The second competition was the Grand River Comp on the upper section for brown trout. This section is very well known for the beautiful scenery and clear fast flowing waters.

Despite all these attributes,  this river has a major deficiency… all the brown trout are stocked. Almost nothing survives from one year to another so  all the fish you can catch  were freshly stocked that season. Nothing wrong with that when fishing for fun, but when a competition has to be organized on this river you face a big problem…these fish are not evenly spread on the river as the naturalized ones. They are used to hanging together and they don’t move from the spot they are put in. In the end you’ll have almost no fish on a 2-3km section,  then a pool with 200 browns in it followed by another 2-3km of almost no fish section and another 200 browns pool and so on.

With these conditions in mind , organizing a classic-type  competition by international rules with Sectors and Beats is out of the question. SOTTO FF Club tried over the years many approaches and different competition systems but none of them managed to provide us with results that accurately reflect the competitors’ actual fishing skills.  Unfortunately,  as things stand now,  it all comes down to who gets to the honey hole first and then follows an episode of Alaska’s grizzly bears waiting for the salmon (to jump)at the falls.

Nonetheless the event is still lots of fun, the scenery amazing and the river is mighty. We will not give up on it but continue to improve the system and try new approaches for the seasons to come.

It is great to fish and compete with friends.Lots of work to fish in the rapids.

Always fun to fish a #18 micro-nymph in such fast and deep water.

Fish on…

Jordan came up with a new computer program to calculate the results. Great job Jordan!

All the competitors are friends at the end, drinking beer and eating together.

Fun fact : at this competition the guys from Sotto Club managed to win 4 medals  😉

Congrats guys! Great job!

Also a special thanks to Dave Culver who took a swing at managing this event.