Keys to the Cup

[Bret Bishop]

Anyone care to talk about what worked during the Cup? Here are some cursory observations about each of the venues:

Colorado....Compared to two years ago this venue fished very well. The water was lower and visibility was good.  Those who were brave enough to cross  generally outperformed the rest (not true for Riley or Lance on beat 14 who did awesome without crossing). Most all of my fish  (beat 11) came on the opposite bank. I was the first to fish this beat in the AM and actually found some fish working on tricos in the slower water. There were 27 fish caught over 5 sessions and I got 13 of those.

Lower Ark...I had the same beat as I had on my final session two years ago, beat 2. The Ark was much lower than anticipated and the fishing was tough. It seemed like the fish numbers were down with the exception of a few beats. This was our second session after a ridiculously long trip from the Colorado and we missed the beatis (according to my controller). Our session was from 4:30 to 7:30. Fortunately for me my beat turned on once the sun went down and I found three fish in the final 1/2 hour. This beat produced 8 fish of which I had 4.

Upper Ark...There was a beat on the upper that was producing huge numbers. This was not my beat. I had very skinny water book-ended by some  deeper fast water at the bottom and a small dancing water bucket at the top. Beatis made an appearance about an hour in to the session. I found fish in all water types using all a variety of flies...beatis nymphs being the top producer. 12 fish were caught in this beat over 5 sessions, 9 were mine.

The Blue...The Blue was tough. Initially the organizers thought this was going to be a fish fest. Simply put, fish were hard to find. Still, I have a hard time doing beat analysis on this river since some anglers followed the rules and some didn't. The rule was this...due to Colorado's access laws we were only allowed to use half the river. In other words, we could wade half way across and that was it. I think the high water made this very difficult and since fish were scarce some anglers decided to bend the rules and go to the other side. I choose to follow the rules. One session I blanked...the other I found two.

[Dejon Hamann]

Thanx for starting this thread Bret!

I'm curious, what kind of rigs/presentations did you use?  I heard you guys were going to the long line technique and some long cast upstream slack mend approach with jig nymphs... possibly learned in Poland? 

[Mark Hanes]

Interestering layout on the Blue that would really be a tuff one to follow or inforce. 

Looking at the numbers it looks like you really did well on your beats  Bret. 

What was the average size of most of the fish?

[Todd Oishi]

Thanks for sharing your valuable insight on this competition Brett. This tournament is starting to really intrigue me - perhaps next year we'll send a Canadian team or a few of us might come as individuals...

Congratulations on such a strong performance!!!

[Bret Bishop]

Dejon, my water wasn't really conducive to that style. I did  a combo of dry dropper(s) and standard Euro long and short line nymphing with some straight dry.

Mark,the fish were mostly 25-35 cm. I got several that did not measure. Yes defining what is the half way line is tough. I knew the second I heard that rule that it was going to be tough to enforce. Still, I spent much of my 30 minute prep time defining what was the middle with my controller. In my final session I watched an angler catch three fish on the other side. Not standing in the middle casting to it, but a foot off the "illegal bank" casting back to his "legal bank." My controller (uninitiated by me) complained to the sector judge and nothing was done. C'est la vie. If it were Nationals I would be angry.

Todd, I think you would really enjoy it. Thanks.

[Loren Williams]

Thanks for the break-down Bret.  Bummer I could not have been there this time.  You guys did us proud as I knew you all would.

Any talk about adding a lake next year?  I still remember the Irish boys talking up how much they enjoyed fishing Dillon Lake in 2008.

[Chris Smith]

I'm not sure anyone wants to replicate my performance, but I'll throw in my two cents...

Colorado - I learned a valuable lesson here:  Invest in a dry top and life jacket.  I tried, but couldn't get across my beat.

Overall, I landed 10 fish, but only 2 scored.

Lower Arkansas - I had a great beat on the lower, but shot myself in the foot by dropping three fish.   Those fish I did score were the largest I caught all weekend, save on the Blue.

Lesson learned...don't be so stubborn.  While I had two rods rigged, I stuck with a dry dropper combo the entire three hours.  My hook-up rate was just enough to keep me from changing rods.  

What would it have hurt to change up for 15 minutes...just to see if it made a difference?

Upper Arkansas - I had the prettiest piece of water you've ever seen, and drew a blank.  Lucjan put it best...

"Beautiful water fish like sheet.  Look in parking lot...cars from Nebraska, California, Texas...everyone who come here fish your water.  Fish not stupid."

Lesson learned...if it's not producing, abandon the beautiful water and fish the water that looks like it won't produce.  You'll find fish.  Josh found 3 on my beat the next morning, all in areas I didn't fish long.

Blue - Brett summed it up pretty well.  Although I hooked big fish both days, the heavy flows made it tough to get to them.  

Robbie Wirth had the best approach in my opinion...fish small stuff on the edges.  Robbie landed 7 fish on the beat above me, of which 4 scored.  Not a one was larger than 24 cm.  

Overall, I had a great time, and learned a ton by simply riding on the bus with some great fishermen.

[Chris Puchniak]

It's nice hearing your guys' feedback.

Chris, I think you point out a lot of very smart observations.  If only hindsight wasn't 20/20 and it was foresight .  Thanks for sharing your learning experiences.

It does sound like a wonderful tournament attracting an international flavour.  Perhaps next year.

[Kalvin Kaloz]

Great stuff guys! THANKS!

[Dave Pehle]

It was tuff to inforce the halfway line when most of the sweet looking water was on the other side. With the water double the normal flows at this time of year it was tuff. I did see it happen and did inforce it. And on  another occasion the angler was told but crossed and then got back to the middle of the river and fished.

[Paul Bourcq]

Our  Cup experience.  We pre fished where we could and found small stuff to be working from the get go.

Colorado-I waded deep and found clutch fish in the middle .  I fished a small trico in some foam and pulled some fish.  I also threw double turd flies up the bank and caught fish.  A big cranefly looking hares ear (size 10) stuck a couple too.  I lost the big fish of the trip on the colorado.  IT was fun just to get a chance at him. I threw dry dropper, straight sighter leaders, and single dries.  Most of my fish on the Colorado especially later in the comp came on the swing or just straight swinging flies.

Arkansas-My first beat was brutal.  One big riffle. I gridded it off and patiently searched the water.  Scored two dropped one small guy.  I was throwing a small caddis and a green surveryor nymph.  Kevin Lowe from our team won his session early on a size 20 cdc baetis and a small ultra midge (26)  Everyone from our team went to small dries and nymphs after this recon and did well.  On my second session I had a beautiful little run  and was pumped.  But like Lucjan said, it fished like shit.  I found fish in skinny water behind rocks. (skinny = 3inches) It was the last session on the ark, didnt win it, but i did not blank.

The blue was tough.  Josh Stephens caught fish to win the session (maybe second) on a big obnoxious peachy king egg.  Going into the cup we knew brookies should have been spawning with browns not too far behind.  We had some eggs on us just in case as nobody was fishing them.  We knew if there were feeder creeks it was possible.  I  fished an egg and caught some fish on  the blue and rolled a few more.  My clutch fish was caught on a bigg yellow streamer.  I could not get it down so I just stuck my rod tip in the water to the bottom and worked it back.  That was the big fish of the comp for me.

All in all our gam e plan was fish small and target the skinny water in front of the rocks.  We didnt win but we have next year.  Our team confidently fished patterns that other teammates produced on and it payed off.  The water was much touger than i anticipated but I like it tough.

As far as the rule thing went......thats on the anglers.  I was told by Knight "do not go past halfway in the river"  It was clear form the get go.  Now wheter or not anglers faked not knowing or not i dont know but it was covered  I too saw an angler standing on the opposite bank and catch a fish.  This kept him from blanking and pushed his teaminto medal postition.  I did not say anything to him.  I mentioned something in passing and he lied and said he didnt fish the bank  No skin off my ass its all good.

[Bret Bishop]

Good stuff Paul. It was nice to finally meet you. I really admire what Team NC has done with it organization.

[Pat Weiss]

Colorado was my first ever beat and I didnt fish it properly, didnt spend enough time in the shallows, plus I lost 4 fish.  I think I was lucky to land the one I did.

Arkansas, I caught 2 that measured and 3 that didnt on the lower section and lost 2 all on caddis larvae of various color and design. 
Drew a nice beat on the upper and caught 14, lost 6,and foul-hooked 1 on small olive nymphs.

Blue, blanked on my first beat, lost an average fish that after I saw the scores, I really wish I would have landed, it would have made a huge difference.  Caught 6 on my second beat, but only 4 measured.  Caught the 4 on caddis emergers/larvae in HEAVY water.  Lost 1 decent brown.

I lost alot if fish in this comp., some due to my inexperience, some due to bad luck and others due to a lack of discipline(failure to keep my hooks touched up).  I think I only saw 1 fish rise the whole time, mostly fished long leaders, but did do some up-close czech-type stuff, and some high-sticking.

[Lance Egan]

First off, congrats to Devin Olsen.  Devin won the individual gold medal.  Congrats to Team USA (yes I’m patting my own back) for winning the Team Gold.

I started and finished the comp on the Blue.  As mentioned, the Blue was expected to be a fish farm.  It wasn’t.  First session, with no practice on the comp water I went with confidence flies, and 2 hours in had no fish to show.  I fished single dries, dry/dropper, and nymphed.  The fish showed no love.  I had covered my half of the river in the first two hours and although there was great looking water on the far bank I followed the “halfway” rule, so I couldn’t do anything but lob streamers to the far side.  In the last 40 minutes I dredged up 3 fish on nymphs fishing fast deep water.  In session 5 on the Blue I hooked 3.  Dropped one and landed one while nymphing and took one on a BWO dry.  I was thrilled to escape two sessions on the Blue without a blank!

I spent the second session on the mighty Colorado.  I learned Riley had won the session on my beat in the morning which can go two ways.  It is either a great beat with lots of awesome water, or the angler before you obliterated it, and fish will be very hard to come by.  Luckily for me I found 11 fish that Riley didn’t molest.  All my fish on the Colorado were taken nymphing. 

Day two for me was all spent on the Ark.  First the lower then the upper.  My lower beat had nice water.  Two decent riffle buckets with skinny pocket water between.   Most of my 9 fish came from the lower bucket, the rest came from the pocket water.  Although the riffle at the top of my beat looked quite good, it produced nothing for me.  I was given a boost of confidence in my fly selection when on my 3rd cast of the session I hooked and landed a double.  Two scoring browns is a great way to start!  All my fish came on nymphs on the lower beat.  My upper Ark beat had a long deep pool with a nice tailout and a very short piece of pocket water.  As I rigged for the session a couple of heads started popping in the pool.  I spent the first hour probing the pool with a single BWO dry.  I landed one, and missed a couple others.  Unfortunately my nymphing quick reflexes were in good form, and I didn’t allow a couple of risers to get their mouth around my fly before ripping it off the water.  (deep breath)  I took 4 others nymphing the pocket water at the bottom of my beat and one other that didn’t measure. 

All in all the Cup was a great experience.  Most of my fish were taken while nymphing, but as always a good selection of confidence techniques helped me place well.  The fishing was tougher than I expected, but many anglers toughed out the rough conditions and found fish!  It was a pleasure to participate in the event, meet new anglers and be a part of a Team USA win!

Thanks to all who made the Cup a great experience!

[Dejon Hamann]

This is fantastic stuff guys!  For those of you that produced fish on multiple methods did you use 1 rod or several?

Also, what would you have done different? 

[Paul Bourcq]

Dejon, I rigged two rods on most venues.  one dry dropper rod with a standard 9 foot leader.  It could be a long leader single dry rig, a dry dropper rig, or a long line rig.  The other rod was my buggin rod with a long mono sighter leader setup.  It could be used to streamer fish (worked on the blue) also.  I wanted to carry two rods with me but they said we could not.  So i left one on the bank. 

As far as what i would have done differently......i would have fished more dries......targeted ultra skinny water sooner.....fished downstream more.  Everything else i was ok with.  I made a plan and stuck with it.

As a side note i want to commend Devin Olsen.  He won a fly rod for biggest fish.  He then found a mistake in the scoring and realized that it should have went to the poles.  He returned the rod to its rightful owner.  Classy move.

[Zach Bearden]

I know it's been dead for a while... But I feel like sharing mine.
Day 1
Lower Ark. I started out at the bottom with dry/dropper and didn't produce anything. I finally moved up towards the middle and managed a good fish (16 in) out of a slower run about halfway through. After that I managed two more in some "trash" water. It was really shallow and fast.

Upper Ark. Same beat as in 2008 and knew where the fish would be lol
Worked the lower sections first and wish I hadn't. I ended up doing long casts to specific fish with a small bwo. Caught 3 I believe.

Day 2
Upper Blue. I beat the hell out of that water... I ended up with nothing. I couldn't make my way out past about 10 foot off the bank for fear of being swept downstream or drowning lol

Lower Blue. I had a pretty nice looking session there. Not too deep in places. Decided to try a little of everything with no results. Double blank. I was feeling down.

Day 3
Colorado. I honestly was scared of this river but was feeling good cause my team members had all been doing good here. I bummed a surf jacket off a friend and told myself I would use it only if I didn't have anything halfway through.
Well, halfway through I was blank. I stripped myself of my pack, took a box, two spools of tippet, my net, and took off. Managed 6 fish here with hares ears in some faster stuff. Placed second on my session right after Olsen who had something absurd like 15.

I hope to someday go back to fish this competition again. The people are always friendly and a lot of fun.