The 39th FIPS Mouche World Fly Fishing Championships have been underway for a few days now in the wilds of Tasmania. The competition is overseen by the “Fédération Internationale de Peche Sportive Mouche,” or in English, the “International Fly Fishing Federation.” The annual event has been running since 1981 when the first championships were held in Luxembourg, and have since been hosted primarily in European nations, but the US, New Zealand and Australia have acted as hosts in previous years.
The competition is held over six fishing sessions, held in five different locations, focused typically on a mix of lakes and rivers to test all angling skills, this years locations are Penstock Lagoon, Meander River, Woods Lake, Mersey River, and Little Pine Lagoon which featured in the 1988 World Fly Fishing championships. The fish targeted this year will be brown and rainbow trout, both non-native species on the Australian continent. Each angler is assigned a 3-hour session where the length of their trout landed are measured and scored by officials. The fish’s lengths are scored in total millimeters.
Jonothan Stagg is a Tasmanian looking to take the title this year for Australia as he competes in his 11th World Championship and he currently sits at the top of the leaderboard as the competition heads into its second half.
2019 Fly Fishing World Championships Results:
Team:
1st Place: France
2nd Place: Czech Republic
3rd Place: Spain
Individual:
1st Place: Howard Croston – England
2nd Place: David Garcia Ferraras – Spain
3rd Place: Kristian Sveda – Slovakia
For daily updates on the championships, we will be updating this post until the competition wraps up on the 8th of December, 2019.
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