As most regular readers will know, I participated in the 4th annnual Canadian Fly Fishing Championships, June 23, 24, and 25, 2006. Although I am embarrassed to admit that I placed last, in fact I think I "won" an awful lot by participating. In fact, I met some great anglers, made some friends, and realized that I had an awful lot to learn about competition fly fishing. It's nothing like recreational fishing at all.

Jack Simpson Presenting the Doug Austin Memorial Trophy to Terence Courtoreille

After two and half gruelling days of fishing the Grand and Conestoga Rivers near Fergus, Elora and Glen Allan, fly anglers from across Canada, young and old, male and female, finally got the results of how they did in the competition. But first, a little more information on the contest and how it worked:

An angler could sign up to compete either as an invidual or as part of a team. This year, there were 7 pre-organized teams while the five individuals that signed up without being part of a team were made part of "Team Grand," ad hoc. The members of each team were assigned a "group" from A to E, such that all anglers in group A would fish the same sectors, although on different beats, at the same time. The "groups" would rotate through the various sectors of the Grand and Conestoga rivers, and fish for three hour spells per sector.

This year, the weather for the event was warm and humid temperatures with a blazing sun all three days. If you forgot sunscreen (like me), you're likely still peeling skin off any exposed regions. And of course, this weather made for some tough fishing at times as well.

Scoring for the event consisted of earning 200 points simply for catching a fish, and then 20 points per centimetre of length of fish. In other words, it was quite simply, a "numbers game." Generally speaking, the angler with the most fish caught would win the competition. I didn't quite "get this" until the end of the second day of the competition (see my blog entry here).

The team winners were as follows:

Gold Medal: Equipe Airflo

From Left To Right: Vince Gwilym (Coach), Randy Taylor (Captain), John Huff, Donald Thom, Mark Anderson, John Beaven

Silver Medal: Les Chiens d'eau

From Left To Right: Mark Skursky, Stephane Malhiot, Ian James (Coach), Bernard Lacasse, Claude Bedard, Tom Irvine

Bronze Medal: Team Grand

From Left To Right: Mark Visconti, Sunny Vanderkloof, Janus Wojckik, Jonathan Furigay, Sandra-Lorraine Root

Individual Winners:

Gold Medal: Terence Courtoreille, Team North West Territories
Silver Medal: John Beaven, Team Equipe Airflo
Bronze Medal: Sorin Comsa, Team Double Haul

From Left To Right: Terence Courtoreille, John Beaven, Sorin Comsa

And before I provide the unofficial standings for all of the competitors, I thought it would be great to have a picture of the last place and first place competitors, and Terence Courtoreille graciously agreed to pose with me:

The final standings (for official results, please see the Fly Fishing Canada website. At time of writing, they were not yet posted).

1. Terence Courtoreille
2. John Beavin
3. Sorin Comsa
4. Arron Varga, John Nishi (Tie)
6. Sunny Vanderkloof
7. Claude Bedard
8. Tom Irvine
9. Ernie Kalwa, Todd Oishi, Janus Wojcik (Tie)
12. John Huff
13. Wayne Yoshizawa
14. Mark Skursky
15. Dino Petrelli, Donald Thom, Marc Visonti (Tie)
18. Marius-Adrian Dumitru, Brian Vickery, Arthur Barnes (Tie)
21. Silvia D'Amelio, Sandra-Lorraine Root (Tie)
23. Chris Pfohl, Stephane Malhiot, Brian Duffy, Mark Anderson (Tie)
27. Niko Terpselas
28. Jeanne Jenkins, Gord Bacon (Tie)
30. Brenda Atherne, Randy Taylor (Tie)
32. G. Murfitt
33. Norman Godding, Bernard Lacasse
35. Jonathan Furigay
36. Chari Cohen
37. Malcolm Stark, Robert Wagner
39. Dil Perera
40. Ian Scott

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