The Snowy Mountains turned on just about every type of weather except snow for the 25 anglers participating in the 8th Oceania Fly Fishing Championships hosted by Fly Fish Australia New South Wales. Teams from New Zealand, South Africa and Australia cast their flies into Lake Eucumbene, Tantangara Reservoir and the Murrumbidgee at Bolaro Station. The Snowy Mountains Motel at Adaminaby was the base for the competition.
In early November practice occurred on Eucumbene and Tantangara in high winds, storms and sun. It wasn’t just the competitors who braved the elements as those who volunteered to camp out at the venues to watch the boats also found the conditions challenging surviving the storms that roared through on the Wednesday evening.
Friday dawned calm and with barely a cloud in the sky as the groups headed out for Session 1. The two groups who drew Tantangara as their opening water found the reservoir shrouded in fog which soon cleared. Each group of five fished one river session and four on the enclosed waters. The best result of the first session (and as it turned out the comp) was from the river where Craig Coltman (Australian Green) caught, measured and released 28 scoring fish.
As the weather calmed and the sun came out the conditions made it tougher to find the fish from the boats. On the Murrumbidgee a trio of bulls and the odd brown snake popping up made it interesting. Phillip Luff, (South Africa) landed a rare brook trout in the Murrumbidgee on Saturday. His compatriate, Daniel Factor, in the last session on Sunday morning landed the largest fish of the comp, a brown trout, on Eucumbene.
As the results from the sessions came in throughout the competition the race for the individual medals changed often. On the team side the Australian Green and Australian Gold teams vied for the team honours.
When the final scores were tallied Craig Coltman (Australian Green,Victoria) took out the Individual Gold and the inaugural Crosse-Mandeno Trophy. Mark Bulley (Australian Gold, Canberra) was 2nd and after a late rally Phillip Luff (South Africa) took the Bronze.
Australian Green comprising Craig Coltman, Paul Ellis (Tasmania), Geoff Naylor Tumut NSW), Mark Hobbs (Tasmania) and Michael Nolan (Victoria) took the Team Gold Medal and Trophy. Australian Gold, Mark Bulley, Brett Fazackerley (Tasmania), Paul Brabham (Bathurst NSW), Tom Watson (Western Australia) and Rich Sunderland (Pambular NSW) were second with New Zealand Silver third.
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