Women Commonwealth Flyfishing Championships - Marlize Heyns

Women Commonwealth flyfishing Championships New Zealand 2020

Marlize Heyns

I got back from fishing in the Seychelles on the magical island of Astove hunting new species and the…wait for… ‘the gangsters of the flats’-GTs. I got back home, had one day to change from salt water fly fishing gear to freshwater gear and back on the plane for my next fishing adventure, in one of the top fly-fishing destinations in the world. This is what we trained for the Commonwealth fly fishing championships 2020 New Zealand, and this is my story and one I would never forget.

March 2020 the year and month has arrived after months of endless preparation. The ladies team representing SA is myself Marlize Blom Heyns(captain), Renthia De Waal, Greer Leo Smith, Bianca Viljoen(manager) and Lucinda Van Niekerk. Finally arrived in New Zealand the ‘Land of the Hobbit’. Day has become night, and night has become day. Still a bit confused but one thing is for sure we were all ready to hit the water and fish.

With a long drive from Auckland to Turangi which should be about a three-hour drive but for mum and I a six-hour drive, because we don’t trust the GPS (oops), but hey we got to see most of the North island of New Zealand at and max speed is 100km/h. Finally, we arrived at our destination on the Tongariro river.

Because of the competition rules and regulations, we could not fish some parts of the magnificent fast flowing water, but we walked and stalked the river watching big fish taking turns eating the fly of the season, the lace moth. We were in absolute awe of the river and knowing there were lots more to explore. Similar in size as the Vaal river but the flow is something to behold. The clarity of the rivers is unreal, but slippery because of the drought. So, studs added to our wading boots made conquering new terrain a little easier.

All five ladies met up in Taupo, our home base for the next few days. Let the game begin! The next day we met up with one of our first local guides Marlene Skeet, a colourful lady you just have to love and she knows a thing or two about fishing as a bonus.

After spending 2 days with Marlene we managed to catch a hoard of fish, but most important she helped us to catch and land monster trout, I call them ‘monster fish on steroids the size of which we do not see in South Africa. If there is one lesson that II have learned in our first few days on the water is, that one should not underestimate the strength of the smaller trout they fight like the devil is in them, no jokes. All the rivers we fished including the TT(Turangi) are invested with natural fish, I literally had to carry a stick to fend them off, an experience of a life time.

At sparrow fart we met up with our next local guide, Christopher Young, luckily for us he is an ex South African and we could ‘gooi the Afrikaans’ now and again. He took us to the back country on a river similar to Whanganui and Whakapapa, I have to mention, on our way to the river we saw incredible sights including active Volcanos with steam coming out of them and snowy peaks. Back to fishing, Chris what a ‘Legend’, he guided as into landing a lot fish that day, and I had an unbelievable time catching my first big brown in that river!!! He helped the girls with a tweak here and there and some good NZ tips.

Our first sight of Lake Rotorua was from a spot where the haka was invented, what a privileged experience this. Lake Rotorua is the second largest lake on the North island of New Zealand by surface area, and covers roughly 80km square km with a dept of 10 meters in the deeper parts of incredible clear water.

Lake practise session we met up with another EX South African Johan Venter and Nick Langdon. We couldn’t wait to get on the water and catch our first New Zealand lake trout. Hundreds of black swans, which we called “Volstruise” because of their size joined us for fishing that day. I was really proud of the ladies that day. We all caught and learned something new, like one does on a water that you’ve never fished before. On Lake Rotorua you want a brisk wind to churn up the surface and a beautiful straight and controlled presentations as these fish are a bit more skittish and plonking is also a technique used here. Let me put this in capital Letters the HANG is so, so important.

The day had finally arrived, we moved into the hotel which would be home for the next week. Meeting up with the rest of the teams, old friends, new friends, some being celebrities which we only see on social media. Still one sizes up the competition, because hey, you won’t be there if you didn’t want to do well or win. But one thing that makes the commonwealth fly fishing championships so special is because its fishing in friendship. But with some unfortunate news the Canadian teams had to head back as their country called them back with the looming pandemic that was seeping into different parts of the world… coronavirus or as we know it now Covit-19.

In-between all of this just before the comp one of our ladies Lucinda had to be tested for Covit-19 and Bianca had to selfquarantine separate from Lucinda because they were roommates, this wasn’t an easy time because being captain this is the last thing you want , not knowing what the result would be, if all will be ok and if they would get the tests back in time, maybe losing two of our team mates, everything was uncertain. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the results back in time, and couldn’t take part in the competition, my heart still goes out to them because they went there all the way and couldn’t finish and it would have been their first-time fishing in the Commonwealth. But with good spirits and lots of support we had to keep going and fish on.

The competition started difficult, with nerves and new waters. The ladies took this time to adjust and settle into rhythm. A better day followed with more fish. My game plan was to target the smaller fish in the margins and

the bigger fish in faster, deeper water. Anything goes as long as you get your flies in the right column and a perfect drag free drift. In the pancake water I used a dry and drop and in the faster water I double nymphed with great success. Drop-offs at the tail end of pools were very productive. I lost plenty of fish doing the crocodile death roll and a few jumps in-between. End of the day we all done well with no blanks this boosted overall team and individual morale.

Cometh hour, cometh the man. Here we are, at a beautiful smaller lake called Lake Karatua which is a hydro lake and water depths vary from day to day. The day before my mother had a session on lake Karatua and she rose above and out fished most of the competitors in that session with the secret fly called the 991 and some good skills, so thanks Mamma.

My lot fell on a boat with name of murphy’s law and I knew ‘lekker man lekker’. We had good wind to cover water with good pace and drift. We started on the edges of the lake and I used the best line since sliced bread, the camo intermediate line. I started with long straight presentations in the shallows, paused for 3 seconds then rolly-polly. I got hits on the drop or by the third retrieve and sometimes on the pause. Caught the smaller fish like this on the 911 and black woolly bugger. I used two flies at least a meter apart because of the weeds and structure in this lake, this seemed to hit the spot. We went into deeper water and concentrated on the drop offs. Where my boat partner changed to heavier line and I decided to go higher because I could see the fish feeding on surface. Went to my floating line with 911 on top dropper, unweighted nymph on middle dropper and point fly was a GRHE with a copper bead. My boat partner asked me what technique I was using and I my brain went into bullshit mode and my mouth said it’s called midge lobbing. I continued with a slow figure of 8 just keeping contact and boom, boom the bigger fish started to fill my nett, I knew this was going to be a good session. There was a few of us that caught 11 fish and one angler caught 13, it was going to be close. Ended the session with my boat partner Gary from Northern Ireland with a well-deserved beer as we said goodbye to this beautiful lake.

Because of covet 19 we were not allowed more than a 100 people in the same room. So, with precautionary taken we had prizegiving done in the open and dinner was served in two separate ROOMS with a mirror image. Prize giving was short and sweet with everyone ready to mingle. For the first time in the Commonwealth they a c k n o w l e d g e d t h e l a d i e s w h o participated. I was very surprised when they called my name for the third place. Unbelievable to me, I got a first place in my group in the last session!!! With hard work and good prep building on my previous experiences to help me. I stayed calm, level headed, going slow and not rushing. Always thinking about the next move before you do it and a bit of thinking out of the box gives you good results.

Everyone started to check out and by the evening the hotel turned ghostly quiet setting the tone for the next couple of days. At least this time we kind of followed the GPS. Announcements of lockdowns and flights being cancelled, constantly checking flights, endless phone calls flights changes, silent chaos everywhere. Auckland was like ghost town in a Doomsday movie. But that is a story for another day. We met up with the rest of our South African team mates at Sydney airport, we were lucky to walked straight into them, as we were all cover with masks and gloves, something new none of us were used What an experience and what a year so far! Thank you for all the sponsors Q4, JJ Viljoen Attorneys and our practice sessions from an anonymous human loving people. Thanks to everyone for their support and love. Thanks to my teammates for that little bit of Magic that each one of you put towards our great adventure. Mamma Renthia the veteran of our team, a shoutout to your achievements and for taking on your 6 th Commonwealth Championships!

Stay safe all.