It was nice knowing that after today I wouldn’t be lugging wet waders and shoes through the hotel lobby for a river session again this trip. Starting tomorrow I’ll finish out on lakes. Nor will I need to leave on the early river buses again this week. Lake sessions leave later. But like I said, that was after today. This morning I was nestled in a window seat on the bus for the 2 hour ride to the feared Clearwater River at about 6:15 am.
The Clearwater has delivered about 20 blanks in the first two days of the 2023 World Masters Fly Fishing Championships. The tough sector will likely determine the winning teams of this competition. As of this morning our team had gone 50/50. Mike was blanked on session 1 but Loren caught a rainbow yesterday on session 2. It’s make it or break it on the Clearwater and today was my turn to try and catch a fish. Though my first two sessions have been meager, one fish today would catapult the team towards first place Spain.
My bus arrived in Clearwater, British Columbia at 8 am. Just like yesterday, I split two beats with another competitor. I drew my longtime Netherlands friend, William de Jong. I started above William on beat 7 and after 1.5 hours I rotated down to beat 8 and he up to 7.
The day was our nicest of the tournament so far. It was a crisp one with a temperature of about 44° when we arrived. This created fog off the Clearwater but above the blue sky was breaking through. To start I was dressed warm but I shed some layers when the sun came up.
The Clearwater is a giant river where we fished. Its swift and deep and in beat 7 I had no business stepping more than a few feet from the bank. I simply wanted to be thigh deep so if I hooked a fish I could net him easily. Two steps and I was there.
There were pink salmon everywhere swimming around like zombies near the surface. Others were dead along the bank. Dry fly fishing was out with all the floating salmon. Streamers were hopeless because you’d snag a salmon every cast. This session was another full on Euro nymphing gig. Only one thing different – in British Columbia only one fly at a time is allowed.
My controller, Duane, was a good ole boy from Chase, BC. He was a pleasure to chat with. But at 9 am when the bell went off I blocked out the world and went to work, meticulously nymphing my water hoping to scrounge up a rare fish for this river.
Despite nymphing being my last choice of all fly fishing methods, I was focused. I had an excellent heavyweight nymph Loren tied for me last night. It was the same one he caught his fish on yesterday. I felt confident as I dissected every current seam I saw. Places where I felt could hold a fish.
I had three hours but wouldn’t it be nice if I caught one early. Just to get it out of the way. And then at 9:20 on the dot it happened. I felt at tap in my 4-weight Winston through my 5X Fluoro and I set the hook. A dandy of a whitefish lifted to the surface and in quick swoop I had him in the net. Yes!
Duane let out a “Finally!”. He was happy also. “I’ve been bored the last two days. This is the first fish I’ve had to write down!”, he exclaimed.
Wow! I was stoked! But if I caught a fish this easily did the Clearwater turn on? Was everyone catching fish? I didn’t know and it didn’t matter. I just continued to methodically sink my nymph through every fishy looking spot on the beat. But at 10:30 when it was time to switch beats with William, that one whitefish was my only fish. On beat 8 William was fishless.
Beat 8 looked better than beat 7. I went right back to work expecting a fish on every drift. But it wasn’t to be. I had a fish on but it was a dorsal snagged salmon. That was a disappointment. I had a couple taps in one spot each time I went through, but I never connected. In the end, after my 1.5 hours on beat 8, I added no more. But I got one fish on my Clearwater session! The question now was – how many other people caught fish?
Duane and I walked off the river to where he was parked. Soon William and his judge arrived as well. William blanked and his controller was quick to say there were a lot of blanks. He’d called some of his other friends that were controllers. Good news for me.
It was a half hour wait for the bus to retrieve William and I to return to the hotel in Kamloops. During that time the Clearwater results were texted to Duane. The Irish angler caught 2. I caught 1. And ALL other contestants including the Spaniard were blanked. Superb news for me and Team USA!
It was a sensational feeling getting back to my teammates after my killer session. My boys had learned and were pumped! Best of all, everyone had a great day.
The scores for today were me with a 2. Loren scored 4. Bret 1. Pete 2. Mike 8. We crushed it! And what’s most amazing is that Team USA is now in first place by 2 points! Hang on folks!
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