TroutLegend

The Northwest Regional Qualifier for Fly Fishing Team USA finished yesterday after great weather, but run-off conditions.  2 Lakes and 2 river venues were selected for this regional qualifier.  South Twin Lake and Paulina Lake and 2 different sections of the Crooked river.  Flows, as expected, on the river spiked up into the 1200 cfs range while normal flows on this river are typically at 200-300.  By the start of the comp, flows dropped and were varying from 750-900 cfs but the fish were startled enough with this fluctuation in flows that on the first day of comp, getting fish to the net was quite challenging for most.  Even though the increase in flow, fish were still caught and the day was enjoyed by everyone!  The lakes on the first day proved to be the challenge as well since all the anglers were not allowed to fish the lakes for practice.  Everyone went into the lakes with the same amount of information – Nothing!

6 US Team members made it to this event with 17 others trying to get a spot in this year’s National Fly Fishing Championships.  3 of the 6 US Team members were here getting prepared for the World Fly Fishing Championships in Scotland, Lance Egan,  Anthony Naranja and Devin Olsen. The 3 other US Team members were, Bret Bishop, Riley Cotter and Scott Robertson who was also hosting this event.  As expected Scott, his wife Sarah, and all the volunteers from Central Oregon Fly Fishers put on a spectacular event which everyone was proud to be a part of.  I know that all participants are excited to come back to Bend in the future.

I want to congratulate all the anglers on a great job and look forward to seeing all of you at the next event!  A special congratulations goes to Lance Egan who won this event with a perfect score of 4 placing points.  He won all four events in his group, which has never been accomplished by any US competitor in any US regional qualifier, US National Championships or World Championships.

Here are the results and the competitors that qualified for the National Championships this fall.

Gold Medal – Lance Egan
Silver Medal – Anthony Naranja
Bronze Medal – Alec Gerbec

Qualifiers for National Championships:

Alec Gerbec
Kurt Finlayson
Tom Smith

*Zach Herbel
*Guy Jeans

* Will go to Nationals if we can take 5 anglers from each region.