New Zealand World Championships
Report by John Horsey on behalf of the Hardy Greys England Flyfishing Team, April 2008.
Venues
Back in 1990 I was one of the lucky few to be selected to fish in my second World Championships, which were held in the North Island of New Zealand. Little did I realise then, that 17 years later I would return to the very same location and the same hotel in Rotorua to re-commence battle with the hardest fighting trout in the World!
I remember being slightly disappointed on my first visit, as we fished the Whao Canal, Flaxy Lake and Lake Aniwhenua, which were all man made and part of the extensive hydro electric system. The Rangitaiki River was the only true wild venue and as we were allowed to practice along its entire length, the fishing died very quickly.
The venues for this, the 28th FIPS Mouche World Flyfishing Championships had been chosen with great care and attention; mostly by New Zealand International angler Peter Scott, who personally walked each and every river beat on countless occasions. We were to fish three rivers – the Whanganui, the Waihou and the Waimakariri, as well as Lakes Otamangakau; known as the Big “O” and Rotoaira.
Some of the rivers were low due to the worst drought in 100 years, but we all agreed that with another 6 inches of water in them, we would have struggled to stand up; let alone fish! We were allowed to practice on two small stretches of the Waihou and Whanganui rivers, but no practice at all on the Waimakariri or either lake. This was the most annoying aspect, as Rotoaira is bigger than Rutland and the Big “O” is fished extensively and can handle the pressure. Still, we figured the host nation wanted a bit of serious home advantage. And who could blame them?
Practice
The Hardy Greys Team England consisted of myself, Howard Croston, Mick Tinnion, Simon Robinson and Andrew Dixon, with Ian Greenwood our manager. Howard and I arrived on the 5th March, with the rest of the team arriving five days later.
Ian had been in New Zealand since mid February, so we were determined to grow fully accustomed with the practice waters and determine our tactics well in advance of the match itself.
Rivers practice
The minimum size of fish for all the venues was 18 cms and on the Waihou and Waimakariri rivers, there were plenty around this size – but also many that were much bigger. The lakes and the Whanganui river boasted fish far in excess of the minimum size, but we soon came to realise that anything over 18cms was our target fish.
We were based at Te Rangiita on the banks of the famous Lake Taupo for the first 10 days and we used this time to practice as much as possible on the Whanganui river and it’s sister river the Whakapapa. Both were incredible rivers that produced masses of quality rainbows and browns – some so big you simply could not control them. The stuff of dreams!
Travelling to the other two rivers meant driving for over 4 hours, so we concentrated on the Waihou river once we moved to Rotorua. We also found several rivers nearby that were of similar size and terrain to this lovely crystal clear, spring fed river. We could only look at the Waimakariri river which was originally going to be used exclusively for practice. However, due to the drought, the Ohinemuri river had to be dropped and the Waimakariri became a Championship venue.
The fish in both these Spring Creeks were abundant and normally less than half a pound in weight. On our first practice afternoon on the Waihou, Howard and I caught 126 between us, but half that total failed to measure the statutory 18 cms. We knew we would be fishing for big totals of trout, but that many would be rejected as being too small. Every now and then however, you would hook something that disappeared down river like an express train; smashing your tippet material like cotton!
The Whanganui was an altogether different proposition. Very few fish failed to measure 18cms and many were well over the 3lb mark. It was imperative to fish strong tippet material on this river and even more importantly, to use strong hooks. Many of the flies we had tied in advance were on lightweight barbless hooks and it soon became evident that these were simply no match for any wild trout over the 2lb mark!
Lake practice
As we could not practice on the two match lakes, we tried to drive around them, but access was impossible apart from where the boats would be launched. So much different than back home! We asked the locals many questions, but most were pretty tight-lipped. We knew that the New Zealand team were well acquainted with the lakes, but then found out that the Australians, French, Americans and some of the Canadian team had been across to practice before the lakes were officially closed to competitors. So we really were at a disadvantage. It would be crucial that whoever drew the lakes on the first day would have to not only fish out of his skin, but also have to feed back as much information as possible to the rest of the team.
We had two official practice sessions on Lake Kuratau and unofficial practice was on any other lake we could find. The problem was finding a lake with similar characteristics to the Big “O” and Rotoaira – and there were not many – I personally would say none!
Both match lakes were choked with Canadian pondweed and the trout were rumoured to live in the deeper channels within these weedbeds. The locals normally anchor and fish big dry fly “bungs” with nymphs suspended beneath. In fact, this was the way many people fished the rivers as well – particularly the big rivers like the Tongariro. The Indicator flies need to be seen to be believed, but they do have to hold up some seriously heavy nymphs in a strong, swirling current.
Our 2 practice sessions on Lake Kuratau produced dozens of trout – mainly rainbows with a few browns. We looked for areas of the lake with large weedbeds and avoided the obvious fish holding areas like sunken trees and structure, as neither of the match lakes had any of these features.
We caught plenty of fish on floating lines and slimes, with Damsel patters and Nymphs, but it wasn’t until we switched to DI 3 lines that we started hammering the fish. Although nymphs produced a few fish, they preferred larger patterns such as Damsels, Black Taddies and …… Black Boobies. Yes, the infamous Booby was certainly going to be our main top dropper fly when it came to the match lakes. Leader material had to be strong and a minimum of 8lb Fluorocarbon was obligatory to “hit and hold” these powerful trout before they weeded themselves and came unstuck.
Flies
Fly tying is an integral part of competition fishing and in Simon Robinson and Howard Croston, we had two of the fastest tiers in the business. I am not the slowest of tiers, but both Simon and Howard can tie 3 flies to my 1 most of the time!
The last time I was in New Zealand, we had awful problems sourcing good tying materials. Bringing any fur and feather into the country is fraught with problems as the customs will almost certainly confiscate the lot. Thankfully Peter Veniard had kindly agreed to sponsor the team with all our tying materials and these were delivered through the strict customs security and awaiting our arrival. What a great bit of forward planning that proved to be.
Having fished the Southern Hemisphere several times before, I was expecting the fish to want a decent mouthful of fly – and I wasn’t wrong either. Even a small trout would greedily wolf-down a large Hares Ear nymph on the river in fast water. Many took size 8 Sparklers with no hesitation as they often fed hard on Smelt – a small freshwater fish not dissimilar to a bleak.
Dry fly had it’s moments on the rivers, particularly when used in conjunction with nymphs. When we had the official practice on Lake Kuratau or Lake Aniwhenua, the Damsel was a killing pattern, as was the ever faithful Black Lure. I had used Black Boobies to devastating effect on the wild rainbows and browns of Canada, Australia and Tasmania - these also had the same impact on the New Zealand lake trout.
Size was important on the two smaller rivers, as was finer tippet material. Copper tungsten bead head flies were the order of the day, with small Pheasant Tail variants and Stripped Quill nymphs proving irresistible. Bog standard Gold Head Hares Ears also worked extremely well and we caught so many fish with these three patterns, we were almost certain they would work in the match on fresh fish.
So by the time of the match, we had hundreds of flies tied and were quietly confident they would work. There are always “extra’s” to be tied during the Championships when someone finds a new killing pattern, but what we did not know with any confidence is what would work on the two match lakes.
The Match
During the 2 Official Practice Days, all competitors are expected to use the transportation provided and timings for departure for all the venues is strictly adhered to. Breakfast is from 5:00am and the first mini buses were scheduled to leave the Hotel at 5:45am for the longest journeys.
We treated Official Practice as if it was the Championship – believe me, having Ian Greenwood knocking on your door at 4:30am can be a daunting prospect, especially as I am not good in the mornings! Breakfast is essential, but we all feel pretty nervous prior to the match and it is not easy digesting your food. At times we should have been sponsored by Imodium!
Howard Croston drew the short straw and was scheduled to fish both lakes on the first day. I had the big river Whanganui in the morning and a rest session in the afternoon, while Simon Robinson had a rest session first and the Whanganui in the afternoon. Mick Tinnion and Andrew Dixon were drawn to fish the smaller rivers Waihou and Waimakariri.
No matter what time we were due to leave, it is an England tradition that we ALL gather to wish our team mates good luck and tight lines in the mornings. After a long day of competition, it is crucial to return to the hotel in the evening and share all information with the rest of the team. In between time, we had to eat and that was not going to leave much time as most of the buses did not come back to the hotel until 9:00pm.
What follows is my personal account of the Championships; session by session.
Day 1 - Session 1 – The Whanganui River – Beat 17
I arrived at the river to be greeted by a worrying sight – a huge crane was dragging massive rocks out of the river and using them to construct a jetty. Surely this would not affect my Beat, which was about ½ a mile downstream?
My Controller shook my hand and told me he owned all the land we were walking along. He said that the river was good here, but I could not understand why I could not see the bottom in shallow water. The river was filthy! This was the first time since I had been in New Zealand when the water was not crystal clear. The crane was still working.
I told my controller and he immediately contacted the Head Controller who informed us he was doing his best to stop the dredging. That meant all Beats below the dredger had coloured water and those above, had the huge advantage of clear water. In the words of Victor Meldrew – “I could not believe it”!
I walked my beat and concluded that there was far too much water to cover effectively in 3 hours. So I decided to start at a lovely fast run, close to the end of my beat.
At the signal to start, I dropped my 3 fly Trio cast into the tail of the run. I had a Dry Fly Sedge on the top dropper and 4 feet below that a Copper Headed Mary and a slightly bigger Mary 4 feet below that. Four casts later my dry fly dipped under and I struck into a cracking rainbow which jumped three times and then jumped off! During the next 40 minutes, I hooked and lost another 3 fish.
These are the times in your life when you either crumble under the pressure, or come out fighting – thankfully I managed to keep it together and reassessed the situation. The river was just starting to clear and I had been told the crane had stopped dredging for the day. So I decided to start again at the bottom of my beat as if it was the start of the Session and gradually waded upstream. After 45 minutes I took my first fish to my controller – talk about being relieved! By 10am I had measured 3 fish. I had 2 hours left in my session and I set myself a target of 10 fish.
During the next 2 hours I personally think I fished the best session in my entire life. At one stage, I was measuring a trout every 4 minutes – all taken from the other side of the river and it took me a minute to wade across each time!
Once I measured 10 fish, I set myself a goal of 15 and so on. By the time I got to 25 trout, my target had become 30 fish – and I could not have dreamt of that number a couple of hours ago! So the secret is – NEVER give up. No matter how hopeless the situation might seem.
To cut a long story short, I finished the session with 28 trout and that was more than enough to finish in 1st place on my Section. I met Simon Robinson who was fishing the afternoon on the Whanganui and relayed my experiences and tactics – I wished him well and returned to the hotel for a rest session.
Day 2 - Session 3- Lake Rotoaira
Howard Croston had fished Rotoaira the previous day and taken 2 fish. He thought most boats had gone to the top of the lake, but being much bigger than Rutland, it was very difficult to ascertain where the boats were fishing. He used a DI 3 as we had in practice and a slime line to take his fish, so I opted for my best method during my time in New Zealand – a DI3 with 15 foot of 8lb Rio Fluoroflex leader and 3 flies. Top dropper was a Green bodied Black Booby, with an unweighted Dirty Damsel in the middle and a Copper Head Green Damsel on the point.
I had spoken to one of my Canadian friends, Donald Thom who had won the previous session with 5 Fish and although I did not ask him how or where he did it, he did say that it took him 25 minutes to get to where he fished.
I asked my boatman David Packman, an ex-Pat living in New Zealand, how long it would take us to get fishing at the other end of the lake and he assured me he could get us there and fishing in just 10 minutes. I trusted him completely and thanks to his Royal navy days – and a 25HP Outboard Engine – he got myself and my Japanese lady boat partner to our fishing grounds right on time.
In practice. We had been told to fish the holes in the weed, but something made me think “why not fish the deeper water that surrounds the weedbeds”? So that’s what I did - and within 5 casts I hooked and landed my first rainbow of about 4lbs in weight. Due to the weed, we knew we had to “hook and hold”, so you had to have complete confidence in rod, leader and hooks.
Tactics were cast a decent line – Airflo 40+ Expert DI3 – then count down for 10 seconds. Two fish took on the drop. Figure of eight was the order of the day, then HANG the flies for about 5 seconds each fly. Four took on the hang. I only lost 1 fish and missed 3 other takes.
Four fish took the Booby, three took the middle dropper Damsel and three took the point fly Damsel. My tactics of avoiding the weedbeds – and the other boats – had worked. I set my drift behind the other boats and could see everything that was happening, so I knew I was doing okay.
Back at the jetty, it became clear that my 10 fish had won that Session, so I met up with Mick Tinnion to share my tactics and flies and also to get information on how he had fared on the Big O that morning.
Day 2 - Session 4 - Lake Otamangakau
Mick had taken 4 fish on the Big O from a specific weed channel. He had also lost some big fish in the weed. Slime line was best for him, but we both agreed that I ought to start with what had worked so well for me on Rotoaira. So that’s what I did.
However, trying to locate any clear water on the Big O was a nightmare – the conditions were cloudy and as such, we could not see through the water. We also realised that cloud and wind in New Zealand puts the fish OFF the feed – quite the opposite to Northern Hemisphere fishing.
I spent the first 30 minutes getting hooked up in the weed and not having a touch. I did however watch a Swede catch 2 fish close to the shore, pulling a Slime line, so I sped over to cover his drift. I had to fish much faster and started to get pulls from small trout, but I could not get them to stick. So I switched to a Slime Line and put a Black Straggle Fritz Taddy on the point, kept the Damsel on the dropper and due to the weed, discarded the top dropper completely. At the end of one retrieve I had a cracking take on the hang and bullied a near 5lb rainbow into the net – talk about relief!
I repeated the drift several times and bumped a few fish. Then the sun came out and I felt the fish were much higher in the water, so I discarded the Damsel pattern and changed to a Black Diawl Bach Nymph. First cast I hit another good rainbow on the Daiwl Bach. I’d cracked it … or so I thought! I never had another take.
There was now just over an hour of the match remaining and I decided to gamble for the good of the team. I switched to a floater and 3 Nymphs. I fished this for 15 minutes without a take, but in this time a couple of fish had risen. Mick had told me they rose in the morning when it was sunny, so gamble number two happened in the shape of dries. I fished these on the drift for another 15 minutes, hoping to see a fish rise and also fishing the water as I would at home. Nothing!
With 30 minutes to go, I asked my Controller to take us to the other side of the lake where there was a deep channel. Word was that there were no fish here as the flow had been stopped. I changed to the Airflo 40+ Expert Slime line again with my DB and Black Lure combination. First drift across I hit a fish – and what a fish – 68.9cms to be exact.
Soon afterwards I caught a 22cm trout and lost 2 more at the net. I had finished with 4 fish and that big one had helped me beat 2 anglers who had 5 trout. With a 4th place in my Session, I now had two 1sts and a 4th – that put me in top place overall with 2 more sessions to fish.
More importantly, England were in 3rd place overall, just 2 place points ahead of the French, so our brief for the final day was “beat the Frenchman on all our Sectors and we would get a Bronze Medal – at the very least”!
Day 3 - Session 5 – Waimakariri River – Beat 8
The last 2 sessions in any World Championships are always the hardest. There have been 3 of the World’s top anglers fishing hard for 9 hours before you and believe me, they often fish every single inch of water! My hardest decision was deciding what bank I wanted my Controller to stand – as they cannot enter the water once the session commences.
I walked the Beat twice and decided I wanted him on the opposite bank. I started at the tail of my Beat and had a 24cm fish on the Trio first cast. What a way to settle the nerves. I had decided to walk up my Beat fishing Trio with the same team of flies I had used on the Whanganui to such good effect, but the flies were smaller to suit this river.
I soon measured another fish, but then caught 9 on the trot that were too small. Almost an hour had passed when I reached to top of my Beat and some deeper, faster water. I switched my point fly for a heavier Copper Headed Mary and carefully worked upstream standing against the very strong current. I landed 2 more “measurers” and almost fell in twice trying to wade across to my Controller. I now wished I had asked him to stay on the other side!
Still wading cautiously upstream, I pitched my dry and nymph combo up above me in the fastest bit of water and a snout broke the surface and engulfed my Retirer Dry Fly. I struck and all hell let loose. The rainbow stripped 10 yards off my reel in an instant and then turned downstream into the fast current. My Controller offered me words of encouragement like “Don’t you loose that one, it’s the biggest fish in the Beat. I’ve been watching it every session until now. Take your time”! They were wise words.
I played it with kid gloves, as I was only using 4lb tippet and knew it could break me easily. Little by little I got below it and managed to keep it above me again - finally I got it into my landing net. My Controller cheered – and so did I! It measured 40.1cms, which was a big fish for this smaller river.
With all the commotion, I decided to fish back down the entire Beat using Spiders – something we had caught well on during practice. I tried to “dead drift” them with rod held high, watching the big loop of line for takes as my “Spider Guru” Mick Tinnion had told me.
I got take after take, but most were too small to measure. Every now and again though, I would get a decent fish and the method helped me to 10 fish for the Session and at least double that returned for being too small.
Would this be enough to beat my French opponent; Bertrand Jacqueman who was World Champion 2 years ago in Sweden? The answer was no! I was distraught. Bertrand and the other 3 competitors on my mini bus had all beaten me, so I feared the worst and felt I had let the team down.
At lunch, I met Ian Greenwood and told him my score and that I feared I would be well down in that session. He gave me loads of encouragement, but still I felt sick! Howard had fished the Waihou that morning and he too had drawn a bad Beat and only had 2 fish – we both began to feel we had blown it.
What I did not find out until 8:00pm that evening, is that the fishing had got much harder throughout and my 10 fish had earned me 6th place in the Session. Unwittingly, I was in 1st Place overall and fishing for World Champion in my last session.
Day 3 - Session 6 – Waihou River – Beat 4
I now knew that I had to beat Bertrand in my final session to give the team a chance of pipping France for a Bronze Medal. He had a good Beat and so did I. Both had produced top teens in the morning, but that also meant they would be hard in that final session. I set myself a target of at least 12 fish to beat Bertrand. As it happened, we were on the same mini bus and we were also on adjoining Beats. We shook hands and wished each other “Bon Chance” before heading for the final session of the World Championships.
My Beat was enormous – separated by a hill in the middle which took 4 minutes to run over – yes, RUN! I walked it fast up and down prior to the start and this time, decided to start half way up the second piece of river, which was gin clear and flowing faster and wider than the River Test at top water.
Once again, I started with my trusted Trio method and caught 3 trout in my first 15 minutes – my target total already looked capable of reaching. I had another on the dry fly, then started to catch small fish – lots of them.
I fished up my Beat, then changed to Double Nymph. Simon Robinson had done well on Stripped Quill Nymphs on the Waihou, so on they went and I started to cover the deeper pots with this technique. It worked and I caught 2 more decent rainbows, but began to feel that my Beat had been fished really hard. I cast my nymphs into all the places I felt might not have had a fly through them, but as ex World Champion Tomas Starychfojtu of the Czech Republic had previously fished my Beat, I think my entire Beat had been covered.
An hour to go and I decided to run down to the other bit of my Beat. I dropped my nymphs into a deep pool and had 5 takes in 5 drops, hooking and losing 1 decent fish in the process. These were nervous fish. They’d probably been fished for and possibly even hooked before. I went to the bottom of my Beat and changed back to trio. This produced my 7th fish.
I knew that this wasn’t enough, so with 30 minutes to go, I had to make what turned out to be the most important fishing decision of my life. Should I switch to dries and target 3 fish that had risen earlier in the session on the top bit of river, or go back to nymphs and fish my beat from top to bottom.
I decided that I still needed another 5 fish and that dries would probably not get me that amount. So I switched to triple nymph and fished every nook and cranny that I could find, searching for a few fish that hadn’t yet seen a fly. I caught 3 small fish and lost 1 decent rainbow, but I failed to increase my total.
So that was it – 7 fish in my last session – Bertrand managed 9! I finished 10th that afternoon, being beaten by a Croatian who had 1 less fish than me and a New Zealander who also had 7 fish.
The Results
England had dropped from 3rd place overnight to finish in 6th place overall, but it had been very tight. Simon Robinson recovered from a mediocre result on Rotoaira in the morning to bag an amazing 17 fish from the Big O in his final session to take 1st spot. Howard had beaten his French opponent on the Waimakariri to lessen his disappointment of the morning session. Mick and Andrew both had tricky Beats on the Whanganui River and did well to muster 11th and 12th place respectively.
For myself, just 1 more fish in that Final Session would have secured the World Champion’s Gold Medal - simple as that. The final session was really tough and I had miss-read the situation.
I was not fishing for myself, but for the Team and although I am sad at missing out on a medal, I am glad that my first thoughts were for the England Team. World Championships are all about the Team – any individual achievements are just the icing on the cake.
Had I known that England’s chance of a medal had disappeared prior to that last Session and that I was fishing for a medal, I would have fished it differently. My final 30 minutes would have been all about getting anything I could – one by one. I felt I needed more fish to beat the Frenchman and that was my goal.
Ah well, equal 3rd is still something to be proud of, even if I don’t have a medal to show for it. I did however win a prize for catching the longest fish of the entire World Championships!
As far as England are concerned, we proved yet again that we are not very far away from success. We practiced well, exchanged information throughout, showed boundless enthusiasm and certainly have the respect of the other Countries following our results in the last 3 World Championships. We equipped ourselves very well on all the river sessions and if anything, could have done a bit better overall on the lakes – but with no practice, that is asking a lot!
Next year the World Championships are in Scotland, utilizing 4 stillwater venues and 1 River venue. This will be the first time in 15 years that the lake sessions will outweigh the river sessions. It should be very interesting.
Final Placings
Teams Place Points
1st Czech Republic 125
2nd New Zealand 148
3rd France 164
4th Poland 186
5th Italy 196
6th England 197
7th Slovakia 202
8th USA 203
9th Canada 227
10th Finland 229
Individuals Country Place Points
1st Martin Droz Czech Republic 20
2nd Julien Daguillanes France 20
3rd Tomas Starychfojtu Czech Republic 22
4th John Horsey England 22
5th Lucjan Burda Poland 22
6th Des Armstrong New Zealand 24
7th Simon Robinson England 24
8th Janne Pirkkalainen Finland 24
9th Tomas Adam Czech Republic 25
10th Piotr Konieczny Poland 27
England Team Whanganui Rotoaira Otamangakau Waimakariri Waihou Points Posn
John Horsey 1st 1st 4th 6th 10th 22 4th
Simon Robinson 3rd 10th 1st 8th 2nd 24 7th
Howard Croston 9th 8th 7th 9th 16th 49 43rd
Andrew Dixon 12th 9th 9th 17th 6th 53 46th
Mick Tinnion 11th 14th 5th 17th 6th 53 47th