The Board of Fly Fish Australia has agreed to run a new annual competition and it will be held in the State that previously held the Nationals, thus Tasmania is planning to hold the inaugural competition in March 2024, the date to be finalised. 

The proposed rules will where possible be our FFA Competition Rules and as described below, but please note that there are no ranking points. 

The Board feels that this competition will provide greater learnings for teamsmanship, an essential element for any persons aspiring to be part of an Australian Fly Fishing Team.

Fly Fish Australia State vs State vs State Competition

Currently, there are no team competitions at either state or interstate level for Fly Fish Australia (FFA).
Anglers are only exposed to team fishing when they are selected for one of the prestigious international events. Many anglers see this as a disadvantage for both team and personal development, and have expressed an interest in team fishing. 
It is widely accepted that the ability of an individual angler is multiplied greatly from the knowledge shared at training, competing, briefing / de-briefing of team fishing. Team fishing competitions are more sociable than individual based events where the motivation is for individual place points with limited information sharing.

Selection
The selection process of each state eight-person team will be from the previous year’s National’s. The top eight from each state will fish for their state. If anglers choose not to fish after being selected, their place will go to the next eligible angler on the national results table. If there are insufficient anglers to be chosen from the Nationals table, they may be picked from state tables over the same period based off rankings only. 

The Format

The event will be conducted over two days, by the state that ran the previous year’s National final, the locations and venues of the interstate competition will be the previous year’s Nationals.

The competitors will fish two river and two lake (loch style) sessions with anglers either fishing a river day or lake day with no transition from one discipline to the other on the same day. States will have 4 anglers fishing either lakes or rivers each day with all anglers fishing both disciplines.

Anglers will control one another at all times. Teams at their own discretion will be allowed a non-fishing manager and runners to support their teams.
Rivers, two 2 hours sessions.

Lake (loch style) two 4 hour session, (including steaming time), to be fished with a 30 min break in between.

Briefings, Competition packs, boats, and beat marking would be provided by the sponsoring state.

This is both a team and social event, with a briefing on the evening before the first competition day and a results event to close the competition.

During the competition, teams would be blind to any results outside their own team and would need to adapt methods based on what they learnt from each other.

The only time teams would know any formal results will be at the results event after the second day. 

Scoring 

Scoring for the competition will be the same as the current scoring system, with points at individual level to be added together across the eight anglers for a combined, overall team score.

There will be no formal announcement at any stage for individual placing, only team results would be announced formally.

The competition will follow FFA Competition rules and where there are rule modifications, they are designed to minimise administrative burden, inspire participation, accessibility, and encourage non-electronic communications at all times to support a tactical team approach to both river and lock style sessions. 

Modifications Proposed

No electronic communication will be allowed at any stage of the competition by competitors, managers, and runners.

Teams may carry a single named substitute angler, who may replace any angler in their team at the start of any sessions.

Any anglers that blank on any session will receive double points (48 points per blank)

If any team fails to present a listed competitor at any session, that team’s absent competitor will receive triple points (72 points).

If a team presents a substitute angler that is not on the team list, it will be given the lowest score of the session and forgo the triple points penalty.

There will be no FFA ranking points awarded for this interstate competition.

Longer landing net handles will be allowed in the boat sessions, so anglers can remain in a stable position when landing a fish.

There will be a team entry fee of $200, which will be paid to the National organisation to cover administrative costs of the event. 

There is the possibility of other changes as this new event takes shape.

Further further details please reach out to Erhan Cinar whom will be the Board’s representative at this event.