I did not see one iota of what was coming for me today.  Our USA Masters Fly Fishing Team was in second place with the momentum to overtake Team Spain and repeat a Gold Medal winning championship.  If everyone on the team could have a decent performance today – we’d likely have it.

 

I headed for Sullivan Lake.  The lake has been tough the last few days but I wasn’t scared.  I had excellent success yesterday on Corbett and was feeling confident.  We left the Coast Hotel under partly cloudy skies.  It was cold with light wind.  Honestly, it was a perfect lake fishing day.

 

The bus ride to Sullivan, also known as Knouff, takes about an hour.  When we arrived the head controller judge pulled out an envelope and read off our boat partner matchups.  I was surprised, but I drew Martin, the Czech again.  The same contestant I fished with Monday that doesn’t speak a word of English.  What can you do?  Absolutely nothing so off we went.

 

Like Monday I was assumed running the boat because Martin doesn’t know how.  Today was an electric motor so I figured if I got sick of driving I’d pass it off to Martin and let him figure it out.  Electrics are pretty easy.  There is an advantage to not driving because you have extra time for fly or line changes.

 

Despite the language barrier Martin seems easy going.  It’s a bummer we can’t fish and chat.  At least as the driver I went right to where Team USA has had some success this week.  When the siren sounded for first cast I was armed with my 6-weight and my SA 3S/5S Sonar Sinking line and a small olive leech.  During our first drift I got tapped by fish several times but could not connect.  It was obvious they were feeding carefully.

 

It was pull the windsock and repeat.  Several of the boats were in the location I’d chose.  One was Chris the Englishmen.  Team England won this sector yesterday so I knew we were in the right spot.  Furthermore, I watched Chris land at least a couple fish in that very first drift.  I knew mine was coming.

 

Martin and I kept plugging away.  We were basically drifting across from a shallow point, across some deep water then into shallows again.  Then we’d go back up and get in line and do it again.  1 hour passed.  Then another 30 minutes.  Next thing you knew, two hours were gone and Martin and I were getting handed a blank.  I’d hooked and dropped a small fish that may have counted.  And I’d had a few strikes.  But that was it.  Concerning to say the least.

 

There were a few fish being caught in this area.  I watched each person and no doubt they were fishing deep.  I could see the long casts then it was at least 20 seconds before their first strip.  I switched lines from my Type 3/5 to my faster sinker the 5S/7S and started a 20 count of my own.

 

We were in our next drift and I missed another strike.  Ugh!  That’s when Martin changed lines.  He went from his deep line to an intermediate.  The exact opposite move of me.  Then out came Martins map.  He wanted to move.

 

I respect another anglers thoughts.  But this was a horrible time for a boat ride and an experiment.  Martin confused me with his plan.  Of course I had no idea what he was saying so I handed over the reins to the motor.  Martin made it clear he didn’t like the idea of running the motor but I needed to change to an intermediate sinking line.  It was obvious he was taking us shallow.

 

Martin took us shallow alright.  He ran us a ground on a shallow bar – the one we had been fishing just off of all morning.  We were able to break free but how did he not see this?  Then we drove about five minutes behind an island.  It actually wasn’t that shallow.  There was a deep drop next to shore.  I had already switched to my intermediate line so I added a heavy fly.  Who knows I thought.  Maybe there’s a fish here.  We both went to work.

 

The windsock was out and we had a good drift going.  When suddenly the boat shot forward and I heard what was likely a Czech swear word.  Martin tried to adjust our drift with the windsock out and hit the motor throttle so hard that we went forward and he sucked up the windsock in the propeller!

 

First of all, tournament rules, you can’t run your motor with the windsock out for this exact reason.  Second, now we had a potentially disastrous tangle in our motor and we were already low on time.  Martin was definitely in a panic but he managed to hang off the back of the boat and get things fixed.  By the time he did so we were in no mans land and he took us on another boat ride.

 

Ironically, he drove us all the way back to where the fish were.  So we basically took a 25 minute excursion away from the fish only to come back again with what was now about 20 minutes left.  That’s when that sick feeling in my stomach hit.  I just knew the most unlikely and disastrous blank was close to happening.

 

If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you’re expecting something great or miraculous to happen.  But it didn’t.  That 20 minutes went by PAINFULLY fast and neither of us landed a fish.  Siren sounded at noon.  Brutal!

 

Like today’s title says, it was “A Shocking Defeat”.  I can blame a lot of things but the truth of the matter, I had a good two hours where I wanted to fish and could not get the job done.  While results on the session weren’t great, there were fish caught and that included a great performance by Jordi of Team Spain.  The exact angler I needed to beat.  Instead I scored the worst. 14.  And Jordi a 1.  It was a long bus ride back to Kamloops.

 

I must be getting older and wiser.  Twenty years ago when I competed, today’s result would have shattered me for weeks.  Today, it only shattered me till I ran into my team.  My boys are cool cats.  The first thing they did was either high five me or hug me.  Of course, with the exception of Pete and Loren, they each blanked earlier this week.  This was my first but it was painful timing.

 

Pete was reading results on his phone and followed up with a, “We’re still in it”.

 

Still in it?  In it for a trip to the podium?  Or in it for gold?  Not to be picky but at this stage and after last year’s gold, we all wanted gold.  Pete said, “I think gold”.

 

And how could we still be in contention with my blank?  Easy.  The rest of the guys did well.  Mike scored a 5.  Loren 8.  Bret 3.  And Pete won his session!  Which means not only did Pete help the team immensely, but he is the 2023 World Masters Champion!

 

I can’t tell you how happy all of us are for Pete.  Pete has been with Team USA for a long time.  Pete is the only member of this team that celebrated with me when I took home the first ever World Championship medal in Spain in 2003.

 

As for the team status we had to hang tight for at least an hour.  The guys were crunching numbers trying to figure out if we hung on for gold.  Then the news came.  We missed gold by one point.  ONE POINT.

 

The news hurt.  What if I didn’t blank today?  What if Mike caught one more fish today.  Or Loren?  Or Bret?  The first thing we all did was replay the week.  What if. . . . what if. . . . what if. . . But it was too late.  We are now the Silver Medalists, second to Spain.

 

It took us about an hour to grasp things but soon we realized, Silver isn’t bad.  And in the last four years we now have a Gold, two Silvers and a 4^th.  We are a team to reckon with.  We enjoyed our time on the podium tonight with Spain and the 3rd place French.  And when they played our National Anthem for Pete and his Individual Gold.  Amazing!  Time to celebrate!

 

Believe it or not some of us are fishing again tomorrow for fun with Scott and Sarah who we haven’t seen since last week.  It’s been an amazing trip.  I’ll be back with more tomorrow!

 

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing