TroutLegend

Ladies and gentle folk of the web I have good reason for my month long lapse in posting. I recently returned from an adventure up in the northern territories and this time I have something to show for it! The setting was a picturesque ski village nestled deep in the wilderness of French Speaking Quebec. The event was the Canadian National Fly Fishing Championships. With a bit of luck I found myself on one Team Equipe Airflo – a team with a long running heritage of securing gold and silver medals in Canada’s most important fly fishing event. 1 week prior to the competition commencement I drove the 9 hour hike up to team captain Randy Taylor’s (Fly Fishing Canada President) secret practice chateau and met fellow teammates Donald Thom and John Huff. Mark Anderson, a writer for Outdoor Canada arrived the day before competition soaking up all the venue intelligence, or lack there-of we could gather, and the remaining scotch to round out our 5 man team. A better group of anglers and all around good blokes I have not had the fortune of meeting. I had scripted a longer essay on the subject but windows vista decided it looked tasty and ate it. So, in an effort to reconstitute my posting schedule I’ll give you the shot gun synopsis. The venue was spectacular and I have never experienced such a fluid organization from the coordinator Jim Iredale down to the very helpful and always on time controllers. The lakes, situated on a pay-to-play reserve were stocked to the brim and ranged from a fully fledged shoot-out to “blanks for everybody.” The scenery was unmatched in grandeur. The river, El Diable which means The Devil was just that – the most difficult wading any of the competitors, many of which have traveled the world over could ever remember. But, with many willing stocked brookies swinging a team of dry flies proved not only effective, but loads of fun even under the pressure of competition. Fly Fishing Team USA made a gracious visit to the competition and snatched team gold with their methodical “power team” image. However, the real story was Fly Fishing Canada’s Youth Squad which not only grabbed Team Silver, but placed the top two individual Gold and Silver finishers… truly a spectacular finish in the face of this field of competitors and adverse venues.Oh yeah! Did I mention my team scraped together a Bronze Medal? Sure, people say finishing 3rd is like kissing your sister, but hey – it’s a beginning! I placed 16th overall and brought home a deeper understanding of what it really takes to compete on the highest level of competitive fly fishing. So many stories to tell, but so little time. Maybe I’ll grab a fine bottle of scotch some time soon and tell you about all the “good angling!” For now enjoy some pics from the event. Cheers!