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My 3rd session at the WFFC was on the lower part of river Vah, downstream of the confluence with the Bela. A beautiful river but also full of surprises: just like the Orava, the beats were quite uneven in fish numbers, probably also due to the fact that there were several dams along the course of the entire sector.

After the training, I already had a clear idea of ​​the areas where the fish are. After the first day of, it was confirmed that the bottom of the sector from beat 19 to 28 holds a good amount of fish except beats 24, 26 and 27. In the upper part beats 1 to 7 were good, too. The beats in the middle of the sector, from 8 to 18, right between the dams, had fewer fish, perhaps also due to the shape of the river with higher and faster water. However, the most difficult beat from my point of view was beat 17, where during practice I caught only one fish.

Another factor that influenced the fishing results was the position of the sun over the beats. With the nights getting colder, the fish preferred the sunny side in the morning and in some of the beats they became active only in the second part of the session. During the training, I discovered that the dominant species is grayling, followed by brown trout and rainbow trout. The flies that worked best for me were pheasant tail variants in sizes 16 to 18 with beads from 3 mm to 2 mm. Bead colours were copper, golden and silver.

My pheasant tail variants.

Friday morning, September 15: the departure for the lower Vah was scheduled for 6:30. I still woke up at 5 a.m., had breakfast and prepared my equipment. The weather was supposed to be good with clear, sunny skies. I knew that the water level was a little higher after the pouring rain on the previous day. River levels are available daily on the official Slovak website: https://www.shmu.sk/en/?page=1&id=ran_sprav.

I was hoping to have clear water and not to fish beat number 17. About 20 minutes after boarding the bus, the organizers announced the beats and the rotation for each country. Being lucky by nature, I got beat number 18 in rotation with the angler from Montenegro on beat number 17. The good news was that I had clear water, and I would fish the good beat first. The bad news was that I would fish beat 17 in the second half, where I thought there were no fish.

Arriving at the river 1.5 hours before the start of the session, I had enough time to prepare and scout my beat and get an idea of ​​how to approach the water. Beat number 18 was about 400 meters long. In the upper part at the limit with beat number 17 it fast moving water with between 40 and 60 cm deep, in the centre part there was a long pool that transitioned into a fast water channel with depths between 70 cm and 150 cm. In the lower part, in the vicinity of the beat number 19, the river looked ideal for grayling with shallow riffles, 15 to 30 cm deep.

The lower part of my beat.

My strategy was to start in the lower part, where I would insist more on what I believed was the best grayling water, and where there was more sunshine. The beat was much wider than the upper part, where the river was narrow with deeper faster water with almost no sun because of big trees on the opposite bank.

At 9 o'clock the start was given and I entered the river. At my first cast, I caught an undersized grayling around 18 cm. It seemed that the fish were cooperative, so I continued to advance and approximately 3 m from the opposite bank I caught the first eligible fish: a brown trout. I brought it to the controller for the measurement, dully signed and got back to the opposite bank where I cast under the bank and I caught the second brown trout. Same story: measure, sign, return to the hot spot where after another 5 minutes of casting along the banks I caught the third brown trout. In the meantime, a few small graylings also came in, which gave me hope that I would find bigger grayling in the area.

I was about halfway through the session, and I only had 3 fish and no grayling. I knew beat 19 produced a lot of grayling on the first day and I was hoping to find them in the vicinity of the beat where the water was similar to what gave us good results in practice. I insisted for about 20 minutes with not even one touch.

Good looking water on beat 19

I still had 30 minutes left from the first half of the session, and I decided to try at the top of the beat. I wasn't sure that I could find grayling, yet when I got there, the sun now covered more than half of the fishing area, and the first cast in the high and fast water produced a grayling of about 24 cm.

I still had enough time to put more fish on the scoresheet, but then experienced the worst 20 minutes of the entire championship. I caught another undersized grayling and lost four fish bigger fish, that would have scored. The pressure to catch fish in the first part of the session, the lack of inspiration and information combined with childish mistakes and bad angling left me after the first half of the session with only 4 fish on the scoresheet. I knew that if I had invested more time fishing in the upper part of the beat, I could score more fish.

On my way to make the switch with the beat 17 I met the angler from Montenegro who informed me that he had caught 7 fish. This was an unexpected number of fish. Apparently, I was wrong and unprepared for this type of water so I realized that I have to adapt. I started from the top going downstream this time and I did something that I was supposed to do at the beginning of the session I bent the point of the hook a little bit on the side, which helps a lot in setting the hook, especially when the fish are not cooperative (thanks to Daniel Suceava, he reminded me of this method that I knew but I had forgotten).

About 20 minutes into the second period of my session, fishing the fastest current I scored a grayling. Meanwhile, I saw the fisherman from Montenegro in beat 17 go directly to the area where I caught the graylings: he had the right information.  Later on the bus, he told me that he didn't even try the lower part of the beat. He stayed up and caught 5 fish.

I also scored another brown trout and a grayling for a total of 7 fish: way too low a number to hope for a good placing in the session.

In conclusion, I have to accept my failure in the 3rd session. Probably, with more concentration, the result would have been different. After a cold analysis, I think that my biggest mistake was my assumptions about the fish location and the number of fish in each beat. That led to a completely wrong strategy. After all the competition is mostly a mental game...

My second session of the WFFC was on the Orava, a large tailwater with many differences in depth from one beat to another. During the training together with my team mate Raul we learned a bit about the connection between fish holding spots and depth of course the variations of favorite spots by fish specie. Most were grayling, followed in numbers by trout and chub. All 3 species were included in the competition. My top producing fly was a classic pheasant tail in different variants but very importantly on small hooks (16 and 18) with small beads (2.5mm and 2mm). The color of the bead that worked best varied by the fly pattern (gold, silver or copper).

On the morning of my competition session the noise of a heavy rain woke me up at 4:55 a.m., before the alarm went off. The forecast had called for rain but not this much. I was still hoping that the river would remain clear as it is a tailwater.

I stepped into the bus full of thoughts and worries, I knew from the training days and from the results of the first day of the competition (I would like to thanks to Mihai Vasilescu "Mișu" for the real time data) that there would be a lottery depending of the sector we will fish and the rain would make things worse.

Once we arrived near the competition area, we passed by the river with the bus and I was calmed by seeing the river running clear. The first beats were announced and everything seemed ok. I hoped to get a lower beat number, between 10 and 26, but it was not to be, I was assigned beat 7. I still hoped this would be good considering that over 30 fish were caught on 5 and 6. Beats 10 to 26 had produced the most fish with a few exceptions. Beat 22 had been the best. As a novelty for me this year, the organizers decided to do a beat rotation at the half-time, a factor that totally changed the fishing tactics, especially when you had a long beat and you had to find fish quickly even though you didn't really have enough time to cover the whole water.

I had to switch with beat 8, assigned to the angler from Luxembourg. My controller, a boy around 16 years old, walked with me to the river. Going through the forest we passed by a little muddy tributary. My controlled confirmed that my beat starts right below where this tributary enters the Orava.

Once I arrived to my beat I was a bit relieved to see that the water was muddy only on the near bank with the far side running clear. Above me in beats 5 and 6, the river was crystal clear.

My beat at 8 am. Water still clear on the opposite bank. 

It was 8 and I still had 1.5 hrs until the start of the of the session at 9:30, so I had enough time to see my beat and get an idea of ​​how to approach it. The length was about 400 m. In the upper part where the muddy tributary entered there were short runs that looked promising at first sight, in the middle there was a channel with high and fast water up to the chest. Near the banks there were several stretches with fast low water where I hoped to find a few grayling. At the bottom was a section of about 30m with fast water and large boulders in the middle. Close to the far bank it seemed ideal for grayling.

After a careful analysis of the beat, considering the bad conditions and the muddy water, I decided to start at the bottom and slowly fish my way up. At 9:30 a.m. when the session started the water had become muddy on both banks, but below me in beat 8 on the opposite bank I could still see clear water. I immediately understood that my session depended on finding areas with clear water. Both my banks were affected by muddy water, with only the middle of the river clearer.  I also tried the banks where grayling normally hold. After 20 minutes without results, I moved slightly up, reached a deeper area, where the clearer water flowed between large boulders covered with vegetation. After about 5 minutes in this area, I had the first attack completed with an under-measure grayling of 19.3cm (the limit was 20cm). However, this fish brought me hope that bigger will follow. in the next 20 minutes I caught 2 others grayling of the same size around 19 cm and I decided to move towards the upper limit of my beat where I thought I had a good chance for grayling. Moving up I cast in the channels between the vegetation and boulders. When I arrived somewhere at 20 meters from the upper limit of my beat I had the first serious touch, a nice fish that stayed on the hook for only a few seconds.

Finally, I reached the upper limit of my beat where in normal conditions was supposed to be the best water, but after I tried for 10 minutes without a touch I found myself with only 30 minutes left from the first half and no fish on the board. So I decided to go down and insist on the area where I had hooked a fish, right in the middle among the boulders and vegetation. In my second cast I scored a 26cm grayling. I made a mistake that would cost me dearly: in a hurry I left the controller without signing. When I had walked 5 meters I realized my mistake and came back to sign but it was too late. The controller had already made a note that I left without signing. I realized this only later back in my hotel room when the results were displayed...

Returning to the area where I caught the first fish I had another touch and for the the next 5 minutes it was a complete pause, then out of the blue I had a fish in the same spot: a scoring size grayling. On my way to the referee to the opposite bank, I also took the first bath, due to the lack of visibility and rush. I fell into a hole one and a half meters deep. It had been raining heavy for 2 hours and a little water in the waders brought balance on the inside 😅... In the last 10 minutes of the session I dropped another grayling.

The deep water channels between rocks and vegetation where I got activity. 

The first part of the session was over. Before moving to beat 8 below me, I had 30 minutes in to take a look at the new water fix my gear if necessary. On the way, I met the angler from Luxembourg who had caught 9 fish, a record number considering the conditions. Later on the bus he shared that he actually caught them in the first 30 minutes when he had some clear water in the beat.

The good grayling water on the opposite bank in beat number 8: by the time I got to fish it it had changed from clear to chocolate.

Then followed 1.5 hrs of agony with 3 non-scoring grayling and 3 more baths in the muddy water that had now covered the entire beat. Back in the bus I found l out from the Luxembourg angler that in the second part he caught 2 grayling, exactly in the area where I had activity. Above our beats, the fishermen from Spain and Scotland enjoyed clear water almost throughout the entire session and did very well with 30 and 22 fish.

In conclusion, the bad conditions combined with the lack of experience on colored water, mistakes like failing to sign my fish and dropping fish, cost me a lot in the final ranking.

The fly that worked for the fish I hooked was a size 16 pheasant tail with a red hen collar and 2.5mm copper bead.

My first venue of the WFFC was Dedinky Lake. I knew from practice that it would not be easy.

6 weeks before the competition, my friend Raul and I finalized the last training session. After a full day of fishing with not-that-bad lake conditions (cloudy, steady wind, lower temperature and a bit of rain), I got only 4 fish. Quite a low number, considering we were the only boat fishing the lake that day. But we discovered a fly pattern that fish seemed to be keyed on, which gave us hope for a satisfying result.

Fast forward to the morning of September 13th. The bus to the lake departed at 5:55 a.m. from the competition headquarters. The trip took about 1h 45m and about 30 minutes before we arrived, the draw for boat partners was announced on the bus. I was lucky enough to be paired with Christian from Belgium. The gods decided he would be captain for the first half, and I would take over for the second 2 hours of the 4-hour long session: the captain chooses where to fish.

Arriving at the lake, I had enough time to prepare the equipment, so I took 30 minutes to observe the lake, to look for rising fish and see what the water clarity was. With my boat partner Christian, we agreed to work together to locate the fish regardless of who is the captain.

Unfortunately for us, the weather was not favourable for fly fishing. We "enjoyed" a sunny day with zero wind and a temperature of over 26°C.

I decided to use the new Arcay Otter 7wt rod. My strategy was to start for about 20 minutes with a fast intermediate line with a 3-fly setup and 0.19mm leader, hoping to find some active fish just below the surface.

Christian and I decided that the best initial strategy would be to stay close to the Slovak boat, expecting that the competitor from the host country knows better than anyone where the fish are. At 9 o'clock sharp, the game was on and the first flies touched the inert surface of the lake. My boat partner and I tried different retrieves without success while keeping an eye on what was happening around us. It was quiet in all boats. After about 30 minutes, seeing that Slovak angler had not hooked any fish, we realized it would be a very tough session. Normally, in the first 30 minutes, the fish are on fire. We continued to look for fish, some were still rising occasionally, keeping at an untouchable distance.

In the meantime, the lack of cooperation from the fish and the lousy fishing conditions led me to change the strategy. I switched to a Di5 line with a set-up of 2 flies on a 0.17mm leader, the top dropper a pink leech with a golden bead (as an attractor). On the point was the one that produced fish during practice: a black leech with a chartreuse bead. Christian used a Di3 line at the same time. Immediately after we started chasing the rises, Christian had the first attack and a fish on for about 5 seconds without success to land and score it. We kept watching the neighbouring boats without seeing any activity or fish caught. 

After about an hour, I saw the first fish caught and put in the net for measuring. Together with Christian, we immediately decided to go to the area where there were probably more active fish. Meanwhile, a light breeze started to slightly raise the gloss of the water. Arriving in the "hot zone," I also saw a second fish caught in a boat about 80 meters away from our boat. I felt the first light tap on my first cast in that area. A persistent fish continued to give me light taps during the retrieve, but I kept calm and didn't set the hook until I felt a slight weight on the line. When I knew it finally had the fly in its mouth, I set the hook, and in about 5 seconds, a fish of 28 cm was lying on the measuring troph. A small yet very significant one considering the fishing conditions and the number of fish caught. It came 1 hour and 20 min into the session and took the black leech with chartreuse bead. I felt a total relaxation in my whole body, knowing that this fish can be decisive and make a big difference for me and my team.

We had no single touch for the next 2 hours and 40 minutes. My boatmate Christian tried everything he could. I changed flies and alternated between lines. We moved and tried to find fresh fish, but nothing produced results. In the last half hour, I found out that they were competitors with two fish caught, information that led me to try with a D7 line at depth to capture a larger lake trout that would give me the edge over others. Unfortunately, it didn't work, and I stayed until the end with one fish. 

In the end, the lake session was won with 2 fish. 5 fishermen had two fish, and 8 had one. I placed 12th with my 28 cm "golden" trout, followed at 13th place by an angler with a smaller fish. The remaining 15 fishermen in the group blanked, including the competitor from host country Slovakia. Considering the general evolution of the session and fishing conditions, I was more than satisfied with the result.

Ciprian Rafan

A friend wrote to me recently that he is trying "micro" leaders for nymphing with a 4x (0.16mm) sighter section. For most of my fishing however a 4X sighter is more of a "macro" leader these days. The size of trout I normally chase allow me to go lower and benefit from the many good sides of this approach. I do fish 4x and higher when I get the chance to target bigger fish. Given the numbers of anglers practicing nymphing techniques around the globe I can imagine that the worlds "micro" and "macro" can mean very different things for different people in different conditions. My choice is to avoid them altogether when speaking about leaders. After all we already have several systems (inches, millimeters and fly fishing's very own X system) to define exactly what the diameter of a leader is. A "micro", "macro" or just nymphing leader is built following the same principles, anyway. 

In my 20 or so years of studying and practicing nymphing techniques I had the fortune to fish with and learn from some of the world's top rods from Spain, France and Czechia. One key thing I learned is that regardless of the variations of technique, when fishing on a tight line they all use essentially the same leader formula. The diameter varies depending on the conditions but the rest stays the same. The lowest one can handle is usually the best: how low would depend on the fish and their strength, on the specific water fished (the chance of breakages because of snags, for example), on the quality and capacity of the equipment used and the skill level of the angler. Not all nymphing rods get properly loaded with lower diameter leaders and light nymphs, and not all anglers can cast those without the right instruction and some practice. Reaching my Spanish friends' skill level in working tiny, light nymphs at a distance is something I keep working hard on. Progress is not exactly fast but the patience and effort are worth it and the results quite rewarding.

Here is a link to a video where Ciprian and I share what we learned from our European friends about nymphing leaders and how we adapt and use this in our own fishing. I promise, we don't use the words "micro" and "macro". Frankly, we don't quite like the term "Euro" either - after all in Europe it is just nymphing - but we can't be perfect after all ;)

Tight lines!

Ivo

The Arcay Otter 11ft, 2/3 wt

A review by Mike Learmonth, competitive angler, member of Fly Fishing Team Canada 2023.

As a professional in the Wealth Management industry for close to 30 years, I have watched firsthand how competition drives innovation and awakens new opportunities for industry participants. Old technology, while remaining quite serviceable, may no longer remain optimal. For example; I’d much rather own an iPhone today than my old Blackberry although both phones worked to call home when I stayed late on the river.

It’s for this reason – a desire to continue to optimize my equipment and improve my skillset - that I remain open to considering new things. I acknowledge and agree that a skilled angler with average equipment is likely to outperform an average angler with optimized equipment. But hey, why not strive to be a skilled angler using optimized equipment?

In the fall of 2022, I made the decision to take an ARCAY Otter 11ft 2/3 Nymphing Rod for a test drive. My decision was based on two considerations. First, the rod was designed by multiple World Champions who eat their own cooking which I respect. Secondly, I received nothing but favourable commentary from all competitors whom I polled that were using the rod.  

Out of the box, the rod is aesthetically pleasing featuring a graphite blank with a matte finish and subtle blue accents.  The down locking reel seat helps to place the reel further away from the grip offering excellent balance to offset the longer rod length. The cork grip, is both comfortable and functional as it naturally guides my hand to the correct fulcrum point. Above the cork is a small hook keeper that with ensure your cork maintains its integrity long term.

The stripping guide is a Fuji K-Series single foot guide. It’s located about 22cm above the cork and helps to control line sag during drifts. It is angled up slightly which reduces friction and tangling when shooting line. Single foot guides are used right up the blank to the rod tip. Other brands that I’ve investigated will place a few snake guides closer to the rod tip claiming it helps to control leader wrapping problems. I’m not so sure to be honest. I think leader wrapping is more correlated to tip recovery than choice of guides. Which brings me to the rods action and overall performance on the river- perhaps the most exciting part for me!

In my world, a good Nymphing rod ticks the following boxes;

Recovery

Rod tip recovery for me is key and I’ve found this to be a place where the Arcay 11f 2/3 rod excels.

I want a tip that quickly dampens its vibrations and comes back to a complete equilibrium after casting.  A rod tip that recovers quickly offers me significantly more casting accuracy. And, accurate casts allow me to effectively and efficiently cover the water.

It’s this aspect of the Otter 11ft 2/3 that I appreciate the most.

The recovery on this rod is superb!

Flex

The Arcay Otter 11ft 2/3 has been designed to throw light and medium weight flies. I reside in British Columbia, Canada where we’re commonly restricted to fishing only one fly. Fishing a light, single fly rig with a thin leader can be a real challenge but I’ve found the Arcay 11ft 2/3 loads well in these circumstances and yet it doesn’t come at the cost of good recovery.

Power

The Arcay 11ft 2/3 has a very smooth transition of power from rod tip to the cork handle. I feel very confident the rod design will protect thin tippet and still provide a good hookset thereby improving landing ratios. With that said, this rod excels when used true to its design. Large fish can definitely bulldog this rod. However, this brings me to my final point!

Consistency

Fly rods are like golf clubs. You don’t tee off on a par 5 with sand wedge and you don’t putt with a driver if you’re trying to optimize your score! By choosing the right club for the situation – you’ll greatly improve your chances for success.

I view fly rods in the same way.

With that in mind, it makes sense to look for a company that offers the angler consistency in both quality and feel across all of their product lines. For me, this has been the case with Arcay from day one. So much so, that I’ve since acquired two more rods in my Arcay collection with which I’m exceptionally happy.