Tips from the Australian Fly Fishing Team — Manic Tackle Project

With the 2019 World Fly Fishing Championships imminent, some of the Australian team share a few tips and tricks to become better fly anglers. 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. 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.

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

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

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 www.tasfish.com - Get the knowledge - Get the fish.

my fly fishing equipment. It plays a massive part in your cast as to how your fly will be presented as well as being that final link between you, your fly and the fish. For many people having a leader and tippet that turns over a fly well is all that they are looking for. But there is so much more that can aid with presentation of your flies by simply lengthening or shortening a leader tippet or even changing the diameter. My advice is don’t be scared to go longer with a tippet, sure it is not easy to cast at first but that’s why you should practice. Get used to it as the presentation of your flies will improve dramatically if you can learn to cast longer tippets. Curve casts, mending, downstream and upstream presentation will all be better with a long tippet. Experiment, adjust the length, change the diameter and find out what works best in the different situations you encounter. 2. Playing and netting fish - In competition fly fishing a fish that has been caught must be presented in the net to the controller for measuring . This means that no matter how beautiful that presentation of the dry fly was, and how well the trout ate the fly, and how you fought the fish downstream for 5 minutes, and how well you played the fish to the net. If that fish comes off as you are about to lift the net under it and it swims away, that fish does not count!...... So that being said, getting that fish in the net is pretty important! As competition fishing is with barbless hooks my first advice is keep tension on the fish at all times, be smooth and do your best to stop the fish from jumping. If the fish gets slack line this is often when it comes off.

Try to play the fish in one direction. If you hook a fish striking backhand then try and play it from the back hand all the way to the net, changing the rod angle or direction you play the fish means you are pulling on the hook in a different direction which may make it come out. Don’t rush. You may think you are wasting time playing fish for too long but a fish in the net will go on the score card so be willing to take that little bit extra time. So many fish come off when you rush them to the net, be sure they are ready and always try to bring the fish upstream of you to be netted. Pulling a fish to the net from downstream will often end in disaster. 3. Good wading boots are essential - There is nothing worse than fishing a competition session on a river slipping all over place and spending more time trying to stand up than fishing. It is critical to have the best sole on your wading boots to suit the water. For free stone rivers I generally like felt soles as I find these grip well on the smooth rocks and are also quiet which I like. However for long hikes, silt bottomed or grassy river banks felt soled boots are a disaster as you will be slipping over for sure. For this a rubber or studded boot sole would be recommended such as the new Simms Flyweight, these are incredibly light and comfortable boots. There are many options out there which are better for some types of water than others but my main advice is to use appropriate soles and comfortable wading boots. Being stable in the water is crucial to successful fishing in any situation.

Mark Bulley

Mark started fishing the creeks and rivers of the Monaro as a boy with his uncle. Mark developed a passion for flyfishing as a teenager and especially loved the places that it took him. Over the years Mark has enjoyed fishing all over Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe. Always trying to discover new methods to trick the trout, Mark started competition fishing in 2009. Lots of time fishing and practicing has led to success at the State, National and International levels of competition.

Mark first represented Australia in 2011 at the Oceania competition (Adaminaby NSW) where he finished with an Individual Silver and was part of the team that was also placed 2nd overall. Since that first time representing Australia, Mark has since been part of the 2013 Oceania team (New Zealand) and 3 world teams in 2013 (Norway), 2017 (Slovakia) & this year (Australia). Mark’s highest World result to date was an Individual 29th and team 5th (both in Slovakia).

Since commencing competition fishing Mark has developed invaluable skills and friendships.

Marks hot tips on becoming better are;

1. Speed: In fast heavy water, look for the softer, smooth patches in between the main currents or the edges. Fish like fast food coming to them, but don’t like to work hard for it. If you are wading this type of water and find a spot where you feel comfortable in, and the water is not pushing you too hard, you are probably in the middle of the trout’s kitchen. 2. Depth: In rivers or lakes, try to work out how deep the river or lake bed is and adjust your fly depth to suit. Each time you drift on the river, let your fly drop a little deeper, building up a mental picture of the river-bed below. In a lake, observe the lay of the land that surrounds you and predict how the lake-bed Is configured. Count your flies down each time you cast, let them sink a little longer each time until you hit the bottom, or find the level the fish are active. 3. Location: Remember the type of water you catch a fish in and look for similar locations. In lakes it could be deep water or the shallow, grassy banks, muddy edges or rocky points. Use the knowledge you gain from catching a fish to help catch the next one. Similarly with rivers, if you catch a fish on the edge his mates are probably in a similar location. Think about its position in the runs or pools:

Are they in the head or tail of the pool? What amount of current are the fish comfortable with? What type of bottom structure are they on?

A pattern will often appear about the fish’s preferred location. Use that to your advantage. Thank you to Manic Tackle Project for these profiles and tips.

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