank. The session began and it soon became clear that the fish weren't in close so I gradually worked my way out to the bubble line drifting the dries from across and downstream on a dead free drift with the occasional twitch and stop. The session had been going around 30 minutes and I had not seen a sign of the fish which had risen earlier. I was beginning to get worried when a fish rose below me. I quickly moved downstream 4 or 5 steps and shot a cast out to cover the area. Up came a nice brown and took the balloon caddis with a splashy rise, he hooked up and I soon landed my first which measured 33cm. A little pressure was off but when I watched the competitor below me carry his second fish across the river to be measured I knew I needed to do more. I could not get another fish out of the bubble line on the dry and I also tried swinging some wets down through this area for no result. It was now close to half way through the session when I decided I had to have a look at the other side of the gravel island.
It was deeper than it looked getting across and I very nearly went in over the waders. Once there it looked good, some nice water around 1.5 m deep with big boulders under the water giving it structure. I quickly went back to dry fly again and blind cast the double dries around the boulders. Second cast and I watched a brown swim up and snatch the caddis dry off the top. He hooked up and once landed, I was off across the river to get it measured, this time going over the waders; he was over 30cm too. Another two fish followed shortly after on the dry caddis and I also missed a nice fish which splashed at the fly before things went quiet again.
Time for a change, I pulled out the swinging rod and changed the small wet on the point to my black leech pattern which had been successful through practice. I cast a long line across the stream over the bolder area and let the flies swing down into the deep hole at the bottom of the gravel island. I was fishing a clear glass intermediate and pushed the rod under and right to the bottom to take the flies deep. Bang, first cast I was on, another nice brown which took the leech. I kept going for a while before changing the line to a type 5 to try and get deeper into the hole. It worked as I took another 2 fish on the leech.
That was session 1 over and I finished with 7 fish. When I got back to the bus it looked like I had won the session but it turned out that England's Scott Nellins had caught 9 fish off one of the top beats and put me back to second. Still it was a good start.
The afternoon session was to be on the Vefsna River. I had beat 22 on a wide section of river that gradually got deeper the further across you went. It was quite featureless with nothing showing any real fish holding areas. As I set up the conditions were calm and quite warm and I noticed a few rises about 3/4 of the way across the river. Grayling I said to myself, lets hope they keep rising. The breeze started to increase slightly as it got closer to start time but there was still the odd rise. The session started and I quickly worked my way out to the rising fish covering the shallows as I went with dries where I had a couple of under size grayling. Soon I was out to the rises and where I quickly covered the best of the rises with a CDC up wing pattern . He took it nicely and I landed a 34 cm grayling. Great, off the mark early. Back out to the rises I lost another grayling at the net on the same fly and landed 2 under size. The rises were getting less and less as the breeze increased and it got colder.
I changed tactics and went to a clear intermediate with an epoxy bodied spider pattern on the dropper with a nymph on the point. I would cast across, let the flies swing to down stream,stick the rod under the water right to the bottom and slowly twitch the flies back. This tactic worked quite well through practice on grayling but it was a small brown trout that took the spider after a short time. He made the grade and went 21cm. A couple of small bumps and another which came off after a few kicks before action dried up on this technique.
I turned my attention to the top of the beat where there was a couple of rises well out, but it looked too deep to get to. I had to try, so I waded out to the top of my waders and did the best I could to cast a large CDC caddis pattern towards the rises. It was at the extremity of my cast with the 2 weight and I really could not get a good drift at such a distance. Twice the grayling came to the fly but with such a lot of line out the strike missed both times. I made a big decision to go ashore and rig up my 5 weight 10'8 Maxia with a floating line and try for the rising fish with this rod. I could surely cast further and have better control with this rod. I was hoping the 5 minutes it took to set up this rod for the dry fly would be worth it as there was little other action on my beat.
Back out up to my wader limit and armed with the 5 weight this time my first cast covered the spot and the grayling took seconds after the fly landed, this time the hook went home and I landed a very valuable grayling of 26cm. That was it, I could not get any more. I was a little disappointed as I felt there would be some good catches for the afternoon. I was right with my 3 fish only giving me 14th place for the session and the top catches being 16 fish from the American angler Devon Olsen.
At the end of day one Australia was sittiing in 10th position after some mixed results and I was 19th individual
Christopher Bassano had a terrible beat on the Lake shore and blanked but followed this up with a good result in the boat with 2 fish and 4th place. Craig Carey had a blank to start with on the Fiplingdaselva but got 2 fish off the Austavefsna and 10th place. Joe started in the boat lake with 2 fish and 4th place but blanked the dreaded Fipling in the afternoon. Chris Dawson had the Vefsna to start and caught 2 fish for 14th place but the lake shore produced a blank in the afternoon.
There were blanks in every team and it was obvious that to save a blank was massive to the team.
Day 2 was fishing only the morning session with a much needed rest for the afternoon. I would be heading to the lake shore session where we had so far had 2 blanks. I was to be on beat 3 which my controller told me had a blank in the morning and 1 fish in the afternoon. He said the angler in the afternoon had lots of chances but lost them, he fished just outside the weeds. It turned out to be Steve Varga from Malta/Australia!!
I commenced the session flicking a dry/nymph combo around the edge of the weed with my 2 weight rod. I used the 2 weight as the fish were very small and I hoped the softness would cushion the fighting of the fish and keep them on the hook. I didn’t have to worry as I could not find a fish close in around the weeds; one small pluck was all I managed from close to 1 hours fishing.
I changed to a 6 weight Sage XP and clear glass intermediate and fished 2 small wet fly patterns that Christopher Bassano had tied the night before to try and copy what the Czech angler had used in his boat session with him. Tomas Adam of Czech Republic caught 7 and gave Christopher a lesson on catching small browns after Christopher first showed him what to do with the retrieve. It was an eye opener for Chris and he felt sure that the flies Tomas fished played a big part in his success.
Armed with these flies I fished the deeper water in front of the weed bed with a fast short strip retrieve or short strip constant rolly polly. It worked and I soon caught a small measuring trout on the point fly. Strait after this fish I changed the dropper fly to a size 16 balloon caddis and continued fishing. This change brought me 2 more fish on the sunken balloon caddis and a session win. Sadly the rest of the team had a bad day with blanks all round in every session. Somehow we managed to stay in the top 10 and I moved to 7th individual.
The final day I was to fish the lake boat session and the dreaded Fiplingdaselva River. I was fortunate to draw the Italian Valerio Santi Amantini as my boat partner who was currently sitting in 1st place individual. He was very keen to have control of the boat first so I let him have it but said “only if we work together” he agreed of course and we headed out. His plan was to fish in close to shore in the small weedy bays and try to catch the small browns which hang around the edges. I was happy to do this as I had a similar plan but I planned to go up to the top bays while Valerio wanted to fish the bottom bays.
Valerio fished a floating line and small wet flies or nymphs throughout the entire session. I chose a clear intermediate again and the same flies as I fished from the shore beat. We hunted around a number of the small weedy bays only spending a small amount of time in each. Valerio was keen to keep moving and eventually hoped to come across a fish or 2 in a bay against the weed. In one small bay I had a countable fish grab my point fly as soon as it hit the water. On feeling the hook it jumped immediately and came off. Two casts later right against the weed I had another bump from a small fish. That was it for the first 1.5 hours; Valerio did not have a touch.
It was my turn for the control of the boat and I told Valerio we were heading up to the top bays where the majority of the fish had been caught in previous sessions. I counted 11 boats as our controller rowed up the lake and none of them were in the top bay where I was heading.