Tournament Tactics, part 1

Now that the tournament is no more than 2 months away, we're starting to notice some changes in our fishing behaviour lately. Very slowly, a subtle difference in approach and decision-making is creeping in. Where normally we would just enjoy a day out at the water, take in the scenery and make an occasional cast every now and then, recently we're gradually putting more and more emphasis on the amount of time the fly is actually in the water. Granted, that's not quite what we consider fly fishing to be about, but hey, we've got a tournament to win here (there, in Finland, I mean).

The first time I noticed this change was about 10 days ago. At the end of a tough fishing day, while I was desperately trying to lure a pike from under a shrub on the other shore, I caught the shrub instead. Since my streamer was totally stuck, I was already considering a pull-off when I remembered the bridge we passed a couple of hundred meters back. So I put my rod down, walked all the way back to the bridge and then back again to my streamer on the other shore.

Normally I would release the streamer and walk all the way back to my rod on the other side, but Sander proved himself a real team mate and ready for the tournament. Being a true beta (and on the other shore), he smartly attached his streamer to my fly reel and told me to strip in my fly line, thus slowly pulling my fly rod over the canal towards me without it submerging at all. Great thinking, because this way I could start fishing immediately again! So when my rod arrived safely and dry on my side of the canal, I only had to detach Sander's streamer from my reel, steal his streamer and start fishing again with one competitor less. Yessss, I'm ready for the tournament too....