FLY FISH AUSTRALIA INC.

National 2012/13 National Fly Fishing Championships

The 2012 National Fly Fishing Championships will be hosted by FFA NSW.

• When you proceed to the registration link above please make sure you have you PayPal or credit card details handy. Standard registration fee is $378 and for young guns $189. Shirts cost $70.
• If you want to purchase additional shirts or pay for meal packages for others accompanying you to the nationals that are not competing or controlling please email Stephen Chatterton with your requirements.
• Minimum fish size = 18.0 cm
• Maximum number of competitors = 64
• Competition waters will be closed from 5pm Thursday 15th November 2012. PLEASE NOTE also that no boats are to be put on the lake sectors once the competition waters are closes.
• Would you like to be a controller for the 2012 Nationals?
• Studded wading boots must not be worn inside any buildings within Buckenderra Holiday Village, when traveling in any buses or cars provided or on any of the boats. Penalty – disqualification from the session and personal liability to repair any damage done to boats, transport or buildings.

Boat sessions.

• Transport to and from the BHV boat ramp for lake sessions will be by competitors own arrangements. Please note that steaming time commences 15 minutes before the session time. Do not be late.
• Competitors attending morning sessions will be required to take the boats to the morning session and launch them.
• Competitors attending afternoon sessions will be required to travel in vehicle with towing capabilities and to recover and and return boats to the staging venue.

River sessions.

1. Bolaro morning sessions. All competitors and controllers (except for official scorers and nominated 4 wheel drive transport) must travel to and from the session on the bus provided.
• Bus from BHV to Bolaro bridge departs from BHV reception at 6:15 am.
• Transport from bridge to individual beats (and return) will be by foot or nominated 4 wheel drive transport.
• Bus from Bolaro Bridge to BHV reception departs from Bolaro Bridge at 12:00 noon.
2. Yaouk morning sessions. All competitors and controllers (except for official scorers and nominated 4 wheel drive transport) must travel to and from the session on the bus provided.
• Bus from BHV to Yaouk bridge departs from BHV reception at 6:00 am.
• Transport from bridge to individual beats (and return) will be by foot or nominated 4 wheel drive transport.
• Bus from Yaouk Bridge to BHV reception departs from Yaouk Bridge at 12:00 noon.
3. Bolaro afternoon sessions. All competitors and controllers (except for official scorers and nominated 4 wheel drive transport) must travel to and from the session on the bus provided.
• Bus from BHV to Bolaro bridge departs from BHV reception at 1:30 PM
• Transport from bridge to individual beats (and return) will be by foot or nominated 4 wheel drive transport.
• Bus from Bolaro Bridge to BHV reception departs from Bolaro Bridge at 7:00 PM.
4. Yaouk afternoon sessions. All competitors and controllers (except for official scorers and nominated 4 wheel drive transport) must travel to and from the session on the bus provided.
• Bus from BHV to Yaouk bridge departs from BHV reception at 1:00 PM.
• Transport from bridge to individual beats (and return) will be by foot or nominated 4 wheel drive transport.
• Bus from Yaouk Bridge to BHV reception departs from Yaouk Bridge at 7:00 PM.

The shirts that have been selected for this years Nationals are Columbia Bahama II long sleeve shirts in Sage. To make the shirts more attractive to competitors and controllers the Nationals Organising Committee have opted for a minimum embroidery and no names on shirts and for the FFA logo on the shirt be done in shades of brown rather than the coloured logo used on shirts in the past.

With no bright colours on the shirts these will be shirts will retain their stealthy nature and are presented as true fishing shirts.

The wording on the shirts will be in one of the lighter shades of brown on the logo and will be :

FLY FISH AUSTRALIA

NATIONAL FLY FISHING CHAMPIONSHIPS

2012- SNOWY MOUNTAINS NSW

A random draw for the competition will be carried out on Thursday 22nd November starting promptly at 11am in the Restaurant at Buckenderra. Each chapter is requested to send along to the draw a representative to assist with and scrutinies the draw.

Once the draw is complete the draw will be published and put on display outside the games room for public viewing. Individual draws will also be given to each competitor as they register.

Each angler will fish a river session and a lake session on each of the two days as reflected in the following rotation matrix:

A catch of between 500 and 1000 fish is likely for this competition which will put tremendous pressure on the scorers.

All score sheets are to be handed to sector controllers within half an hour of completion of sessions. Score sheets must be handed in even if you blank a session.

A blank will be equal to the number of competitors in the largest group.

Every endevour will be made to present the results of the competition at the Saturday evening dinner but if the fish numbers are just too large to facilitate completion and checking of that task by 9:30pm then results will be revealed at the commencement of the AGM on Sunday morning.

The practice waters on the Murrumbidgee are as follows Yaouk- upstream all the way to Tantangara Dam above a point 1km above the bridge at Yaouk. Between Yaouk and Bolaro- downstream of the property Second Flat, which is downstream of The Outpost, and upstream of the property boundary at Bolaro,which is approximately 1.5km above the woolshed. Below Bolaro- downstream of the property East Bolaro from its boundary with the TSR.The TSR will therefore be practice water.

Lake Eucumbene is a very large lake and offers plenty of water outside the competition water that you can practice on. Please note that from when when the competition waters close at 5pm Thursday 15th November 2012 if you are accessing practice waters you must not launch your boat from Buckenderra Holiday Village or any of the shores within the competition waters or venture into the competition water even if you do not have fishing gear with you. Any competitor found to have been in a boat on the practice waters will automatically be disqualified from the Lake Eucumbene sessions.

FFA NSW have selected Buckenderra Holiday Village (BHV)as the staging venue for the 2012 Nationals. A range of accommodation options are available. BHV is approximately half an hour by car from the nearest shops which are located at Cooma and Berridale. BHV has one of the best boat launching facilities on Lake Eucumbene and it will be form there that the lake sessions will commence. BHV has a three star rating and is also within an hours drive of all the river beats.

All competitors are responsible to arrange and pay for their accommodation booking. Contact details for Buckenderra Holiday Village are details on their web site.

Please read this carefully or you may go hungry. Meal arrangements for controllers and competitors.

Please note that Buckenderra Holiday Village does not have a liquor license or sell and beer wine or spirits and the closest liquor outlet is at Cooma or Berridale which are each about half an hour away by car. If you want beer wine or spirits please bring that with you.

If bank beats are required at any time during the competition due to boat or river sessions being called off these will be provided along the western shore of the Buckenderra arm. Bank beats 1 to 16 will be north of the boat ramp and bank beats 17 to 32 beats that will south of the boat ramp. These beats will be marked out on Thursday 22/11/12 by Craig Dawson if winds in excess of 35 KPH or heavy rains are forecast. Some of the bank beats will be accessible by 4 wheel drive but others will require a longer than normal walk. These contingency beats will only be between 50 and 100 meters in length.

Recently we have had some very strong NW winds ( well in excess of 30 kilometers per hour) and given the very long reach along the main body of the lake and the north end of the Buckenderra arm dangerous conditions have developed around the entrance of both Wainui Bay and Rushy Plains Bay. If these conditions occur during the competition, we will split the Buckenderra sector into two sectors along the lie AA on the above map. The line is drawn from the boat ramp to the north point of the bay to the south of Neriwa Island/Hill. It will be the call of the boat sector controller Ian Rose and a skipper of one safety boat from each of the 2 lake groups (i.e. boats with red numbers) to invoke this contingency or not. There decision will be final. If invoked the competitors that were to fish the inaccessible Wainui / Rushy Sector will fish will fish the area to the north of the boat ramp and the Buckenderra sector competitors will fish the area to the south of the boat ramp.

For the lake sessions there are two contingencies in relation to weather:

• If the organisers regard the weather as unsafe the session will be called off and transferred to a bank session. Bank beats will be nominated in accordance with the beat numbers that the competitor had on their first river sector for the competition.
• The second contingency is a matter of personal responsibility for boat owners and boat passengers. If any boat owner or passenger deems the vessel they have been drawn in is not to be suitable for the conditions of the session they must advise the competition organisers. The competition organisers can after consideration invoke the contingency above or if the problem relates to just the boat that was subject to the concern being raised can allow the effected competitors to elect to fish from the bank. Bank beats will be nominated in accordance with the beat numbers that the competitor had on their first river sector for the competition.

There have been recent events that we need to have protocols in place to avoid and we also need to be proactive in relation to welfare.

• In NZ two competitors nearly drowned because they could not find the dongles for their PFDs. If a second boat did not come to their assistance they would have apparently drowned. Need to get the message across – let your dongle dangle.
• In last years Nationals the lake competitors went back to digs unaware that there was a boat still on the water in the fog and wind and out of petrol. It was also thought that a second boat was missing but in fact it was not.

Accordingly:

• Qualifiers will receive separate invitation to register.
• Pre-registrations open 22nd September 2012 and close 22nd October 2012
• Pre-registration and payment can only be made through the Registration / Ticket portal which will appear below from 18th September 2012.
• Entries received after 19th October will not be accepted.
• All payments are non refundable unless the event is oversubscribed.

Important Information for Competitors

This competition is bound by the following standards and rules: