Young Gun Interview with Finn McDowell by Lubin Pfeiffer A stunning Mersey River brown trout — about to be released by Finn.
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here are lots of great young anglers in Tasmania. It was fantastic to spend the day on the Mersey River with Finn Mcdowell before the season closed and catch a stack of fish. Afterwards, I sat down and interviewed Finn about his fishing. These interviews are aimed at encouraging more young anglers into the wonderful world of fishing and fly fishing. During our day on the river, it was awesome to see how Finns fishing has progressed over the last twelve months. He is going to be one of the top anglers in the competition fishing in the next few years! What is your age and where are you from? I’m 16, turning 17 this year and I am from Ulverstone in the North West, but I spent eight years living in Hobart. What got you started on fly fishing? I think I was nine when I started fly fishing and dad was the one who introduced me to it. I started going out with him a bit and went from there. Pop had a shack at the lakes so we used to stay up there a lot. Fishing News - Page 30
How many competitions have you fished? I have fished five competitions now, the first four I was in the lower end of the results, but in this round, I finished seventh and got my first ranking points. This was my first-year competition fishing. What got you into competition fly fishing and why? I started by doing a course offered by Fly Fish Australia and learnt about Euro Nymphing and technical Dry Fly fishing, and you, Tom Jarman and Casey Pfeiffer suggested I should join FFA and start doing some competitions. Once we moved up North and got settled I joined and did my first competition in October. For someone that doesn’t compete in fly fishing competitions, why would you recommend starting? You learn so much, it is amazing the learning curve that happens just by controlling or being in a boat with someone and watching them fish, it’s insane. You also get to meet other people that are into it and know what they are doing and are really good
at it. I think the main thing is that you learn heaps, but it’s also social getting to talk and interact with lots of like-minded people. Do you have a favourite type of saltwater fish to catch and why? Bream for sure and then squid. I grew up near Browns River and used to fish there all the time for Bream and really enjoyed it. Do you have a favourite place to fish and why? I enjoy going up the lakes, that would be my favourite spot. Bronte Lagoon is where I learnt to fish and I caught my first lake fish there. I’m a member of the Kingborough Anglers Club and I learnt a lot from them fishing at Bronte. I know you’ve started tying flies, how did you get into this and what are your favourite fly to tie? Dad got me into fly tying, I’ve been tying flies since I started fishing so I was about 9. My favourite fly to tie is a tricky one. It depends where I’m going. I have favourite flies for all my favourite locations.
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