COMPETITIVE FLY FISHING IN A NUTSHELL By John Pellew

The National Pairs competition held at Lake Rotoaira on the 22nd &23rd September was a huge success. There was plenty of interest from anglers who are new to the sport of competitive fishing, and that’s exactly what we want to see. Rene Vaz, from Composite Developments, North Shore Auckland sponsored it and put together a superb prize package of GHR rods and Airflo fly lines for the event. The team at Fish City also contributed by providing their fly fishing specialist boat for the weekend.

The event is held annually and many of New Zealand’s top anglers line up to take part in the event, which is all very exciting. The opportunities are endless for the keen angler who wants to fast track their skills and increase their chances of catching greater numbers of fish both in a comp and during their fun fishing times. By joining Sport Fly Fishing New Zealand Inc (sffnz.kiwiclub.com) you are able to take part in events during the season and also get a crack at making it into the NZ Team.

The way the system works is, two angler’s fish for points and you are scored as a team and but you don’t get to fish together. Each team member is balloted out to fish with a different angler on each session allowing them to observe the different skills, styles and techniques while using their own methods and adjusting them as they go. The atmosphere is fantastic and there’s always someone to help out when you get stuck or need some advice on the day.

You receive 100 points for every fish landed within the size limit and another 20 points for every cm of that fish’s length, so for a 22cm fish you receive 540 points. It’s quite important to land any fish that you hook although it’s not always possible with barb less hooks. Every fish is released quickly back to the water and we use the international rules in all our competitions. Now for a bit about how things went on the weekend.

Saturday morning on Lake Rotoaira it was obvious that the weather wasn’t going to be in our favour. Most of us had some idea of where we wanted to start fishing for the first three-hour session and it wasn’t long before all 11 boats were drifting into position with drogues in behind.

The first session seems to be the easiest, you start out fresh and full of confidence expecting good numbers of fish to be pulled from their watery home, dragged into a landing net, measured then released. Every angler hopes that it will be a qualifying one and when it is, there is nothing in the world quite like it, and you know you’re on the board as you settle in for the long haul. Three hours on a drifting boat in rough conditions can be uncomfortable you hardly notice it and your thoughts are always on the fish.

A good number of fish were taken on streamer patterns such as woolly buggers and the like while others had good early season success on nymphs representing damsels and other invertebrates. Red bead head flies were popular with both the anglers and the fish adding attractiveness to streamers, which represent the population of bullies, small fish and freshwater crayfish that abound in the lake.

In the second session it is easy to get a little lost and you tend to
deviate from your first intentions. Those who stick to a plan come out the best and seem to find some kind of consistency that enables them to remain confident in their techniques and ability to hook and land more fish. Confidence in your fly patterns and a matching technique are vital.

Most people would have the idea that nymphing the lake at this time of the year would be a waste of time but this couldn’t be farther from fact, damsels are always active throughout the year and provide the main diet for the hungry trout. Some of us used the nymphing technique consistently during the weekend with great results.

On Sunday the weather was still windy with a little bit of rain but the wind was blowing continually making the fishing more predictable then the previous day. By this time every one knew where the good spots were and these areas get a good flogging before taking off to look for new water. Around the outlet side of the lake was rough but seemed to be a good producer, it was on the down wind end making it tough to drift slowly and staying in contact with your flies was the key to hooking fish once you were in the right zone.

Just before it’s time to pack up and the last minutes are ticking by you
hope you can land just one more to bump up the score. It’s all over, time to make tracks and you wonder if you’ve done well enough on that last session to make the grade. It’s an addictive sport, you know it and you think ahead to the next event when you will meet up with them all again.


John Pellew.