Fishing on Team USA for the World Masters Fly Fishing Championships here in Kamloops, British Columbia is a great honor. I’ve been lucky to be on this team since the first time I was invited when it was held in Ireland back in 2016. There’s a lot more to it than just getting to be on the team. You need to continuously practice and be on your game because you are representing the best of the USA. Furthermore, you need to dedicate time before each tournament to arrive early and practice.
The 2023 Worlds event starts Sunday and today was our third day of practice. This morning our host/guide Brian Chan took us to Six Mile Lake about an hour from Kamloops. The weather was cold, drizzly and dreary. The wind was light but strong enough to get good drifts for loch style lake fly fishing which is how we’ll be competing for three of our five beats.
Six Mile Lake will be similar to Corbett Lake where everyone will fish one session on during the competition. The lake is mostly shallow but also has holes and submerged bars where trout can be found. We had our usual set up of two of us on the boat with Brian and three of us packed tight in his extra boat. Today I took a seat in the extra with Pete and Mike.
Fishing was excellent. We fished intermediate lines in the shallows with a variety of flies from small nymphs to damsels. We sent our faster sinking lines out over the deeper parts of the lake with Gomphus and Mop flies and a variety of buggers and did well too. Today’s rainbows were abundant and excellent size.
We called it early and had a late lunch at Harold’s in Kamloops. Then we made the long 90 minute drive north to view the tournament water of the Clearwater River. Because its comp water we are not allowed to fish it but we can look. We all have one session here and after seeing it, this could be our most challenging.
The Clearwater is massive and deep and chock full of pink salmon that do not score. Dead and alive. I mean everywhere. And we did not see a trout or a whitefish anywhere. We’re certain the scorable trout and whities are there but it will be hard to get them for two reasons. First, today any cast you made today would likely snag a salmon. Second, rumor has it that in past years when this unpredictable salmon run occurs, the trout and whitefish fill up on salmon eggs and are nearly impossible to catch.
It was a long but productive practice and reconnaissance day. We are all beat. The guys are tying a few bugs up and I’m working on the blog. Until tomorrow. . . .
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