TIPS FROM THE AUSTRALIAN TEAM - by The Manic Tackle Project W
i t h t h e 2 0 1 9 Wo r l d F ly F i s h i n g Championships imminent, some of the Australian team share a few tips and tricks to become better fly anglers.
Christopher Bassano. Christopher began fly fishing as a teenager. He worked as a fly fishing guide in Tasmania for 24 years from 1993 to 2017 and has owned Tasmania’s leading guiding company, Rainbow Lodge Tasmania, since 2008. Christopher began competition fly fishing in 2010, winning the first competition that he entered. He has fished in eight national championships, winning three titles, coming second twice and not finishing outside the top ten. He won individual gold medal at the Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championships in 2012 and was part of the gold medal winning Australian team at the same event. He has been selected in the Australian team every year since he started competing and finished 6th individually at his last world championships in Slovakia - the best result by an Australian on mainland Europe. Christopher’s top three tips; 1. Practice. If you want to be a good competitor, practice is critical. That doesn’t mean you simply go fishing whenever you can, but that when you go fishing, you are practicing for a competition and not simply having fun. Practice is rarely as much fun as simply fishing. Set goals and try to achieve them.Work on those things that you are worst at and turn your weakness into your strength. This takes singlemindedness and dedication. 2. Fish bad water during practice. Too often I see anglers run to the best water. Competent anglers can catch fish in good water, but not many can catch fish in bad water. During most competitions you fish, you will have to try to catch fish from less than ideal water.These are the sessions that will win or lose you a competition. You don’t have to win every session in order to win a competition. Catching two fish from a beat
that most people blank is more important than catching 30 fish from a beat that most people catch 28 from. If you are not used to fishing poor water and working hard for fish, how can you expect to do well under pressure when this is the water you have drawn? 3. It is not the fly! More often than not, the fly you are using is not the reason why you did not do well. On the odd occasion, a fly might be advantageous but as long as the fly you are using is roughly the right size or shape, you will be able to catch plenty of fish with it. How and where you deliver that fly and how that fly is fished are the most important factors.
Tom Jarman Tom grew up fly fishing with his father in the UK and in Victoria. He started competition fly fishing at age 16 and by age 18 was selected in the Australian Team to compete at the Oceania Championships in New Zealand. Over Tom’s ten year competition career he has won multiple competitions in Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales/ACT and South Australia. He has represented Australia five times internationally, and has competed in the World Championships three times. Fishing in the last three consecutive World Championships, held in the USA, Slovakia and Italy, he finished in the top 25 each time. When not competing you’ll find Tom on the water guiding for trout or at University studying Wildlife Biology. Tom’s hot tips are; 1. Nymph under dry fishing is great fun way to fish, it is very effective, however sometimes it is prone to not detecting takes because of slack between the indicator dry and the nymph. To ensure you have the best control and chance to detect all of the takes, make sure that every cast you make lands with the nymph upstream of the dry, and ensure that both the nymph and dry land in the same current line. This way the
nymph sinks in contact with the dry, and remains relatively tight to you dry throughout the drift. 2. Use your boot. Everyone gets hung up on the bottom when nymph fishing, we hook rocks, sticks, anything and everything.We generally reach down and get a wet sleeve/arm when retrieving our fly. I find I often can free my fly by wading over and using the toe of my boot to lightly kick or shuffle around the rocks, timber etc. This either frees your flies, or dislodges the rocks or sticks that your fly is caught on, and you can generally lift up the stick they are caught on, unhook them and keep fishing whilst staying dry! 3. Add some float. I won’t dry fly fish or fish with a floating line and an indicator without using some form of floating line grease on the tip of my fly line, and then leader. What this does is allow superior mending, and effortless pick up of your fly line and leader off the water. By doing this once at the start of the days fishing, you’ll find that mending, picking line up off the water becomes so much more efficient all day.
Jonothan Stagg Jonothan started fly fishing at the age of 11 and has now over 30 years’ experience fishing in his home of Tasmania. He has fished a number of mainland states as well as New Zealand, USA and many countries in Europe and Great Britain. He is the current and 6 times Tasmanian Fly Fishing Champion, three times Australian Fly Fishing Champion as well as the current and three times runner up silver medallist. He was a member of gold medal winning Australian teams in both Commonwealth and Oceania Championships. Jonothan has been an Australian team member in 10 World fly fishing Championships, finishing in the top 20 individuals on 4 occasions. Jon’s hot tips are; 1. Choosing the length of tippet – For me the tippet is one of the most critical items in all
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Fishing News - Page 15
