World Champion (individual), 2012

World Champion (team), 2015

Smart Angling (Ivo): David, you have had an amazing fly fishing journey: multiple titles in Spain, three times Wold Champion and more...How did you start fly fishing and what motivated you to get to this level?

David: I started fishing at age 4 when my parents took me to the river with them. At age 11 I attended a fly fishing course at my club, the Salmo club, and at 12 I took part in my first Spanish Fly Fishing Championship getting good results from the start. I try to improve daily with a lot of training and many competitions.

Photo: David in his teen years with his mentor German from the Salmo Club in A Coruña, Spain

Smart Angling: How do you stay in shape? How many competitions do you participate in every year?

David: I train a lot, travelling throughout Spain and Europe to experience many different situations, at new rivers and lakes and with all kinds of fish. I try to take part in all competitions that I can: this is about 20-25 competitions a year that help me get used to dealing with situations where the time and the stretch of river one gets to fish are both limited. Also, in non-competitive “leisure” fishing I look for difficult situations that resemble a competition.

Photo: David with a large brown caught during his visit to Canada in 2017 from an Ontario creek known for its challenging fishing.

Smart Angling: Is competitive fly fishing popular in Spain? How big are your competitions? Are your competitions mostly on rivers, or you have good lake fishing for trout as well?  

David: Today there are many competitors in Spain, our National Championship gets 140 participants that qualify through various classifications in their provinces and communities. Now the level of the elite competitors in Spain is very high, due mainly to the large number of competitions: we control each other which helps the learning of new techniques as information is easily transferred. We also have a lot of fishing pressure on our rivers and lakes, which makes the fish very smart and elusive, so you have to improve your technique to catch some. In my view Spain is now the top power in river fishing: we have been developing fishing techniques, from dry fly to nymphing, that are very different from those of other European countries. Also, in recent years in lake fishing we have reached the level of countries like France, the Czech Republic and England.

Photo: David on top of the podium at the 2012 World Fly Fishing Championship in Slovenia.

Smart Angling: Recently you started a new company for fly fishing equipment: Arcay Fishing. There are so many companies on the market these days. What makes Arcay different from the rest? What do you want to achieve?  

David: Arcay Fishing was born from the need to develop new products that are not offered on the current market; products designed meticulously to meet the needs of the discerning competitive anglers, made as we would make any products for ourselves. We look for perfection in the design and quality of materials at a competitive price. Our goal is to have a complete catalog covering making all the essential competitive equipment available to all fishermen. If a product is worth using in competition, obviously this is also true for any leisure fishing. Little by little we will try to reach all parts of the world and build a great brand known and used worldwide.

Photo: David teaching a river class in Mt. Tremblant, Quebec during his 2017 visit to Canada.

Smart Angling is the exclusive Canadian dealer for Arcay Fishing. Follow us at www.smartangling.com as we continue to bring to you an expanded range of top quality Arcay products.