The next two competitions we had were for Teams only. A team in SFFC is made up of two competitors. These team only events were from the boat on the lake & river.

Island lake was the venue used for the second year now in the lake boat comp. Target fish here was Northern pike.

The lake is mainly shallow with an average depth of 4-5 ft and has many pikes like this. So it is lot of fun to fish on the fly for them.

A delicious plate at the end of the event is always welcome 🙂

The Grand River Lower was the second team only event for 2017 but the first of it’s kind. Fishing from the boats on a 10 km river stretch from Paris, Ontario to Brantford.

 This event was a ton of fun and lots of fish were caught.

We should add that in order to be able to organize this event on this river stretch that has special fishing regulations in place, we worked together with County of Brant’s Facilities and Parks Operations Department. Great people there and really thoughtful about the natural resources of the river. 

Kayaks, canoes, pontoons and inflatable drift boats were used in this event. The small mouth bass are really strong on this river, fighting them on a fly rod is amazing.

The “Green Team” know what recycling means 😀 The Nu-Canoe was the most used watercraft…and for a good reason, they are really good.

The event was a blast and we will definitely continue more tournaments like this next year.

In fact everyone was so excited about this kind of fishing tournament that we opened the opportunity in the next event on Thames River. But about that and the Charity we developed there we will talk in the next article.

Stay tuned!

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.

Hi guys,

After a brief break we are coming back with more highlights from the Ontario Fly Fishing Championship.

First we would like to give a shout out to all the participants in the Sotto FF Championship this year, we hope they enjoyed the events and had a good time.   Also a big “thank you” to all SFFC members that helped organize the 2017 events.

Before we finalize the results for this year we would like to go over a few new things that Sotto Fly Fishing Club included in this year’s Championship.

First comp for 2017 was at a new venue, never used in the Championship before, a totally amazing fishery…Franklin Club.

The size of this venue and fish density allowed us to accommodate 24 participants in a 3 sessions rotation system. 1 session fishing from the boat and 2 from the bank using two bodies of water.

24 competitors caught in that day over 700 fish…enough said.

All these elements together produced a good competition with a true leaderboard and Champion.

Next event is the Grand River, another beautiful venue for fly fishing.

to be continued…

This event will be the first of its kind in this fly fishing League: fishing from drifting boats on a 10km section of Grand River.

Since we planned this event we had some discussions with local authorities and fishermen and came up with a few rules modifications:

• Trout species will not be eligible for points
• Electric motors are allowed
• Single man crews/boat are allowed

Here is the list of registered competitors at this time:

• Dave Culver
• Gedas C.
• Linas S.
• Julio Rodriguez
• Robert Bauer
• Tyler Andrews
• Danny Milla
• Cosmin M.
• Hari Klein
• Alicia Raytrowsky
• T.J. Raytrowsky
• Jordan McIntyre

Hey guys! Just a few more days until another fun competitive event. Island Lake! This time we will chase pike only… unfortunately we are still a few weeks before the bass opener.

Please see more details about prizes, rules, registration HERE

With just a few weeks left before the Grand River Upper Competition we would like to remind you that the registration for this event will be closed in the week previous to the comp date.

Please make sure you register HERE

If you register and can’t find your name on the list that means the registration procedure was not finished. To finish the registration procedure please make sure you send the comp fee with an e-transfer to the specified email address.

COMPETITORS LIST

1. Dean Petrovic
2. Christopher Krysciak
3. Dave Culver
4. Rubin S.
5. Mark P.
6. Blair Wilson
7. Julio Rodriguez
8. Ryan Armstrong
9. Lucian Holdevici
10. Alicia Raytrowsky
11. TJ Raytrowsky
12. Jarrett Green
13. Douglas Robertson
14. Ellis Martin
15. Joe Moreira
16. Hari Klein
17. Cosmin M.
18. Gedas Cepinskas

All these schedules are subject to change due to bad weather conditions, high water levels, or other natural disasters. 

• Ontario Spring Open – April 8th 2017

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  Grand River – upper May 27th 2017

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  Esox Classic – June 17th 2017

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• Grand River – lower July 15th 2017 

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•  Thames River – August 19th 2017

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  Sotto Cup – The Fall Challenge October 7th 2017

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The first 2017 official meeting of the Sotto League members will happen in February 11th. The location is in Waterloo, Ontario. Address: Royal Canadian Legion 316 Marsland Dr, Waterloo, ON N2J 3Z1

Starting at 11 am the meeting will have fly tying sessions, discussions about the 2017 season, and more.

The meeting is open for everyone who is interested in fly fishing and/or competitive fishing. Please let us know if you want to join us in order to give you more details and make arrangements on the site. You can contact us here on the website, on Facebook or speak directly with Dave Culver or Cosmin M.

Looking forward to seeing you there

Team SFFC

Congrats to all the participants in the OPFFC 2016!
I think everyone is a winner just by making the effort to prepare and making it to the events. I hope your time spent on the water with us was rewarded not only by having a good time but by taking with you a good chunk of fly fishing experience, learning new techniques and tips that will help you catch more in the next seasons.

I’ve had the pleasure to witness this year how some of the guys evolved from fly fishing enthusiasts to very skilled competitors in Ontario FF Championship. A very good example in this direction is David Culver. First time participant in OPFFC 2015 with a great background in steelheadding, he worked hard investing his time and energy in preparing for his second season as a fly fishing competitor and now he is a Bronze Medalist of 2016 OPFFC individual and teams! Congratulations Dave for your well deserved placing!

Also I’ve seen Alicia and TJ making a very nice and smooth transition from the conventional bass competitions towards the fly fishing competition scene. In the same category fall Gedas Cepinskas and Linas Slyka who showed us how it’s done on Nipissing Lake winning the “Spin vs Fly” Tournament as a spinning team ending up the season by participating in the last Lyndon Bank Competition as a fly fishing team. And the examples can continue with Rubin Sautzer, Bing Gan, Lucio, Pat Moreira, Larry Culver and so on, all very passionate fly fishermen who joined the Championship this last year.

So kudos to you all! Because of your passion and efforts the Ontario Fly Fishing Championship will continue to exist and here at Sotto Club we will try to make it fun and interesting so we can all enjoy it together.

Cosmin M.
OPFFC Tournament Director

Happy New Year everyone!
Team SFFC wishes you all the best for 2017!
We hope you had a good season in 2016 and that you’ll have an even better one in 2017 🙂
Until the official final results are posted we would like to congratulate everyone who participated in the 2016 Ontario Fly Fishing Championship. It was a great season, we had a ton of bank competitions and also some new and cool comp models. We had a new approach to other Leagues in the Province of Ontario and we will continue to do so in 2017.
In 2016 we organized competitions on new venues like Island Lake and Nipissing Lake. We are planning to continue this in 2017 and tackle new venues in Quebec and Ontario. Also new for the Ontario Championship will be the loch style comps that we have never had here for the simple reason of not finding the right venues.
We are also putting together some teams to participate in US competitions and European ones.
The increase in the variety of fly fishing competitions did not however translate into an increasing number of competitors. If in 2015 the Championship welcomed 60 competitors, in 2016 we had just 29. What is more, registration decreased dramatically for some events compared to previous years, and this is why one of the best river competitions, l Grand River 2016, had to be cancelled. We just hope that this will change in the new 2017 season to come.
As always, we are looking forward to hearing your feedback and comments on this matter so we can explain, discuss and improve things in order to find the best approach for this beautiful sport here in Ontario, Canada.

Thank you,
Team SFFC

Due to unforeseen circumstances the LAKE FALL SPECIAL Competition date has been rescheduled from October 15th to Saturday October 22nd.
For those who already send the fee online please confirm by email if you are still coming and want the transaction to go trough.

For those who wants to register now please click here:

LAKE FALL SPECIAL
We appreciate your support and understanding.

COMPETITORS LIST

1. Alicia Moir Raytrowsky
2. T.J. Raytrowsky
3. David Forgeron
4. Ian Troup
5. Alexander James
6. Lucian Holdevici
7. Mike Thompson
8. Ghedas C.
9. Linas
10. Cosmin M.
11. Hari K.
12. Dave Culver
13. Larry C.
14. Ionut Cotinghi
15. Ciprian Rafan
16. Joe Moreira

For more details CLICK HERE

The registration is open for the biggest river competition of the summer. Thames River Open comes in a new, very cool format, open for all fishing styles with artificial lures and a 100% payout system.

More details about the registration, prizes and rules HERE or at the Angling Sports store.

Good times at Island Lake competition where fly guys met spinning guys in a friendly competition. So far “Fly vs Spin” project was a success and in just a few weeks from now it will host the biggest river competition for this summer in London, Ontario on the mighty Thames River. This competition will have a new format different then last year and it will be open to all fishing styles that are using artificial lures.

After the success of Lake Nipissing Competition, the project “Fly vs Spin” continues with Island Lake Comp. Scheduled for July 16th this competition will be open to all artificial lures fishermen, this includes fly fishing, spinning and baitcast. For more details and /or registration please click:

INFO&REGISTRATION

This competition, organized by SFFC, is an official comp in the Provincial Fly Fishing Championship and part of the project “Fly vs Spin”.

The competitors list:

1. Dave Culver
2. Mark Pietrowski
3. Ghedas Cepinskas
4. Radu Suliman
5. Claudiu Chirigel
6. Lucian Holdevici
7. Hari Klein
8. Cosmin Muresan
9. Jordan McIntyre
10. Joe Moreira
11. Calin Ardelean
12. Dan B.
13. …

For more info here: INFO&REGISTRATION

This is a project we’ve been working on for quite some time and we decided that 2016 is a good season to start.

No need to say more about this debate between fly fishing and spin fishing, it’s time to let actions speak.

This year Team “Sotto2”, from the Ontario Fly Fishing League, will participate in several professional tournaments using fly fishing gear against spin/bait-cast gear fishermen.   We will be uploading videos from each event,  just follow our website updates or Facebook page.

This is a shout to all fishermen who feel that this is a cool way to express their passion for the sport; if you think you’re ready for action join us in one of these events:

May 14 – Gloucester Pool

Top50 Pike Series Tournament Trail – www.top50pike.ca

May 23rd – Wildwood Lake

Angling Sports Pike Derby – www.anglingsports.ca

June 11th-12th – Lake Nipissing

SOTTO Cup  – www.sffcl.com

July 16th – Island Lake

OPFFC Pike Wars – www.sffcl.com

If you decide to participate or have any questions leave a comment here, on our Facebook page or send us an email from the Contact us top right menu.