Competitive Angling is an unforgiving sport. On the worlds stage you have but one opportunity to put into practice 12 months worth of work and considering the arduous preparation leading up to this make or break tournament the wrong result can be soul destroying.

Having overcome fierce competition on a provincial level and managing to out fish the country’s top fly fishers at the WildFly National Championships and survived the grueling trials that determine whether you have what it takes to become a Sybase Protea, this is when the real pressure hits you.

You are now representing your country and putting your individual skills up against the world’s best and make no mistake, many of these competitors have proven time and again that they are world beaters.

The Czechs come with a track record that includes a string of world titles and individual gold medals, The French have a current world title to defend, as well as their formidable national pride and arrive with an entourage that you’d expect to be following a visiting head of state. Italy, Spain, England and the other EU countries have understandably high expectations being consistent top ten finishers and as always the odds on favorites are the incumbent home side…New Zealand.

It’s all about the team, but the weight that can be telling is the fact that out on the water, it’s all about your individual performance. How many fish you catch determines your group ranking which is what you contribute to the team. 3 hours can be the difference between you basking in the congratulations of your team mates or enduring the stoney silence that can greet one unproductive session.

Our lads arrived a week before the event, fortunate to get some invaluable advice and guidance from ex- South African Garth Plank, a professional fly fisher who took the Sybase Proteas onto a range of rivers and lakes that would mimic the conditions that they were expected to face during the tournament.

Living in a country where water restrictions are commonplace, it’s hard to comprehend the amount of water that New Zealand has flowing through it’s hillsides and in every little stream, creek and river, trout thrive with a clarity of water that requires more than stealth.

The population of trout in the public waters is staggering, in every lie or run that you are sure there will be a trout holding…there are five and not your wee 1 pound variety either, don’t be surprised to find a 7 pound rainbow casually inspecting the food offerings on the current line, irritatingly cock sure that you pose no threat to his domain whatsoever…… these waters attract more flies than a dead wildebeest on the Serengeti plains.

But it didn’t take our lads long to get amongst the fish. The 2008 Sybase Proteas comprised of world champ silver medalist Mark Yelland, seasoned campaigners Gary Glen Young and Robert van Rensburg as well as recalled Tim Rolston and newly capped Andre Steenkamp.

Fishing on such varied waters as the Whakapappa (the Wh is pronounced as an F….a river you can’t forget), the Wherinaki and Lake Karatau, the preliminary practice rounds went extremely well with all anglers acclimatizing to the conditions, and working out the techniques and fly patterns that were attracting fish.

From a river perspective, the flow was remarkably deceiving, the clarity often belied the depth and subsequent flow, so aside from the obvious patterns to entice a strike, the fundamental was using a heavily weighted control fly to get your rig down into the strike zone. Lake conditions weren’t too dissimilar from South Africa, save the water temperature and sheer expanse of water. You couldn’t hope to cover the surface area of any lake, so a strategy relative to location had to be decided on and persevered with, as traveling time will cost you fish in this tournament.

The competition consisted of five sessions of three hours each over 3 days, two sessions held on lakes and three on rivers. The 98 anglers competing were drawn into 5 groups / sectors and how you performed in this group / sector was the definitive score that would count towards your team performance.

Our start wasn’t exactly meteoric, placing 15th out of 18 scoring teams and although Gary Glen Young recorded a respectable 10th place it became very clear, when looking at the individual scores on the Waihou River, with the winner Lloyd Struther from New Zealand catching 35 fish and our Andre Steenkamp, placing 17th, only managing 5 that that we had a lot of catching up to do.

The second session saw our still water experience pay dividends with Robert Van Rensburg managing a well deserved 3rd place finish on Lake Rotoaira, pulling us up to 14th place in the standings.

Gary got the team of to a great start in session 3, placing 5th in his group and at the end of session three both him and Robert Van Rensburg had broken into the top 50 anglers individually, moving up the leader board very steadily.

In session 4, Gary mad his move, getting a toughly contested 3rd place finish in his lake session, with stalwart Mark Yelland following this up with a 4th place finish on his lake as well as Tim Rolston making a worthy contribution with a 8th placing on the Waihou river.

Although we maintained our 14th position, Gary had catapulted to 24th in the individual rankings and our hopes were poised on the final session for a potential top ten finish.

Unfortunately this is where the momentum crashed to agonizing halt, Andre blanked and the rest of the team ended up at the bottom end of their group, with only Tim managing a 7th place.

At the end, we finished where we started, 15th, a disappointing result sorely felt by every team member.

Previously as a national team, the Sybase Proteas have finished 17th, 15th and 11th and we had high hopes for a top ten finish this year. Gary finished a respectable 41st, but as a team quite frankly we failed to deliver the results. No one individual is too blame as mentioned this is an unforgiving sport and to be judged on a single performance is a harsh reality.

The Czechs romped home, closely followed by New Zealand and France, the full results you can scrutinize at your leisure on www.wildfly.co.za

There are many differences in the teams and although it’s easy to be perceptive in hindsight and there are many contributing factors as to why the Czechs and French dominate the sport, the prevailing factor has to be the fact that for them it is a full time commitment, they are, in an amateur sport, consummate professionals.

It is not too dissimilar from the South African Era of Amateur rugby, sure the best players were picked, but quite frankly this was in between full time jobs and we can all see the huge improvement in skills and performance once the sport turned professional.

Can one solely fish for a living, well although we’d all like to, that’s another debate for another day.

Unlike many other teams, we are incredible fortunate to be sponsored to get to the worlds by Sybase SA, so albeit for a two week window, our Proteas are actually paid to fish, in so far as they don’t have to fund their own trip to compete. Hyundai kindly supplied two magic vehicles, Explorer Fly Fishing Equipment and Senqu Outdoor kindly kitted our lads out and WildFly travel ensured that the logistics of travel and fishing went smoothly, with Insurance Zone covering the Sybase Proteas.

Looking forward, we certainly need to raise the level of competition if we seriously intend challenging the Europeans. To this end, I believe we need to be fishing competitively only for salmonoid species (as this is the only competitive target species in the World Champs), we need have more internal competitions to identify the best possible anglers to compete at this level (The points system is in place in this regard, so it is a fair contest to any would be competitor) and we need to broaden our skills base by interacting with the international competitive community as much as possible.

These among other improvement proposals will be raised at the forthcoming AGM.

In this respect our immediate aim is to-:

1. Invite international teams to compete on our home waters
2. Make a concerted bid to host the World Fly Fishing Championships in South Africa

The Sybase Protease, might not have covered themselves in glory but they certainly conducted themselves gracefully, earning the respect and friendship of many competitors on the worlds stage.

The Sybase Protea Trials – By Pollard Kype

Following the WildFly National Fly Fishing Championships, recently held on the freestone streams of the Western Cape, the top fifteen provincial anglers were invited up to test their skills on the challenging conditions of Lake Le Seuer and what is arguably the finest brown trout river in South Africa….the upper Mooi at Riverside.

Joining the senior squad, having qualified at the WildFly Junior Trials held on the Vaal river were nine potential candidates for the first Junior Protea Fly Fishing team.

Just to get to this stage, the competitors had been up against each other for the last two years, this being the minimum duration that scores are collated over to determine qualification at this level.

Consistency of results over multiple fish off’s gives every registered angler a national ranking and this ensures that only the country’s finest fly fishers earn an invite to the Sybase Protea Trials.

But as this level, even before you step on the playing field, you have to qualify through a battery of tests to prove beyond any doubt that you know your craft intimately.

First is a tackle inspection that is reminiscent of National Service. You need to know everything about every single item in your possession; it gives new meaning to technical and literally takes the fun out of fishing.

This is followed by casting and presentation disciplines for hours on end, for every conceivable scenario, it will leave your joints aching and the fainthearted yearning for some bait to throw.

And then for those who think that buying the best flies is the way to slide home, you’re given the most intricate patterns to tie, these needing to imitate the insect to perfection as the adjudicators glare over your shoulder.

As I said, it really does take the fun out of fly fishing.

But if you want to hold your own in the World Championships this is a prerequisite.

The shaken contestants enjoyed a quiet evening (again I’ve never seen or been to a fly fishing event where more action takes place on the field than in the pub) in preparation for the rigors of lake Le Seuer.

Now, Le Seuer’s has devastated the dreams of many a wannabe, 194 acres is in itself daunting, couple this with the relentless wind that can blow a man across the lake in a matter of minutes and you understand why some anglers trudge down the mountain bleaker than a winters dawn.

The Juniors were allowed to float tube, compliments of Explorer and their magic mini V boats, as handling a drift boat, it was felt, was a little much for the U18’s.

But the Seniors had stricter rules than an Italian convent. Two men per boat, no anchor, only a small drogue….launch, sit down and if you get up once in your session you’re disqualified!

Only barbless flies, no weights of any description and the angler can only cast with the wind…in other words no casting against the wind and trolling with the boat!! Plus a multitude of other equipment rigging regulations.

Two intense 3-hour sessions, with your boat partner measuring your fish and scoring the sought after points.

Not exactly a casual outing looking for a few fresh trout.

The fishing on the Lake lived up to it’s reputation in the first session, with a lot more rowing done than actual fishing…finding the fish in such an expanse of water is never easy…identical to what awaits the Sybase Proteas at the forthcoming World Championships.

Well the dreaded blank reached out and slapped the best of them, with only three senior anglers, registering a fish….an unmolested fly is the great leveler, bound to shatter egos and guaranteed to break the resolve of a weary angler. This is what competitive fly fishing is all about, the ability to stay focused and implement a plan in a positive manner…at this level, fishing is all about attitude and confidence.

And those that persevered pulled though in the second session despite the deteriorating weather and water conditions. Tim Rolston announced his candidacy for selection by bagging 4 rainbows in his second session as did Andre Steenkamp by catching in both sessions. Remember, blanking a fishing session can destroy your chances as you accrue penalty points.

Needless to say there were more than a few excuses and invariable complaints from those that didn’t find the fish, but the Juniors had the last laugh by out fishing the majority of Seniors in the 2nd session…o.k. they had float tubes and we all know that the wind drift troll is a fact of float tubing….but the history books will only show the results. Chase Nicholson and Daniel Factor headed up the leader board in this division after the first day.

After a few soothing words from Arthur Bell and sons, the senior lads (and one lady) retired to prepare for the final day which would determine who received Protea colors.

The Mooi River was one of the first rivers to be stocked with Brown Trout in the 1890’s and despite the best efforts from the supposedly politically correct to extricate the fish, the results showed that the population is thriving in well managed conditions. With the kind permission of custodian Pieter Moller, the competitors battled it out over three 2-hour sessions, swapping allocated beats throughout the day.

In total 163 fish were caught and released in a only six hours of fishing, and let me tell you that as many were dropped as the barbless hooks went down extremely well with the wild browns.

Chalk and cheese in terms of the expressions of anglers returning from a full day on the water yesterday.

Now, it wasn’t just about coming right in a few days fishing, remember the points that were up for grabs at these trials were added to the totals that accrued over a 2 year cycle.

Of course when national honors are up for grabs, you’re always going to have a few disappointed competitors, but as the numbers yet again verified it was the top fly fishers that earned the right to represent their country.

The Sybase Proteas that will be competing in the World Fly Fishing Championships to be held in New Zealand from the 22nd to the 30th March 2008 were-:

Mark Yelland – (Also received floating trophy for largest river fish…42cm)
Robert Van Rensburg
Gary Glen Young
Andre Steenkamp (Recipient of floating trophy for top fly fisher …caught in every session)
Tim Rolston

Presidents Team that qualified to compete in the Commonwealth Games-:
Sudesh Prasad
Tim Babich
Terry Babich
Phillip Meyer
Jaques Marais

Managers – Greg Fendt and Andre Blignaut

Junior Protea Team that will compete in the Junior World Championship -:

Chase Nicholson
Daniel Factor
Christiaan Pretorius
Joshua Smith

Non Fishing Captain – MC Coetzee
Manager – Willem Pretorius

Full results of the WildFly National Trials including the full breakdown of points accrual for qualification is available on www.wildfly.co.za

We wish all the recipients many gentle presentations, lots of drag free drift and landing nets that reek.