Fly Fishing Canada is a not-for-profit organization aimed at promoting fly fishing and, in particular, using national and international fly fishing championships to promote issues concerning fly fishing and conservation.

Although some anglers still balk at the concept of competitive fly fishing, these strictly catch-and-release events provide a focal point that brings fly fishers together from throughout Canada and the world, not only to exchange technical information about their sport, but also to address problems concerning conservation, water quality, habitat loss, and other environmental problems. Through these exchanges, many of the problems that plague freshwater fisheries in several countries may someday be beaten, or at least controlled in a meaningful manner.

The 6th NFFC and Conservation Symposium held at Mont-Tremblant, Quebec last week was another excellent event!  

Congratulations to our medal winners.for complete results see:  Final Team Results and Final Individual Results.

Individuals

• Michael Lennox
  Gold and winner of the Doug Austin Memorial Trophy as Top Canadian Rod
• Simon Wells – Silver
• Sorin Comsa – Bronze

Teams

• Team USA – Gold
• River Tawdz
  Silver and first winners of the Robert H. Jones Memorial Trophy as top Canadian Team 
• Equipe Airflo - Bronze

FFC is delighted that our youth team members (who for this event named themselves the ‘River Tawdz’ – don’t ask) figured so prominently in the individual and team medals.  Their results came as no surprise to any who had the pleasure of fishing with them during the week.  The future looks bright for Canadian fly fishing - and the future started last weekend!  Thank you and congratulations Mike Lennox (individual Gold medalist), Simon Wells (individual Silver medalist), John Bransfield, David Nonomura, Colin Huff and Coach Bob Sheedy – well deserved!

We are also very pleased that we had several US participants this year, including Team USA (Anthony Naranja, George Daniels, Pete Erickson, Lance Egan and Norman Maktima), the gold team medal winners, as well as Dejon Hamann, Jason Hearle and Leslie Wrixon.  Their presence gave many of us a better idea of just how good international competition anglers can be and provided a yardstick as to how competitive we are at an international level.  Congratulations and thank you for coming - we look forward to seeing you again at future events.    

Congratulations also to Sorin Comsa, our individual bronze medal winner – this represents Sorin’s second individual medal in three years and his third straight top ten finish. Well done, Sorin.

These events do not happen without incredible efforts from dedicated volunteers and community involvement.  Thank you and congratulations to Le Club des Moucheurs EnDiables, and in particular, Jim Iredale, Bernard Dalbec, Alain Monast, Pierre Beauregard, Denis Landreville, Jean-Marc Lavallee, Jean-Pierre Charron, Martine Leonard and the rest of the organizing committee and volunteers, for your tireless commitment to ensuring a very well run competition and conservation symposium.  Great Job!

Thank you also to Club Baroux Outfitters, Domaine St. Bernard, the City of Mont-Tremblant, Mont-Tremblant Tourism, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Wildlife, all of whom have graciously offered support, resources and/or facilities for the event.  Thank you also generous donors and spirited bidders (some of whom had impressively loose pocket strings) at FFC’s live auction. The auction was a huge success and raised significant funds to support our youth and other programs. A special thank you to Todd Oishi, who did a great job setting it all up and, what’s more, convinced almost everyone that each auction item represented a ‘must have’ opportunity of a lifetime.

In addition to providing a competition for Canada’s top competitive anglers, the objectives of our Nationals include:

1. the sharing of fly fishing information and techniques, which raises the skill level and enjoyment of Canada’s fly fishers in a competitive but friendly environment;
2. showcasing local conservation initiatives and achievements through the Conservation Symposium; 
3. providing a great opportunity to catch up with old angling friends, and make new ones from across North America while learning more about fly fishing and related conservation issues; and
4. most of all, we want everyone involved to have fun. 

At Mont-Tremblant, I think we achieved each of these in spades!  Good sportsmanship and camaraderie was displayed by all participants throughout, making for a very enjoyable event - all participants are to be congratulated for that.  Importantly, there were plenty of newcomers - in speaking with most of them during and after the event, all enjoyed it very much and vowed to return to subsequent events.   

If you have any comments or suggestions about the event at Mont-Tremblant of for future events, drop me a line; Information on next year’s event - to be held during the last week of September 2009 in and around Williams Lake, BC - will be circulated as it becomes available.  Keep you posted.  In the meantime, enjoy your fishing.

Best regards,

Randy