Boulder, Colorado
June 9, 2006
by Todd Oishi
Beyond being a most enjoyable experience -- where many new friendships were made and ideas exchanged -- the "U.S. National / North American Fly Fishing Championships" proved to be an extremely tough and challenging contest. The organizers did an incredible job selecting challenging venues and beats for the competition, which in turn would allow them to select from the country's best competitive fly fishers to represent the United States of America at the 2006 World Fly Fishing Championships in Portugal.
My time spent fly fishing in the spectacular countryside near Boulder, Colorado -- just prior to and during the competition --was one of the most scenic and memorable experiences of my life. Often, I had to refocus and force myself to concentrate upon the fishing rather than admiring the breath-taking scenery that surrounded me.
The South Platte River weaves a twisted course amongst massive boulders that lie scattered about the valley floor and plunges through a series of canyons. With a healthy trout population and a multitude of access points -- it isn't hard to understand why this river has remained popular with locals and neighboring fly fishermen. It is truly a wondrous place to cast a fly and that every fly fisher must certainly make a pilgrimage to at least once in their life-time.
Below the dam at Estes Park, homes line one side of the Big Thompson, while the roadside encompasses the other. The rushing sounds of its waters and the thick scrub-brush do a somewhat respectable job of masking its close proximity to civilization. Similar to the South Platte -- the Big Thompson River has decent numbers trout, but it is also-known for possessing another rare and valuable gem, -- which is its crowning jewel -- the colourful Green-back cutthroat trout, which has been designated as the official state fish of Colorado.
While serene and very inviting at first glance, presenting our humble offerings to the wary trout in these clear and extremely shallow rivers, proved to be an exhilarating challenge as the angling pressure is quite intense. After several successful days of practice, and a chance to inspect the actual competition venues, our confidence was at an all-time high.
Just a few days earlier, I was in the Czech Republic, where I had attended the "Czech Nymphing Master Class", to enhance and improve my competitive fly fishing skills and knowledge -- as far as river nymphing was concerned. Although Colorado's shallow waters weren't exactly the ideal waters for employing this short-line, high-stick nymphing technique --with some practice and modifications -- I was able to adapt it to match the classic "tail water" fisheries of both the Big Thompson and South Platte Rivers.
Conservation Symposium: The afternoon of the day prior to the first session of competition was set aside for an extremely impressive Conservation Symposium. The list of guest speakers was extremely impressive and left no doubt that Trout Unlimited and the numerous conservation groups based in this area were doing an outstanding job rehabilitating and conserving Colorado's forests and precious waters.
One of the biggest stories in my mind was the efforts to rebuild the populations of the Green-back cutthroat trout, which, in the 1930's were thought to have become extinct. Their numbers began to dwindle as a direct result of the transportation and stocking of non-native fish species in the many rivers and lakes that they inhabited. In the 1960's a few isolated streams where discovered to contain pure strains of the green-backs. A few adults were caught and their offspring were reared in hatcheries, to be reintroduced into the appropriate waters. Soon there-after, all stocking of "non-native" species was completely halted, and the Green-back's numbers gradually increased. Today, they are listed as an endangered species and remain protected by a strictly enforced "catch and release" policy.
Opening Ceremonies: At the opening ceremonies, I had the opportunity to meet and speak with several other competitors in the group. I was thoroughly impressed by angling achievements of the American competitors at the National Fly Fishing Championships, as they had all reached this level of competition through their regional trials, in order to earn the right to compete for a spot on the 2006 Team USA.
The three regional trials, which were held in Fresno, Utah and Michigan, had produced a total of six, five-man teams. As well, three teams that consisted of past Team USA members were hand-selected to compete as the "Dream Teams'"; Team USA 1, Team USA 2 and Team USA 3. The Colorado guides association had also been invited to participate and assembled two teams to enter the competition; 'Colorado Men's' and 'Colorado Women's'. Along with the five-man British Military Team and our five-man Canadian Team -- that brought the number of teams entered in the championships to thirteen, with sixty-five individual competitors.
Session one:
Big Thompson - I lost two counters and landed one small trout, and eventually two decent trout qualified me for 11th place in the first session.
Session two:
Lily Lake in the Rocky Mountain National Park - two that were just shy of the 20cm minimum length and one 40cm greenback cutthroat trout 4th place
Session three:
South Platte -- Decker's seven trout, but only five trout that met the minimum required length of 20cm for 7th place
Session four:
South Platte -- Waterton Canyon produced six trout, one lost on the way in and two that were slightly too small to count and three trout of size, for 5th place in this session of the competition.
Session five:
My final venue was on the 9000 foot elevation Clear Lake, which is nestled high atop the majestic Rocky Mountains. --Lost one 30 cm trout and landed a 33cm rainbow trout for 3rd place
Brett Bishop 1st
Mike Sexton 2nd
Josh Stephens 3rd
John Nishi 18th
Todd Oishi 23rd
Chris Pfohl 33rd
Gord Bacon 64th
Wayne Yoshizawa 65th
At the Colorado Championships, once again, the "local competitors" (those from Colorado and the neighbouring states of Montana, Wyoming and Utah) who pre-fished and understood the trout within these unique waters, and more importantly --the effective patterns and tactics -- seemed to place the highest within the competition's standings. I felt that attending this competition was an excellent prep for future World Fly Fishing Championship, and the added confidence and knowledge gained from fishing such small and technical waters, would be invaluable to everyone who attended this magnificent event.
www.bcflyfishingadventures.com
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