Hamann: Jeff, wanted to thank you again for taking the time to do this interview. Looking through your blog (http://flyfishingbum.blogspot.com/) you’re a busy man flying around the world fishing incredible destinations, so let’s jump right in. Quick recap: your bronze medal was earned at the 2003 World Championships in Spain. Could you walk us through the team you traveled with and a recap of the venues?

Currier: I fished on the team previously and in Spain we had the best team ever. Not to knock older anglers, but we were young. We could handle long demanding days, tough wading, change flies faster than a speeding bullet and crawl. Crawling was mandatory in Spain. The venues consisted of four rivers and one lake. Three of the rivers were small and crystal clear. In these rivers were small brown trout that were as spooky as any trout I’ve ever met. They weren’t always rising, rarely now that I think of it so you belly crawled along to stay out of view. I’d often spot one then attempt him with a dry first. If he didn’t eat the dry I’d do a dry dropper and by then you had him or spooked him. The fourth river was high and very off color. You just had to Polish Nymph it and pray. I lucked into three fish here. The lake was tough. Some beats were on the shallow end of the lake others were near the dam. You wanted to be as far from the dam and the deep water as possible. I got screwed; I was the third beat from the dam. It was a miracle I caught a fish in my beat.

Hamann: Backtracking just a bit. How did you gain a position on Team USA? What was the organization like at that time? Who were the key players/coaches? Did you win trials/regionals to make the team?

Currier:
Back in the days I got to fish there were no trials. You had to know the right people, such as a man named Walter Ungerman. Walter was a customer of mine in Jackson at the fly shop for years. I had a great relationship with him. When the competition was held in Jackson, WY where I lived at the time, I didn’t fish but I donated a lot of my personal time to help it run. Walter appreciated that and took me to the Poland Championships in 1998 as an angler. That was my opportunity to show I could help the team. I did well and I think the team scored 13th Place. 13th doesn’t sound too good, but it was the best Team USA ever did. I was 20th overall. I earned the right to go again next year and we continued to improve and I continued to get to go. Best of all, we added younger anglers each year.

After I retired from the Worlds, I participated in the first ever regional/nationals. It was held in Oregon and I got 2nd place. That helped me get chosen to come out of retirement for Portugal in 2006. That was my last competition as I never had the funding or time off from work to compete in the Nationals again.

Over the years the key players would have to be Jay Buchner, Pete Erickson and Sam Mavrakis. These guys can fish like you can’t believe. They can tie flies, something I suck at. They are fun. Their not afraid to go out and mingle with the other teams and try to get them to cough up some information that you normally can’t get. And most of all, they were great sportsmen and well respected by all other teams. That’s important. Towards the end of my run, Jack Dennis was coaching. He had some weird fishing ideas at times but he was fun. I liked having him around.

Hamann: Could you tell us some of the back story behind this passage: “Jeff Currier crawled, swam chilly waters cradling netted fish, and risked intestinal illness in an
attempt to reach the pinnacle of his sport.” (Quoted from an article by Michael Pearlman)

Currier: That quote came from an article after winning the Bronze in Spain. I already said crawling was mandatory. Honestly, these were the spookiest hard to see trout I’ve ever found. If you didn’t crawl you didn’t have a chance. The bad news however, you even had to crawl in the water. Sometimes I would be crawling up a riffle. The water would be gushing over the top of my waders dragging me downstream. Occasionally it would get in my mouth. I couldn’t let it stop me. If I stood up I’d spook every fish and there weren’t many fish.

Swimming to opposite banks was something I became well known for. One time the famous Thomas from the Czech Republic pulverized my beat before me. He had it in the morning and I had it in the afternoon. So imagine fishing a piece of water that was pounded by one of the world’s greatest anglers only three hours earlier. You are in bad shape unless you know where Thomas didn’t fish. Of course he fished all the good spots. On big rivers where you could not wade across, you knew the other bank was always virgin. I swam a lot of rivers. And in particular, I swam the muddy Aragon of Spain. This river skunked more people than any other river in the history of the Worlds Competition. I was the fourth angler to this beat and not a fish had been caught. I wasn’t about to fish the same water where everyone failed. You should have seen my judge’s face when I swam across to start. I caught my first fish in about 8 minutes and carefully held up my netted fish in one hand and swam best I could with the other. This action made me take in a lot of water. But I turned around and swam right back. Over the three hour beat I swam two more fish across. I was a drown rat and I did end up with some bad intestinal issues.

Because of my crazy crawling and swimming, I won a medal. I gave my body and soul for that medal and it was worth it.

Hamann: Heading into the final lake session you needed to “not blank” to win a medal? Tell us about that scenario? Must have been some heart-thumping pressure.

Currier:
I never felt the pressure. I was expected to fail. Not a fish had been caught in this particular lake beat. Plus, I was American. Americans can’t win a medal – right?
Nonetheless, I just went into the last session feeling confident. Somehow I knew a fish would swim by and he was mine. All I had to do was be myself and I’d catch his ass.

Up to this point, temperatures had been scorching hot. But between the morning session and the beginning of the lake session we had several monster thunderstorms and temps plummeted. Our coach, Ed Opler was waiting for the bus to drop me off at the lake. I got off and he said here’s the lake rod the team has been using. I looked at him like he was nuts. I said, “Ed, Team USA has yet to catch a fish on the lake. They all used that stupid rig. Why in the world would I use it when I absolutely need to catch a fish?” Ed really didn’t know what to say. He smiled and he followed me and my judge a mile walk around the lake to my beat.

Honestly, my body ached. I’d crawled and swam rivers for three days. My stomach problems were kicking in. And it was so cold I couldn’t believe it. I was actually shivering in my wet clothes and waders from my river session in the AM. When we got to my beat I pulled out my 5-weight and tied on a favorite fly of mine, the Thorax Mahogany Dun. Ed looked at me like my hair was on fire. I promised him that if a fish swam by he would not be able to resist the fly.

By the time the session started, it was calm and cold and the sky was thick with clouds. I leaned against a rock on shore in the best looking spot and cast out my fly. I stared at it for a few minutes and recast. Exactly 14 minutes into the three hour beat a 9” trout ate it and in three long strips he was in my net. Ed, me, my Polish friend Vladi and the judge were in shock. Do you believe in miracles?

I still thought I’d get 4th place to Simon Kidd of England. It turns out; our scores were so close it took hours after the competition ended to see who won. Not only that, we were dead tied in points. The over ruling factor was number of fish. I’d caught 27 in three days he’d caught 16. The bronze was mine.

Hamann: What were some of the advanced techniques, gear, flies that you utilized in your victory?

Currier: I kept it pretty simple. I realized right away, it wasn’t fancy flies and special Euro tactics that were needed. In Spain, you just try to get your fly to the fish before you spook them. You will laugh, but I fished a size 16 elk hair caddis with an olive pheasant tail nymph tied by Jay Buchner two feet below. Only once did I Polish nymph to catch a fish. That was on a particular river and I caught two with this method. That gave me 7 that session and a 3rd place in that session.

Hamann: Hindsight is always 20/20, but where did Team USA finish at that Championship and how do you think you guys could have also earned a team medal?

Currier: I believe we finished 5th. We were very, very close.

Hamann: Have you been following the sport of competitive fly fishing since your departure from Team USA? If so, how have you seen the techniques change since those days?

Currier: Yes. I root hard for our current team. When the team is off competing I check results on the internet ten times a day. I get really ticked when the results are late. The guys on the team now are exceptional anglers, and they have plenty of competition practice. That makes a difference. It’s like shooting an 8 ball to win a pool game. You may have never missed that shot in your life. But because of inexperience in competition you miss. The experience these guys have make them very good. I do hear of some new techniques. But I’m not too familiar with them. Now that I don’t compete, I just go out and vacuum rivers for fun with my fundamentals.

Hamann: How old were you when you won your medal? Could you comment on the “energy of youth” vs the “wisdom of experience” in competitive fly fishing?

Currier: I was 37 years young. The aches and pains were just starting to hit me. But in the heat of competition I didn’t feel a thing. At the same time, I was becoming a very wise angler. I thought things out well – presentations, the stalk, and what fly would be best. And, my experience allowed me to totally keep my cool. So basically I was at that one time in life where my body could still handle the beating of crawling, swimming etc and I got the bonus of having a clue of what I was doing. A great combo.

Hamann: Have the techniques you acquired as part of Team USA fueled your “recreational fishing” life? Or have you found that leaving those purely competitive focused techniques behind have led to your enjoyment of the sport?

Currier: When I go fishing, I go to catch fish. Sure, the famous line, “It’s just nice being out there”, has some truth to it, but if there’s fish to be caught I need to catch them. At heart I’m a dry fly guy and rarely nymph anymore. But if there’s a half hour left and I haven’t caught a fish, and I know Polish Nymphing will catch me one, I do it. I’ve also noticed that when I fish with friends they kind of gun for me a bit. They want to out fish me. Normally I couldn’t give a hoot, but if they start to do better than me and point that fact out, I step it up and enjoy teaching them a lesson. It’s great fun. People have no idea how many tricks I learned in the few years of World Competition. And if I need to fall back on one I will. I enjoy that in my recreational fishing days.

Hamann: And in that vein, do you think you may compete again some day? Or where some hat in the competitive fly fishing world?

Currier: I doubt I’ll ever fish in the Worlds again. That’s a young angler’s game. Unless it was a mostly lake tournament I probably won’t. However there are other competitions out there. I already do the annual “Bass on the Fly” held in Ririe, Idaho. This has been held for about five years now and I’ve placed in all but one. It’s a one day deal and my blood pumps hard during it. I love it. In addition, last year I fished in the Jackson Hole One Fly and I loved that too. I’ll be doing it again here soon. So the answer to your question is yes. I really enjoy the competitions and perhaps as long as they are convenient for me I’ll be there.

Hamann: With a great deal of time to reflect, what would you say are the key elements, whether physical or emotional, that elevate an angler from just “competitive” to medal worthy?

Currier: You need to be a damn good angler for starters. Once you have that going then you just need to elevate the rest. First you need to be in top shape. A three day, five session competition will brutalize the body. You need to learn to live without sleep. Be a superb swimmer, runner, and build your core – ever try crawling for three straight days? It’s the hardest thing you will ever do. Especially over rocks in cold water. And don’t let pain slow you down. You will be in a lot of pain but that can’t stop you. Standing up just once to stretch your back during a session could scare a fish you need.

Then it’s the kill instincts. In a competition you should never be satisfied. If you caught fifteen fish and that’s enough to win the session, who cares. Catch more. If there’s five minutes left in a session and you see a 9” fish but ten feet further up there’s a 12” fish. Don’t skip the 9 incher and go for the 12. Catch the 9 incher fast then catch the 12 incher. Every fish counts and every fish must be caught. I scored numerous fish in the last minute over the years and in Spain it won me a medal.

Last, there is the mental factor. You must be confident. You must know and expect that you will catch a fish. No matter what terrible beat you have or conditions you face. You will catch one if not more. And you can’t mess up an ordinary opportunity. You can’t get nervous because its competition. If a trout is rising and eating away he can’t be botched. You calm down and get the job done. If you’re netting a fish, you net him. You don’t lose him with a bad sweep of the net or knock him off. These are fundamentals that you are great at. You don’t screw them up just because its competition and you’re freaked out. The bottom line is you can’t make any stupid mistakes. None. Have your head together.

Hamann: Thank you again for the interview. Are there any closing reflections or thoughts you’d like to relay to those currently competing in the North American competitive scene?

Currier: Enjoy it. Enjoy fishing for a meaning. Enjoy working to prove you are the best. And along the journey learn as much as you can. There are so many great anglers out there and if you compete you have the good fortune of being surrounded by them. Every trick you can learn and apply to your own fishing makes you better. Even though your competition days may go away, these tricks of the trade will come in handy the rest of your life.

My name is Chris Haser and I am assisting the United States Youth Fly Fishing Team for the 2011 US Youth National Fly Fishing Championships June 21 – 23. Many of you have served as volunteers for the Youth or Adult Fishing Events in the past I am currently seeking volunteers to serve as a Controller for the event. If you want to serve as a volunteer in some other capacity, your assistance will also be appreciated.

The job of Controller is not hard and you get to spend time on the water with some of the top young anglers in the country. Each Controller is assigned to an angler, measuring and recording the trout. It’s an opportunity to watch and learn from the some of the best young fly fishermen in the country. We need daily Controllers and can promise a great time for all involved. Lunch & water as well as an Awards Luncheon will be provided to all Volunteers.

The Venues for this year’s event will be: Spring Creek (2 Sections between Benner Springs and the Stack House) and Bald Eagle Creek (2 Sessions below Milesburg).

Dates for Volunteering

Tuesday 06.21.11

8am – 12pm – morning session – lunch

1pm – 5pm – afternoon session

Wednesday 06.22.11

8am – 12pm – morning session – lunch

1pm – 5pm – afternoon session

Thursday 06.23.11

8am – 12pm – Skills Competition followed by the awards ceremony

If you (or anyone you know) want to volunteer to be a Controller for any of these sessions (or all) please register with the Central Pennsylvania Convention & Visitors Bureau and fill out the registration form at: http://www.visitpennstate.org/volunteer. Once we have a list of controllers, we will assign controllers to Sectors Judges and they will contact you regarding some minimal training as well as possibly conducting a walk along the streams to review the fishing beats.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at brookiebrown@comcast.net or call me at 814-235-5343. We would greatly appreciate any assistance that you could lend for this year’s Event! It will be a great time!!!

Thanks so much and I hope to be talking to each one of you very soon.

Chris Haser

We are very proud to announce the introduction of two new teams into the TroutLegend Competitive Fly Fishing Cooperative:  “Team America Cup” based near Denver, Colorado led by David Pehle and “Team TroutLegend Utah” based near Salt Lake City, Utah led by Jeremy Allan.  The addition of these 2 Rocky Mountain loci will greatly enhance the Coop’s mission to support and grow the culture of Fips-Mouche style competitive fly fishing in North America.

Both of these teams are looking for talented new Members.  Whether you’re a new and ambitious beginner in the comp’ circuit or a “tried and true” veteran being a part of a team is the best way to enhance your skill set and give back to the sport.  Contact information and team updates for both of these squads can be found here in the forum under their respective team boards.

The competition will be held on sections of the following rivers during the listed times and dates. Check in with TCO fly shop in State College late next week for exact locations and directions to the streamside competition http://www.tcoflyfishing.com

Rivers:
Penns Creek
The Little Juniata River
Spring Creek
Big Fishing Creek

Times/Dates:
9am-12pm, 2pm-5pm – - Sat 10/24 & Sun 10/25
9am-12pm – - Mon 10/26

Or if you’re of the mind, organizers may still need volunteers:
Volunteer Signup

You’re dedicated TroutLegend Reporter will be on the scene! Check back for quick updates as the competition rages on and hopefully many lush pictorial essays before and after the actual event.

Remember top 15 point totals will make Team USA. Point totals have been tallied from National Championship to National Championship. Next year’s point tally will include this year’s National so the only carry over is the National Championship points. The World Team competing in Poland will be determined by 3 top point getters and 2009 US National Champion. Pete Erickson and Mike Sexton have already been determined to be on the 2010 World Championship Team. These 6 individuals will make up the 5 starters and alternate for Team USA in Poland.

This year’s National Champion will receive 15,000 points and a spot going to the 2010 World Fly Fishing Championships in Poland! Good luck to everyone!

Regards,
Anthony Naranja
Fly Fishing Team USA – Captain

Fly Fishing Team USA Point Totals
(Heading into 2009 National Championship)

1. George Daniel 12,000
2. Josh Stephens 10,483
3. Devin Olsen 9,244
4. Lance Egan 9,109
5. Pete Erickson 8,744
6. Anthony Naranja 7,950
7. Mike Sexton 7,483
8. Loren Williams 5,084
9. Bret Bishop 4,880
10. Norman Maktima 4,557
11. Scott Robertson 3,551
12. Eddie Pinkston 3,500
13. Randy Hanner 3,300
14. Jim Hickey 2,700
15. Kurt Finlayson 1,910
16. Rob Kolanda 1,604
17. Brian Kimmel 1,438
18. Brian Capsay 1,250
19. Riley Cotter 1,200
20. Matt Powell 1,125
21. Jake Ricks 925
22. Dejon Hamann 913
23. Trevor Wine 900
24. Alec Gerbec 800
25. Chris Lee 800
26. John Roberts 701
27. Barney Naylor 700
28. Sandy Wright 693
29. Charles Kempe 600
30. David Woody 533
31. Merry Waugh 530
32. Spencer Higa 480
33. Leonard Sauers 467
34. Paul Colcord 400
35. Tom Smith 343
36. Wes Congdon 300
37. Tony Felicilda 300
38. Zach Herbel 300

With only the Canadian National Championships left on the point scoring spreadsheet we will soon see how the contests are fairing heading into Nationals!!! More to come…

Western Regional MT
1 Devin Olsen
2 Lance Egan
3 Kurt Finlayson
4 Bret Bishop
5 Randy Hanner
6 Dan  Oas
7 Rob Kolanda
8 Norm Maktima
9 Mike Sexton
10 Brian Capsay
11 Brian Kimmel
12 Glade Gunther
13 Jeremy Sides
14 Clint Losee

SouthEastern Regional NC
1. Randy Hanner
2. Chris Lee
3. David Woody
4. Paul Colcord
5. Josh Stephens
6. Taylor Bussey
7. Chris Galvan
8. Jason Baker
9. Brian Capsay
10. Eugene Shuler
11. Chris Smith
12. Tim Barrett
13. Paul Bourcq
14. Gordon Vanderpool
15. Eddie Pinkston
16. Mike Norton

From Anthony Naranja, Team Captain/Coach:

“This is to announce the SE Regional Qualifier for Sept 5 & 6, 2009 in North Carolina. Registration will be Sept 3rd starting at 8:00 am. Contact Josh Stephens for more information at jstightline@hotmail.com

Also I was just informed by Brian Kimmel that there are still available spots left to compete in the Montana Regional Sept 11-13th. You can contact Brian at finaddict@imt.net”

We arrived into Scotland with the understanding that the wild brown trout native to Scotland were different than our “German” brown trout introduced into our country, and all the countries soon found out how difficult these natives were going to be.  The normal Scottish weather was also nowhere to be found.  The typical cold, windy, rainy Scottish day was only there for the opening ceremonies with torrential downpouring rain and the wary brown trout were as common as the much needed cold, windy, rainy day!  All the days of competition were like a day you wish you had at the beach.  Sunny, warm with very little wind.  This type of weather not very conducive to catching wild loch brown trout.   As you can see through the daily results, not many fish were caught and in fact in most cases if you caught one fish in a particular venue you had a great chance of winning that venue.  Overall, if you got through this championship by catching 1 fish at each venue, you would have gotten into the top 5 and most likely received a medal.  The top individual medalist were the only competitors to have caught at least one fish in each venue.  Even the top Frenchman that finished 4th blanked 1 venue.  All in all a very difficult championship for all competitors.

In the end Team USA finished with a very big comeback coming from 13th place on the final day to finishing 8th in the World, 1 possibly 2 fish from a medal.  In a stillwater championships where Team USA historically has not faired well, I am extremely proud of our team!  I know that we fished as well as we could and we utilized all the resources we could by fishing all of our competitors.  A big congratulations goes to top Team USA finisher, Pete Erickson who finished 13th overall and had a great chance at an individual medal!

We now prepare for the rest of the qualifiers and National Championships in Oct 2009 as well as for the 2010 World Championships in Poland.  Team selection for the Poland championships will be as follows:  Two individuals from this year’s World Championships qualified by their individual finish in Scotland.  Those two are Pete Erickson and Mike Sexton.  The top 3 Point System individuals since the last National Championship will be going to Poland.  Finally, the 2009 individual National Champion will have a spot on this team.  Once we have those spots filled, we will determine the starting lineup and the alternate.  The 3 point system qualifers will be determined from the accumulated points achieved since the 2007 National Fly Fishing Championships through the qualifiers at the end of July.  We are doing this to be able to send this team to Poland 1 year prior to the championships to get prepared for the 2010 World event.  So the only individual we will not know will be the 2010 National Champion which will be crowned in Oct.

The events that qualify for the point system to determine the Poland Team are as follows:

2007 National Championships – Boulder, CO
2008 World Fly Fishing Championships – New Zealand
2008 Pagosa Springs, CO
2008 Salt Lake City, UT
2008 America Cup – Frisco, CO
2008 Canadian National Championship – Mont Tremblant, CA
2009 Santa Fe, NM
2009 Michigan
2009 Bend, OR
2009 World Fly Fishing Championships – Scotland

The following events will also be included for the point total to make the roster for Team USA.  Team USA will be selected at this year’s National Championships by the Top 15 accumulated points from the 2007 National Championships to the 2009 National Championships.
*2009 SE qualifier
*2009 Bozeman, MT
*2009 America Cup
*2009 Canadian National Championship – BC
*2009 Boise, ID
*2009 US National Championship

Points are achieved through any of these events by finishing in the top 30% of the total competitors at any of these events.  For example, at any regional qualifier, there has typically been 24 competitors.  In order to get into the points one must finish in the the top 8 out of the 24 competitiors.  Obviously, the higher the finish the more points accumulated.
In this example:
1st place = 2400 points
2nd place = 1200 points
3rd place = 800 points
4th place = 600 points
5th place = 480 points
6th place = 400 points
7th place = 343 points
8th place = 300 points

Competitions that are considered International (excluding the World Championships) have a mulitiplier of 3.  World Championships have a multiplier of 5.  Thus the harder the competition the more points it is worth to finish in the top 30%.  Also the more the competitor numbers the more points available.

These selection criteria as well as the Point system will be posted on the Team USA website.  Updates to the website will be occurring on a consistent basis.

With this year’s Championship finished, Team USA has established itself as a Top 8 team in the World.  Over the last 4 championships we have consistently finished in the top 8 and we are quickly approaching the top 5.  Thank you for your continued support of Team USA Fly fishing!

Best Regards,

Anthony Naranja