The Draw: For the draw I got #1, which put me in A1, B3,C5 for my beats. A1 and C5 are on the far end of the pond furthest away from the feeding area and while the tournament was getting setup I did not see much action in this area on either side of the pond as far as rises and fish activity went. After seeing these two positions I figured it was going to be a tough day. B3 was on the corner on the near side of the pond, just to the left of the feeding area and I figured if I was going to have a good session it would be here.
SESSION 1
I started off this session with my 6wt voyant rod with a full sinking 3ips fly line. My flies consisted of a hares ear variant nymph on top and a pheasant tail variant on point. I started off casting right out in front of me and allowed the line to sink before slowly stripping the fly back towards me.
This went on for a while without any action but I tried to stay calm and focus on what I was doing. At this point a few of the other competitors on my section started to hook and land fish, not going to lie it was at this time that I started to panic. I switched over to my dry dropped rig for a few casts and allowed it to sit before slowly working it back. To be completely honest the dry dropped setup for me is not something I am confident in so I ended up switching over to my streamer rod fairly quickly. After 5 or so minutes without anything showing interest in my streamer I jumped rods yet again back to the 6wt.
I tried moving my casts around and started fishing a little further towards the right of my section. Same method, cast out, allow to sink for 4-6 seconds then start the slow hand retrieve. BOOM I felt some resistance and set the hook getting into my first fish of the comp. I brought it to net and asked for a measure, it came in at 64cm. At this point I relaxed a little bit and calmed down. During the rest of this session I managed to get my fly stuck in a tree and after breaking off I quickly re-rigged with a pre tied leader I had coiled up and ready to go. I did not manage to get into any other fish during session 1.
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| Getting my first fish of the competition measured. |
Ranking: 4 of us tied for 1st place with 1 fish on this session, giving me 1pt towards the final ranking.
Session 2
Off Session
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| Talking strategy |
Session 3
Off Session
Session 4
The second session that I was assigned to fish placed me in the corner of the pond at B3. This area is just left of where the fish are fed and drops off quickly into 5-7 ft of water after the ledge. I had spent session 2 watching other competitors techniques and methods and conversing with other anglers waiting to fish. While waiting for the horn to sound to start the next session I choose to change the first fly on my rig from a natural hares ear nymph to a bright colorful blob fly to hopefully catch the trouts attention. I clipped off the hares ear only to realize I had not left enough of a tag to re-rig another fly. I spent the last 45 seconds of the break trying to get this blob tied only only to have to clip the tag right off and fish one fly, a p.t nymph variant.
I started off the session casting out to the middle of my beat and allowing my fly to sink for 6-7 seconds before starting a slow retrieve in by hand and then small strips. During this time the person in B1 started hammering fish right out in front of the area where the feeding is done. Before I knew it he had hooked into 4-5 fish and landed 2 of them. It was then that I hooked my first fish, landed it and showed the controllers. After releasing it I kept on with the same technique and hoped for more fish. I switched briefly to my streamer rod without any luck and then over to my second rod that I had now rigged with a bright blob and natural blob. This was on my 8wt single handed rod with floating line so when cast the flies did not sink quickly at all leading me to think some weighted blobs would have been a great addition to my fly box for this competition.
My second fish came a while later and was the smallest catch of the tournament for me, roughly 9-10 inches but a point none the less. I started to worry about not having measured my first fish in case of a decision that came down to the length of all the fish I had caught so I told myself the next fish I hooked was getting measured regardless of size just to put something on the board. Luckily I hooked another fish and the second it was on yelled to the controller that I would measure this one. It came in at around 53cm if my memory serves me right and was the last fish that I caught during this session.
Ranking: 2nd place with three fish, 1st ranking had 5.
Session 5
Off Session
Session 6
The last session I almost dreaded. C5 had been some tough fishing all day, only giving up a few fish on the first session as far as I know and blanking a few very talented anglers. I knew that this session would make or break me and that I needed to get a few fish on the board early to secure a good ranking.
I started off with my 6wt and full sinking line again with a chartreuse and fire orange blob as my first fly and the good ole p.t variant on point. Taking notes from some of the competition anglers who I had watched fish during the day I fished 95% of this session from my knees to keep a lower profile. I started bombing out casts as far as possible to a little past the middle of the pond, letting it sink a little longer, perhaps 8-9 seconds then starting a VERY slow hand retrieve back to shore. It was not long before I felt a tap and hand stripped the hook set into a fish. I quickly landed it, took the point and got back to fishing, as a side note the fish took the bright attractor fly. The second fish came not long after using the same technique, this one taking the nymph.
At this point again I am thinking my next fish needs to be measured just in case it comes down to a tie so the next hook up I yelled over immediately for a measure. Unfortunately this fish was foul hooked in the belly and was released without a point. I managed two more fish during this session and got a measure of around 47cm as my big fish. I was beyond happy knowing I was able to produce fish from this beat and could not help but to smile walking back to my car to unload my gear and wait for the official results.
Ranking: 1st ranking with 4 fish
The competition was a great success and I think that lots of fun was had by everyone involved. It took months of planning and many sleepless nights I am sure to put everything together and I would like to thank Cosmin and the Sotto Fly Fishing Club, Angling Sports, and all of the companies that donated prizes for the event for making this a truly memorable day
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Official Rankings
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| Top 10 |
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| Accepting my prize, a gift certificate and many packs of Knapek competition hooks to keep me busy at the vise. |
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| Top 5 |
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