My 2011 Nationals Strategy.

[Paul Bourcq]

So pre-fishing for me was just a few days before the comp.  Yeah its home water, but its no advantage.  I had been in PA for the youth thing so I wasnt around anyway.  I know all the water and felt it would mess my head up.  I did not even go look at the beats.  Comp day was my first time seeing the water.  My plan was to fish it like I had never seen it.

In my two days of pre-fishing I caught fish on Hares ear jigs, caddis dries, surveryors, sally dries, sulphur nymphs, princes and turds.  Caught alot of fish swinging, alot on the hang.  I pushed those to the front of my box and went fishing.

So I look at my group.  Egan.....Stephens.....Capsay......damn.  I knew Josh and Brian well and knew that they were pretty damn good on that water.  Although I didnt know Lance I had a sneaking suspicion he would figure it out lol.  My game was win with beat strategy.  At this level I dont know anything that nobody else doesnt.  But I felt a solid beat strategy would make or break me.  I knew the rest of my group included some sticks from out west and some guys I didnt know but knew had fished well. 

Day 1am-Lower Nantahala
I got a beat that I was able to cross.  This was a no brainer.  Day one session one.  Fish are fresh...go whack the shit out of them.  I would have low water for about 30 minutes then 750 cfs would be coming.  I got there and went straight for the prettiest run on low water.  I knew it would fish.  Put on a size 12 pheasant tail on point and a green collared frenchy on the dropper.  Picked up 5 fish. Right before the water turned on Yellow sallies started to pop.  Muddy high water hit and Fish went crazy rising.  I tied on a tag and put a stimi above my two nymphs.  I swung down too them......bang......wild fish double.  Bad news is they broke me off on 6x.  it was a gamble but owell.  Once the water came up i kept the same couple flies on for the whole thing.  The pheasant tail, the frenchy, a sulpher nymph, and a hares ear jig.  Worked the riffly tails, went up one bank, then the other.  My judge couldnt cross so the last 12 or so fish meant sketchy wading. I fished 6x to get my flies deeper quicker and to get more target zone out of my drifts.  Fish were small and wild and didnt have any problems.  I did not go to a seam or hole to catch one fish.  I would fish my nymphs shallow and pull fish, then medium depth then deep.  I did this from the bank out to the heavier water.  I always turned fish away and down as to not put the other fish down. With 5 minutes to go I stuck 8 fish off a log right by my judge.  This certainly helped. I scored 24 I think.  Egan got 25 to win.

Day1pm-Ravens fork
So I thought this would be a stockie bashing.  It was but they were eating normal stuff.  I had recon that eggs and white streamers were working.  I had a terrible beat.  One run about 20 yards then flat calm dry fly water.  I found some fish at the head of the run and figured i would prospect with a streamer.  I had some fish (huge) chase it but nothing would commit.  After 30 minutes....and only one fish i decided to go another route.  I saw some fish rise and went to a yellow dry.  Stuck 3 fish.  Then i saw some spashy rises.  Fished a dry dropper (20 inches) with a very generic copper bead pheasant tail.  This water was about 4 feet but wanted the fish up high.  I planned to pull the high fish out then go back through with my sighter rig and stick the deep fish.  This was good for two more.  At this point I had beat only little run to death.  I had an hour left and after crawling up my beat like a ninja and the fishing shutting off I knew id be moving to plan C or D or whatever.  I slipped up through the slick water with 6x and a klinkhammer and targeted rocks that were taller than other rocks on the bottom.  I only found a few of them but stuck some fish that scored. I never left a riser without throwing the dry. After this i went back down to the bottom of my beat where i caught fish earlier.  As i was walking down there i saw more splashy rises.  I stuck another nymph on (prince) and swung under the tree.  Stuck two on the swing and one on my 3 fly rig with 5 minutes left.  I ended up with 11 or 12 fish.  Some of the pocket water beats were putting up numbers in the 20s so i knew i was screwed....I was.  I ate a 5th on this session. 


Recon that night-I remember tying flies and hearing people talk about how this beat or that beat was better.  I remember thinking at the beginning of the comp that i just wanted to beat the team usa guys.  I admired their consistency.  I got to thinking about how there is no way they get good beats every time.  They just win.  I missed egan by one fish.  We both dropped fish.  I knew Egans beat.  I fished it 100 times.  Was it good....yeah, but was it the best beat in the session, hell no.  The best beat in the session got fished and put up 11.  It was at this point that I quit listening to recon.  Nobody knows my game and you cant fish another mans game so a "bad" beat is relative.  I made my mind up to look at every beat I got from here on out as the winning beat.  This would pay off later.


Day two am-Tuck.

Water was low for a bit.  I fished back and forth over my beat looking for fish.  I could not find anything.  I stuck a couple swinging a turd with a prince dropper.  When water got there fishing really slowed down worse.  I had a crazy deep section in my beat.  I fished and fished changed bugs, water types, approach, angles, weights, did it all to no avail.  My judge said i had 45 minutes left.  My heart sank and i scanned my beat.  I saw the deep water.....went for it.  It was well over my head.  I stuck 6 fish.  Swimming fish slowed me down and I should have found them sooner.  My fault but lesson learned.  One fish was 51 cm......which didnt suck.

Day two pm upper nanty-Before this beat my team said "it only scored 11 fish, your screwed you need 30 to win".  I looked at the water and saw 4 or 5 distinct water types.  I knew with versatility like that that i had just arrived at my best beat of the comp.  I went up to some guys fishing to tell them i would be coming though there.  I told him the deal and he said "yeah the guy before you was just finishing up right here when we talked to him".  Really....I looked upstream and saw 30 yards of great looking water.  I rigged up dry dropper dropper and started up high.  Stuck 5 fish and then went back to the bottom of my beat.  At this point i felt good.  I left a little bit of super skinny water and started in some trough stuff.  I had dry dropper dropper on and figured i would just hang the dry in the air and nymph the bugs.  I was fishing 6x but proceeded to drop the next 10 fish i stuck.....no typo 10 fish.  I FINALLY cut of that dry and rigged up two bugs and a straight sighter.  With only 2 hours to go I thought damn....maybe 11 will be it.  No way....the fish are eating....I just dropped 10.  I got some fire underneath me and started up the river.  I picked fish up shallow, deep, swinging, jigging, lifting, putting a dip in lol, and everything in between.  I got to a big deep hole and had 22 fish scored at this point.  I had 20 minutes left.  I fished my nymphs down both edges and picked up two more.  10 minutes left.  Fishing died on me.  I stood there and said what would Josh Stephens fish right now ?(josh is notorious for late quarter fish catching)  I put on a turd and an egg.  I hooked a double the first cast.  with 30 seconds to go I hooked a monster that broke me off on something.  I scored 29 fish.  Now unfortunately 29 fish came in second to Egans 32 or so and Capsays 36 but for me it was a good mental win to know that I had somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 fish stuck in a session that "sucked" and i just wanted to "survive".  Was i fishing A water or "pretty water" no....but there was a pile of fish in that beat and dropped fish hurt.  Oddly that particular session everyone dropped a very large number of fish.  Still dont know why, but ive been thinking about it.

day three-Lake
Me and Brian Capsay got boat partners.  We had recon that this one bank was fishing well with small micro buggers and killers dead on the bank.  Tried that....nothing.  He had a map with three pods of fish on it.  Tried that.....one bump that broke Capsay off.  I had a bump (and only fish action) on the hang here.  I was on a three he was on an Intermed.  We tried everything.  With the pressure high and the wind dead i put on a type 7 with a white and yellow cats whisker and a little olive bugger on 3x.  I heard Olsen was stripping quickly.  I tried everything from roly poly to hand twist.  Nadda.  Saw one riser with one minute left.  Cast too it....nadda.  I knew i was around 7th and needed a fish.  I blanked the lake and dropped to 23rd.  It was a tough pill to swallow but i good lesson learned.  Egan won the lake with three.  3 other people caught one.  Various techniques from dry flies to type 7s.


All in all it was great.  Kudos to Chris Lee on team usa.  I know Chris very well and fish with him alot.  Im very proud that he has made the team as he has earned it.  Also congrats to Pat Weiss whom I met on Spring Creek.  Im certain you will find success in the coming years.  Also congrats to Loren for making the team and the Worlds squad.  We have had many conversations about....well alot of stuff and am happy that you are going to Italy.  And of  course to Egan for putting up fish and bringing home the gold. I learned alot from watching Lance and everybody fish and can say that I am a much better angler today then I was yesterday.  On the bus ride back we all shared what bugs and techniques we used.  Everyone came to the same outcome with different flies, leaders, and styles.

 Although helping organize it and trying to fish it was alot to deal with Im happy with my performance.  I was able to score twice as many fish in my beats as any other anglers did (except for the tuck....Galvan killed me on it) and was happy with my beat strategy.  I got to see old faces and meet new ones.

I got a ton of film on this thing and am currently in the editing process.  Ill be putting up a 5 to 10 minute highlight video as soon as i can get it done.  Ill post it here first.  I have a ton of great footage shot on a canon 5d and a panny HMC 150.  Should make a great video.

Thanks to everyone behind the scenes who helped.  With this one under our belts we can look forward to the Cup and the Rumble in the Rhodo.  See you guys next time. 

[Chris Lee]

Great play by play, Paul! I am amazed you can remember all that! I have learned alot from you over the years and appreciate your support.

I had a great time at Nationals and hope all that participated did too. Thank you volunteers! We could not do this without you.

Once I decompress from all this I can hopefully contribute more to what should be a valuable topic.

[Dejon Hamann]

Wow, that was a great read Paul!  Really impressed by all the different approaches you utilized to catch fish.

[Bob Lux]

I hear you Paul on that dropping fish on the Upper Nan. I dropped 20 fish, yes 20 in one hole. I still scored 14, but those 20 killled me because they were all rising like fools for 20 minutes. I stayed too long at that hole and should have kept moving. That hurt me and blanking the lake as well really messed me up. Nothing like adding 12 points to your score.

[Mark Adams]

Awesome reflections, Paul.  It was great to be up there and get to watch all of you guys fish.  Congrats, Chris on making Team USA, awesome accomplishments.  Congrats and kudos to all of the competitors.  You guys flat work the water and I learned a lot by observing.
Mark

[Frank Muscente]

Paul that was outstanding!! Wow, you comp guys really know your stuff, very impressive!! Congrats to all.

[Aaron Laing]

Great post, Paul. I just love the play by play stuff. It sucks the way the stillwater sessions can toast a great stream performance--my biggest weakness for sure.

Forgive my ignorance, but species were you catching? I haven't been following the various threads on Nationals too closely.

Aaron

[Loren Williams]

Aaron:  wild rainbows, stocked bows, wild browns, stocked browns, and stocked brookies in the rivers.  Bows and browns mostly in the lake.

[Mike Norton]

paul
nice play by play..thanks for sharing

[Aaron Laing]

Aaron:  wild rainbows, stocked bows, wild browns, stocked browns, and stocked brookies in the rivers.  Bows and browns mostly in the lake.

Thanks, Loren. Fishing for browns and brookies is still a bit of a novelty for me. Reading Paul's post about the methods used got me thinking a bit about the species and "typical" feeding habits. All grist for the mill.

Aaron

[Chris Galvin]

Enjoyable read Paul, thanks!  Interesting to hear your perspective.  Have you seen the results broken down into session/angler/beat?

I had an outstanding time at this Nationals, fun to put some fish in the net vs. survival wading.  Perhaps I'll get inspired and write out my strategy...

[Fred Dewees]

Great read Paul I almost felt like I was fishing there with you . One of these days I would love to be a controller at a comp just for the learning experience . I enjoy watching other people fish almost as much as fishing it myself I like to see people's approach to different types of water and compare it to my own .