What a Team!

The First Australian World Ladies Fly Fishing Team

Julie Butler

From beginner to the World Championships in under 4 years.

My journey into fly fishing started in 2018 when I was in search of a new pastime to take my mind off work. I stumbled across a demonstration day at Hiscutt Park in Penguin being run by the North West Fly Fishers club. The guest angler was the then Australian Ladies Champion, Karen Brooks. Karen got me casting in no time, and from then, I decided that fly fishing would be my new pursuit.

I tend to never do things by halves, so I decided if I was going to do this, I would dedicate the time and resources to learn as much as I could as quickly as I could. The next day, I booked in a guided day with Karen and a few weeks later was on the river catching my first fish on the fly. I caught a total of 6 fish that day on the Mersey River and it was the start of my new obsession.

We journey through life and if we are lucky pick up friends along the way who enrich our experiences and potentially change our lives. This is exactly what happened when I attended a Girls Gone Fly fishing weekend at Peter Hayes’ at Cressy.

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born”.

(Writer Anais Nin)

Among this incredible group of women, I met two who would do exactly that, change my life and accompany me on my fly fishing adventure. Jules Stevens from Essential Flyfisher was also just starting fly fishing, that was the start of an amazing friendship. For a while we would laugh that we were all the gear and no idea, but that quickly changed thanks to that other new found friend, Casey Pfeiffer, and of course with Casey you also get Lubin, her husband, they are fishing dynamos - both Commonwealth champions. It was Casey who ‘badgered’ me into competition fly fishing. I was so inexperienced and was very aware that in the scheme of things, I knew very little, but she was persistent, and when an opportunity to fill in as a ‘dummy angler’ arose, she wouldn’t take no for an answer. I learnt so much that weekend that I decided to join Fly Fish Australia and competition fish to escalate my knowledge and Jules joined me.

What a great decision that was, everyone was so helpful and supportive and very keen to share their knowledge. At the same time, Jules and I continued to fish with Casey who continually pushed and challenged us to fish better, wade deeper and read the water. We have had so many great adventures together fishing Tasmania and last year we went to New Zealand for two weeks of fishing.

In under 4 years, I have accumulated a lot of gear, including a Purdon dinghy and a fly fishing van, got bitten by a snake at Pine Tier Lagoon on my first solo trip and amazingly in 2020 competed in the Australian Fly Fishing Championships and became the Australian Ladies Champion, finishing 10th overall. None of which could have been possible without my incredible mentors who have been so eager and selfless in sharing their knowledge. Doing so well at the Nationals earned me a place in the Australian Ladies World team.

I’m writing this article somewhat sleep deprived after having returned yesterday – 14 July, from the 1st FIPSMouche World Ladies Fly Fishing Championships in Norway. The team being – Karen Brooks – Tasmania (Captain), Casey Pfeiffer - South Australia, Jane Forster - ACT, Marian Millar - VIC and myself from Tasmania, Jules Stevens – Tasmania (Manager and reserve) and Martin Droz – Tasmania (Coach). It was such an honour to represent Australia at such a momentous event and it was made even more special to be able to share that with my two fishing mates.

1st FIPS- Mouche Ladies World Fly Fishing Championships – the challenges

European Grayling - The team had very little experience catching Grayling which would be our major target species. We left for Norway on 25th June for a week of practice and to familiarise ourselves with the waters we would fish.

We soon learned that to be successful in catching grayling, you first have to find them. They sit in deeper water, in depressions and in the calmer water behind rocks, quite often in schools. They are quite eager to bite when the water is disturbed by you wading and dislodging morsels of food from the riverbed.

My most successful strategy was to wade across the river, casting upstream with heavy nymphs, allowing them to sink, then swing them and guide them up through the water column behind and leave them for around 5 seconds. Quite often this would result in fish taking the nymph on the rise or while stationary behind. Then I fished back across where I had just waded and disturbed the bottom. The most difficult thing is not to strike, but to allow the fish to hook themselves.

24 hours of daylight – This seemed very strange after coming from a Tasmanian winter where it is quite dark at 5.00, but we quickly adapted and found the endless daylight just gave us longer to fish. Once the competition started, we would rise at 4am in the daylight which was extremely useful in our preparation.

The championships consisted of 5 sessions, four river and one lake. The team were based at Koppang for the practice week, sharing a house, we soon became a close-knit team, fishing through the day sharing and discussing what we learned through practice and fly tying at night. Our first practice day was on the Attna, we all caught fish under Martin’s expert coaching. The following day we fished the Rena but were driven home with heavy rain and thunder storms.

High water levels – Day three of our practice became an enforced rest day as the water levels were too high and dangerous. It soon became obvious that we were experiencing a significant weather event and much of the holding water quickly became inaccessible.

The team had a great practice day on Lake Solensjoen, at 14km long and 3km wide it is a beautiful lake with a very rich history, it’s early fishing inhabitants predating the Vikings. We determined that the fish were in more shallow waters up to 2.5 metres, in many cases sitting right on the bank. Intermediate lines were the most successful with small English wets and a beaded nymph on the point.

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony included a parade through the streets of Koppang and was well supported by the local community, it was a truly proud moment, walking as the very first Australian Ladies World Team to compete in the very first Ladies World Fly Fishing Championships. We received enormous support from the fly fishing community in Australia and are extremely grateful for this.

The Competition

The beats were set at the high water mark but two days prior to the start of the championships the markers were washed away, organisers having to remark them. The competition was fierce and high water levels made it challenging but my height was definitely an advantage. It required extreme wading, lots of stamina and a huge amount of courage, most competitors going for multiple ‘swims’ in fast water. We were described by the controllers as brave, courageous and tough – it left everyone with no doubt what women anglers at this level can achieve.

We had the usual variance in beats, with a couple not catching any fish at all and some unable to cross due to high water levels, reducing the fishable water –that’s competition fishing!

All in all, it was an amazing experience and I learnt so much. We were fortunate to have Tasmanian resident and former world champion, Martin Droz as our coach and guide, it enabled us to learn and adapt quickly to the different styles of fishing we needed to adopt. Martin and our team Manager Jules ensured we had everything we could ask for before, during and after the competition.

Eleven countries were represented at the Championships and Team Australia finished 5th. Overall, I finished 19th out of 55 anglers – of course we always want to do better, none the less, I’m happy with my result. I think I fished well both in practice and the competition and that’s all you can ask for.

The Czech girls took out the Team first place as well as placing as the top 4 anglers – what champions they are!

My good friend and constant fishing companion, Jules was the appointed Manager, but also the reserve angler and she also got to fish the last session as one of our anglers was ill.

The next Ladies World competition is in Canada September 2023.

The 1st Australian Ladies Fly Fishing Team would like to acknowledge and thank our loyal supporters and our dedicated sponsors Essential FlyFisher, Manic Tackle, Mayfly Tackle, Great Lake Hotel and The Winter Gin Company.

Lake Solensjoen is a beautiful lake and one of the sole competition lake venue.

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