Alberta League - ACFFL Event 2

Competition 2 for the season went over incredibly well. An anomaly of big fish caught and gin clear higher water levels made for some interesting circumstances and approaches. Even from two weeks prior the river looked entirely different despite being the exact same spot, 7.92m3/sec and 45 degree water.

The format we used again was 8 beats cut, 2 anglers to a beat scoring each other. Depending on the size of the fish the measurement was zoned to have 1, 2, 3 or 4 points a fish as opposed to measuring to the very cm and potentially having the fish in possession longer then intended. Any ties would result in a tie breaker in which whomever caught the first fish that session would win the tiebreaker. Sessions were 3 hours of fishing, 45 minutes to a beat before you had to travel to the next beat. Given that this league focuses on education and development this is to allow every angler competing that day to see 8 different beat settings. And 8 new opportunity’s to read the water effectively and make decisions accordingly. I drew beat 2 with my beat partner Will Spokes of Fish Tales, A great angler originally from Australia. It was awesome hearing his stories and experiences. Even more awesome that I met a new likeminded friend. With the draw made I was looking forward to the day.

Something else unique and very cool about this particular competition was one of our new competitors to the league Piotr Machewka is actually a World Champion fly fisherman from 2015 in Bosnia. He is originally from Poland and competed for Team Poland when he won the worlds in 2015. I happened to be representing Canada that same year in Bosnia and got to witness him claim his trophy. We met again once more in 2017 at the World Championships held in Slovakia where neither of us topped the charts unfortunately but the beers and beautiful landscapes made for one incredibly memorable experience nonetheless. Seeing Piotr in the parking lot when I pulled up to the bow was just way too cool. It’s been 6 years since we competed against one another.

Bow River
Interior Calgary
April 22nd 2023

12 anglers at this week's event

My strategy going into this was honestly going to be identical to what I had done 2 weeks ago. Beats 1,2,7,8 were much deeper than the middle 3,4,5,6 beats. I had 2 leader wallets set up.

1st one was entirely Spanish nymph setups with prettied flies on. I fished a 22ft leader total. 16ft of 6lb Seagaur IceX fluorocarbon with a 6 ft sighter ( 3ft 0x , 3ft 2x ) 4 ft spacing between the flies. Top fly was Waltz Worm size 14 with a 3.5mm bead, Middle fly was a Red Tag size 12 with a 3.5 mm bead. And my point fly was another Waltz Worm size 12 with a 3.5mm bead. To be used through the shallow beats.

2nd wallet was entirely Czech nymph setups. Same 22ft setup as before. 6 ft sighter and 16 ft of 6lb Seaguar IceX. 3ft separation on the flies. Top fly was a Blowtorch size 14 3mm bead, Middle fly was a Red Tag size 12 4mm bead, Point fly was a Waltz Worm size 12 with a 4mm bead. To be used through the much deeper slower beats.

With the two wallets setup with flies prettied on the leaders. Any break offs or switches I wanted to make would mean tying one knot and I have an entirely new 22ft leader on with new flies. Without the hassle of trying to tie that up mid competition. 10 backup setups should be more than enough to get me through the day.

Going to a minimalist approach again as well. I just stuck to one rod 11ft gen 1 Sage ESN 3 weight. Many other anglers had a second rod setup for either another nymph setup or a streamer setup.

Piotr and I getting reacquainted after 6 years

Session 1 ( Beats 2,3,4,1 )

The water this time around as mentioned before was much clearer, Much higher and moving with bit more gusto. Starting in beat 2 Will and I had agreed to work the beat from opposite ends and work towards each other. I would be on the nymph working upstream presentations. He would be on a streamer his son had tied him working downstream.

The first 45 minutes passed and no fish, beat switch and again I failed to get any sort of love from the fish. Looking around it seemed nobody was having success near me anyways so I decided I needed to make a change quick.

The midges were coming off THICK and every time you caught yourself with your mouth open looking into the wind you were guaranteed to eat a few. Zebra midges were my next thought and approach, I switched up the top and middle flies to a standard Zebra Midge and one with a pink metallic bead. Kept the Waltz Worm on point.

Entering beat 4 we were halfway through the session and still I was without any luck. The new setup I had, gave me a new found confidence and I stopped second guessing what I was using and simply focused on fishing effectively and efficiently. 3 minutes into the beat switch and FINALLY! I hook up.

 
It was a small rainbow on the pink bead Zebra Midge and as I’m fighting the little scrapper the competitor’s worst nightmare happened to me. As I reached behind me to nab my net I felt magnet but no net… Where is my net…? In competition the measure device for scoring the fish is inside the net. No net no score… Immediately in mild panic mode now I purposely lost the fish that wasn’t going to count anyway and started thinking of a plan B if my net’s actually gone. Knowing at the start of the session I had to take a leak and that was the last place I saw my net I scrambled to the beat where THANK GOD it was there just on the edge of the river with a very broken carabiner. I MacGyvered something together really quick and got it re attached.

Fortunately beat 1 was right there and It was my last rotation before the session end. Will managed to hook one fish on the streamer I believe but lost it after a few squirrely head shakes. Myself, I could not poke anything. And my midge setup I was now questioning heavily as It was very apparent I was looking at a blank in session one.

A blank is when one simply does not catch a fish in the session. The 0 score results in as many placing points as there are competitors in that session. Which is about as good as 12 strokes on a single hole at a golf game.

Similar to golf the goal with fly fishing is to have the lowest score in the end, And the secret to success is consistency. After a session the scores are tallied as shown below. And the competitors are then given “Placing points (PP)” that represent their finish and represent how many points they accumulate for that session. After all sessions have concluded. Individual with the lowest placing points (PP) wins.

Piotr with an immaculate bow river brown

Session 2 (beats 7,8,5,6)

After a very difficult first session I had to reevaluate everything. Second guessing everything I had come up with and strongly regretting not getting down to Calgary a day early to practice I figured I had a good game plan.

Dan Kim with an amazing brown trout on the Reece’s Pieces
Sometimes the best thing you can do when you find yourself totally stumped is simply revert back to what you first showed up with. Chances are what you started with first thing in the morning is what you have the most confidence in. Fishing with confidence keeps an angler focused. So even if it’s not the hot fly for the day, if you’re wildly confident in it you will see success on it. Keep fishing it.

Keeping that in mind I went right back to my original game plan and leader setups. The only thing I kept on was the pink metallic bead zebra midge.

Will and I came up with what I felt like were great game plans going into beats 7/8. We fished both very hard with no success yet again…

At this point trying to be observant it seemed very few people were hooking up and the reality of the day was going to be a low numbers day. Halfway through the second session and I was looking at another blank and feeling rather crummy. Will seemed he was getting pretty sore from the river as was I. Onwards to beat 5.

As soon as we saw the beat that was a shallow run two weeks ago was more less a torrent this weekend. Having an hour and a half left I needed to find something. I started bottom of the beat again and started working upstream.

Just downstream of me on the other side of the beat 5 marker. Dan Kim a new angler to the league and an incredible gentleman and fisherman hooks up! The fish broke surface early and I could see a very large head and impressive kype get exposed. I leapt out of the river and ran downstream to take some photos. Figuring that at this point I had nothing to lose so I may as well capture a great shot for this guy and his memorable fish. It was a spectacular brown!

Dan Kim landing a doozie

Now quick backstory about me. I hate worms… I understand how effective and essential they are at times. To be entirely honest, in my fishing career I have always felt like there was just always a fly that was a little bit better of an option then ye olde San Juan or Squirmy. My thought process I think can be justified with the consistency I’ve had on rivers as a whole. But with aggressive opinions comes aggressive lessons and realizations. This large brown trout Dan Kim had caught had a big ol’ Reece’s Pieces worm hanging out of its yap.

Certainly one of those face palm moments for myself. I humbled up and swapped out my point fly for a classic weighted San Juan. First cast and I hook up… one of those “Are you kidding me” moments for sure. Quickly getting the fish to the net it had actually took the pink bead midge. Look up, Dan Kim below me is hooked up again with another good fish. Quickly I release my first scoring fish and get back into the slow pocket I was fishing. Next cast I hook up again! Another good fish, this one took the worm and followed by a quick cheeky eye roll I managed to land him too and felt a lot better about the day.

At the beat switch we were on the final 45 minutes and everyone was looking pretty tuckered out. The endurance needed to do these competitions is highly underestimated by many. 3 hours of straight fishing hard while trying to stay efficient. In the moment it’s intense and fun, afterwards you typically feel like your fresh off an ironman marathon.

Many people around me outside of Dan Kim seemed to still be struggling finding what holding water the fish were in, or the flies to use. To be honest if Dan hadn’t mentioned what fly he was using to me, I would be in the same position as a lot of these guys.

Dan Kim with an amazing brown trout on the Reece's Pieces

Beat 6, Final 45 minutes and I had an easy strategy for the final stretch, I saw where Dan popped those nice fish. I was going to rest the pool for the first 10 minutes then hit it hard with my midge and worm pattern. After a brief smoke break I walked in and first cast I hook up and land a beautiful rainbow on the worm. Fish of the day for me. Nothing extraordinary in size but beautiful. Just as im releasing it. I can hear Aidan and Dan far downstream hooting and hollering. Looks like Dan landed another spectacular specimen. I knew I was far from first based on my blank in the morning. It was really nice to get a lesson on humbling up in the afternoon. The worm needs to be less ignored in my arsenal, especially in the spring when things get tough, 3 fish on the day for me and all thanks to our new league member that showed me what’s up with his rock star angling.

The best part of being a fishing competitor is learning that knowledge is everywhere, and cutting that learning curve in half with every outing. In this particular competition I was up against a literal world champion, and my biggest lesson learned came from a great dude in his first ever competition.

We could hear Dan and Aidan with this fish from over 200m away

Session 2 Results:

Once we all gathered back at the parking area we shared our successes as we always do. Being that Jason really focuses on promoting development within the league. We take turns explaining our approaches and flies we used. Piotr came back strong in the second session and managed to top the charts with some of his own immaculate fish. One brown being an outright slab. He fished primarily Spanish style with 4ft separation on his flies. He also caught his fish using a flashback pheasant tail with a CDC collar, a favorite of his from Italy he said.

Dan was rocking his worm patterns which I saw the effectiveness first hand. Heavy large patterns in the deep, clear and slow is where he did all his damage.

Me with my worm munching rainbow

It was a spectacular competition through and through. We are so lucky and thankful to have Jason Doucette in this province hosting events like these and continuing to grow the sport. Two weeks from now we have our next event at a lake that has yet to be determined. Should make for a great third event on the season!

Please If you have any questions or comments I can be reached at [email protected] .

Anyone interested in becoming a part of the culture and joining us at our competitions please contact Jason Doucette at [email protected]

Thank you

Josh “Jelly” Gelinas

Josh Jelly Gelinas