By Sharon Webb

IN 10 years of fly-fishing,

Westbury’s Josh Flowers has surpassed the achievements of his dad and fishing teacher, Grant Flowers from Montana. Last month’s World Fly Fishing Championships on the lakes and rivers of the Western Tiers was his second ‘worlds’ after Trentino in northern Italy last year. Next year he will head for Kuusamo in Finland and to Spain the year after that. Josh began practising fishing around the age of 14 on the dam at home. ‘I caught my first wild fish on my first trip and I’ve been hooked ever since’. He’d always done saltwater fishing at St Helens and Swansea but it wasn’t until Grant competed in the Australian and Oceania championships that Josh thought he’d give fly-fishing a go. But even after competing with the world’s best fly fishermen overseas, the Tassie worlds have been a memorable landmark for Josh.

Not only were the conditions wet and cold and wild, so were the fish – in comparison with those in the stocked waters of other countries. ‘On the lakes it was cold and windy,’ he said. ‘In the four hour competitions from boats on Little Pine and Penstock Lagoons and Woods Lake, it was difficult to keep in touch with the flies. ‘The better-feeding fish are in clean waters but as the lakes got dirtier it was hard to catch them. We needed to change techniques

‘The wind was a major factor in how the anglers fished. But they enjoyed their time here,even though the fish weren’t so plentiful. The quality of the fish was good. They caught wild, strong fish in the practice weeks leading up to the championships.’ While anglers have caught 10,000 fish in other championships, they caught only 2000 in Tasmania. ‘But the river fishing on the Meander and the Mersey improved through the competition,’ Josh said. ‘The wind reduced in the last couple of days, allowing anglers to be more in touch. Fish started to look up and feed off the surface. That made it more enjoyable. ‘We had long beats on the rivers to give anglers a lot of opportunities to catch fish.’ The weather took its toll too on the fishermen themselves. Many became ill, says Josh, after struggling with the elements. But the best are always the best.

We Tasmanians were prepared for the cold weather; we knew how many layers of clothes to wear. It’s easy to say the weather is likely to be cold but the wind chill factor was pretty cold here. But these guys from other countries are the best in the world. After day one they developed a plan. They watched others and then executed their plan well.’ The closest world championships were reflected in the results: only one point between first and second placegetters, France and the Czech Republic. Australia finished seventh out of 23 countries while Josh finished 28th out of 120 anglers.

Laymen would consider the ability to wait patiently the main characteristic needed by fly fishers. But Josh disagrees. ‘Patience generally doesn’t play a big part,’ he said. ‘It comes down to confidence in your technique and your own ability to catch a fish.’ According to Josh, competitors have the ability to read the water and understand fish behaviour. They expect to catch fish – and they do. ‘You’ve got to have the drive. I do it as a sport, not recreation, because I compete.’

Josh Flowers needed to come down to earth fast after weeks of swapping wild fishing days in the Western Tiers with socialising nights at the championships base, Launceston’s Grand Chancellor Hotel. Already he’s back at his job at Petuna Aquaculture’s Atlantic Salmon hatchery at Cressy, where as a hatchery technician he grows fish to 150g before they are transported to marine grow-out locations at Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania’s west coast or Rowella on the Tamar River.

Until the next world championships Josh will be honing his technique in the ‘awesome’ dry fly-fishing locations of northern Tasmania – some of the best trout fisheries in the world, he reckons. So where are the top spots? ‘My favourite is the Meander River. If I’ve got a spare couple of hours I’ll head out there. ‘And Little Pine and Woods are fantastic lakes. You can fish using a lot of different techniques on those lakes and consistently catch fish throughout the year.’