A little while ago I was having a few drinks with a group of fishy characters. The group included well-known big-game fishing charter-boat skippers, some deck-hands, and small-boat charter skippers, and a few fly fishing guides.
The subject of discussions was records, competitions, trophy fish, and the lengths some people will go to to win them. These discussions exposed the dark side of the fishing force.
Without exception, each of the group, (around 15), had been and are still, regularly offered many financial inducements to ‘bend the rules’ so that the client would win a competition, gain a world record, or ‘catch’ a trophy trout. Actually they are offered bribes, not financial inducements, let’s call it for what it is; a payment to cheat.
The full story is here
Are fly fishing competitions becoming common in NZ? They’re still very much below the radar here in the USA, but I see a few more every year.
I can understand why anyone would want to turn fly fishing into a competitive event, but some do. Make way for the inevitable cheating scandals…
There are not many fly fishing competitions, maybe 4 or 5 big ones, (over 400 entrants).
For most these are more of a social event than competition, ie have a great time with the lads, and a prize would be a bonus. But of course there are the keen competitors, and worse the ‘win at all cost’ idiots.
Competitive fly fishing is not for me, except maybe when fishing with my sons ?