Author Topic: Hello and my insight on my first CANADA NFFC (Read 116 times)

Jeremiah Hamilton · « **on:** December 05, 2009, 07:54:49 PM »

Hello all my name is Jeremiah Hamilton you PA and NY guy might know me from the Salmon Crazy Forum, I would like to share my experience in the NFFC, and comp fishing in general. I went to the nationals at the last minute luckily Jim iredale from Diables let me practice with his team, we fished all types of water, and I had a crazy amount of fish in Practice. I Helped the team with pattern testing and got a good understand of competition as a team. I was also lucky enough to room with Arron Varga from Team Osprey also team Canada, great tyer and great fishermen, spent some really late nights just tying and talking. I got put on a team, we where two short and one member had a family problems and never finished the comp, It was hard coming from support with Jim's team and really not having any. I also couldn't tell my new teammate what Diable strategy was, only what I learned. Arron and Ivo from Osprey saw that I was struggling started to help me like crazy, like Arron said late one night you missing out on the team part of the comp the is the best part. I got some hard Beats one that no one caught a fish all NFFC except for the last day where John Nishi caught fish, It was still fun and am hooked.

now these are the points i would like to share to new comers to help cut down the learning curve:

you never know what beat your going to get, so practice hard water all the time.

In practice follow people never run a head and fish fresh fish, its better to catch one hard fish then 50 easy fish, because as the days go on those 50 easy fish become hard fish and you will blank.

Never give up on water John Nishi show me that one.

Learn to wade well, run on your time off, I did not have trouble with that and thats how I won the quebec provincials I got in crazy fast water where a lot guys couldn't.

mental mental its a mind game out there, when your sitting on a blank and time is running out, it can driver you crazy.

Now this I learned not from fly fishing but from playing rugby at a high level but it holds true for comp fishing. Sure you can be a star but to win the game a Team is more important then anything else, they will help you when you are down and push you further then you can imagine.

good luck

Jeremiah Hamilton · « **Reply #1 on:** December 05, 2009, 08:04:14 PM »

Mark Hanes · « **Reply #2 on:** December 05, 2009, 10:27:58 PM »

Glad to have you here! Looking forward to hearing more from you. What streams did you guys fish in Quebec and what kinds of tactics worked for you there?

Jeremiah Hamilton · « **Reply #3 on:** December 06, 2009, 09:27:49 AM »

the Devils river in Mont-Tremblant, the same river the 2008 NFFC was held on. Everyone struggle in the morning, after the first beat I landed only 4 fish, and was down thinking I must of been last but low and be hold i was in second, a lot of blanks in the morning. The devils is a hard river to wade its very slippery, so alot of beats had water that some guys didn't want to wade in too. Its also a river where the brookies are aways looking up when the temp is right, so the afternoon beat, I had an elk hair size 16 and PT emerger as the dropper. Wading in the main current and fishing current seams and pockets that people in the morning beat didn't fish. Thinking was, it was to fast for them, so it was to fast for the fish. Pulled out 12 and drop two at the net, one between my legs, in that fast of current you cant turn so i was trying to net it from behind me. At the end of the beat I was sitting in first for the day by a good lead. Second day was a tough one with lake, I am not a lake fisherman, but I got one fish with a half hour left in the beat, and a fish right away in the afternoon beat. that left me with a silver individual and gold in team. With a top rod, but then head to nationals and crash and burned but I learned alot. One more thing i learned, sure its about catching the most fishs but more important not to blank, that hurts the whole team.

Todd Oishi · « **Reply #4 on:** December 06, 2009, 03:46:13 PM »

Welcome Jeremiah! It was nice to meet you at our NFFC - I just wish that we had a chance to have fished the water together at some point, or to have sat down and swapped stories!

I was really impressed by the quality of the fishing while competing on the Diable venues during the 2008 NFFC. It was all new to me, as I hadn't fished for brook trout, in rivers, until that competition...

I am curious how many competitors and teams participated in the Mont Tremblant competition this year (what time of year was it held)?

Jeremiah Hamilton · « **Reply #5 on:** December 06, 2009, 09:47:11 PM »

Quote from: Todd Oishi on December 06, 2009, 03:46:13 PM

Welcome Jeremiah! It was nice to meet you at our NFFC - I just wish that we had a chance to have fished the water together at some point, or to have sat down and swapped stories!

I was really impressed by the quality of the fishing while competing on the Diable venues during the 2008 NFFC. It was all new to me, as I hadn't fished for brook trout, in rivers, until that competition...

I am curious how many competitors and teams participated in the Mont Tremblant competition this year (what time of year was it held)?

It was nice meeting you too, I get to fish the Diable quite a few times a year, my father in-law has a cabin about 1/2 hour away. Between Upstate NY and Quebec I get to fish brookies alot, they can be exciting. As far as the provincials, it was small I think 9 teams of two, Jim really runs a good show. It was one week before the NFFC.