The World is Coming...To Compete

Every year, the world's best fly anglers gather to compete in one of the most prestigious events in competitive fly fishing. This year, they aren't heading to Europe or another faraway destination. They're coming here! In just a few weeks, the 2026 World Fly Fishing Championship will bring competitors from around the world to some of the most legendary trout waters in the world known are the Golden Triangle of Fly Fishing which includes Montana's beautiful Hebgen Lake along with famous fisheries in Idaho and Wyoming. This week on the Montana Outdoor Podcast, Downrigger Dale visits with World Fly Fishing Championship organizer Glade Gunther and Team USA veteran Devin Olsen to learn what makes this event so special, how Team USA prepares to compete against the world's best, and why so many international anglers dream of fishing the waters we sometimes take for granted. When you watch or listen you'll learn how these competitions actually work (WAY different than a typical fishing tournament), why catching one extra fish can mean the difference between winning a gold, silver or bronze medal or going home empty-handed, and some of the fascinating techniques the competitors use that most everyday anglers have never seen. You'll also discover why fly anglers from Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and beyond are excited to experience the incredible fisheries of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, and why Team USA believes this could be one of its best opportunities yet to bring home a World Championship and gold medal on home waters. DO NOT miss this podcast it is SUPER interesting! Click here watch or listen!

Links:

• To learn more about Team USA Fly Fishing click here to see the website and here to check out their Facebook Page. We will add more info as we get closer to when the competition kicks off. Or check back to MontanaOutdoor.com.
• Our guest Glade is looking for folks that would like to bring their boat to Hebgen Lake near West Yellowstone to help take these competitors from all over the world. Interested? You would get to be part of this incredible event that will likely not be back in the USA for 10 or 20 years. They will pay your gas, lodging and so on. Contact Downrigger for more info. 
• Questions for Glade the International Organizer of the World Fly Fishing Championship? Click here to send him an email.
• Questions for Devin Olsen, Team Member on Team USA Fly Fishing? Just click here. 
• 9Let your buddy Downrigger Dale know what you thought of this Podcast. Click here to email him.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome, welcome, welcome, everyone. Good to have you here again on the Montana Outdoor Podcast. We have a really cool tournament uh that is going on, partially in the state of Montana. It's the World Fly Fishing Championship. Now that's where we have anglers from all over the world that come in here and compete. And we've got a couple folks in here that are going to talk a bit about it. They're from the team USA side of it. So we'll find out uh just how well we're gonna win the whole thing. Uh we'll start with Glade Gunther. Is it Gunther? Is uh that's the right pronouncer. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Yeah, that's correct.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

So you can see these two guys popped up. So, Glade, first let's find out who all we we have here. I think it's Devin, is another one of our anglers here. Talk about uh yourself, Glade, what you do for USA angling, and then we'll have Devin talk a bit about himself as well.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Happy to do so. Yeah, my name is Glade Gunther. Um, I am actually the international organizer for the World Flat Fishing Championship. So there's a uh international federation um that kind of has a like a tier, uh sorry, not a tier, um a set of uh different uh fly uh fishing championships. And underneath that umbrella is the fly fishing championships. There's there's four different ones. Actually, there's the this this the adult one, which is called the senior world championship, there's the masters world championship, youth and ladies, and then there's an under 24 championship as well. Uh I actually just returned from Norway fish where I fished in the World Masters fly fishing championship. So once you get once you hit the magic number of 50, you get a you get a fish in a different group. Um you're not quite as disadvantaged against youngsters like Devin.

SPEAKER_03 1:49

Well, I I like how they call you guys masters.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

I'm not such a youngster anymore, Glad you're catching up to me.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Instead of uh I'm I'm kind of one of those that might be disadvantaged students.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

Yeah, I'm pretty sure officially a senior, so I I uh I get called a senior now. Uh and of course nowadays I even hear the echoes of hey grandpa. So anyway, well that's great. So how did you do in Norway?

SPEAKER_01 2:17

We as a team, we took uh fourth place. It was it was quite disappointing. We were in second place the whole week. Uh and then the last day of the championship, we uh we slipped out of second place and actually slipped into fourth place. I personally took 11th place in the world, so not a bad showing myself. One of my teammates, uh Pat Weiss, uh, who is uh is is is quite a good fly angler, of course. He took third. He was an individual bronze. But I but I'm a part of the USA fly fishing. Um again, I'm the organizer for this championship coming up here in September, where we'll be fishing uh really the kind of the golden triangle of fly fishing, which encompasses part of Montana, Wyoming, and and Idaho. So that's where we'll be spending all of our time, uh, really for a whole week, effectively, uh again, the second week of September. So it's coming up quick.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

Yeah, it's uh the area that you guys are gonna be in is is a very special place for fly fishing anglers. So we get fly fishermen coming into Montana from all over the world uh all the time. Um, and of course, we love having them uh here. Uh you you'll find Montana is a very friendly, friendly place. Uh, and uh we got lots of room and love having folks come here and uh spend a little money. We know we kind of like that too. Uh now uh one quick question about the Masters before we get off of that. Uh sure. What country won that?

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Uh the Spaniards won that. The Spaniards. They have an exceptionally good uh uh team at both at all levels, frankly. They're they're they're fantastically good anglers. The fishing there is very challenging. Devin fished there a few years back. I fished there last year, where we as a team again took fourth place, which was again disappointing. But and we were just outside the just outside the podium. But but they're very, very good um anglers there in Spain. The the fishing is quite hard, very challenging. And so it really does tune their skill set uh perhaps more than generally does for us in in most circumstances. In many ways, fishing for us, the the fish for us is pretty easy. Yeah, they're they're they're not as picky as they are in Spain, I guess. They've been fished for those fish in Spain have been fished to for thousands of years by people, right? It at a pretty high level. And and that's not so much in some of our western states.

SPEAKER_03 4:36

Yeah, they've they've probably evolved to be pretty dang good. Well, Devin, tell us a bit about yourself and how how long have you been on the USA fly fishing team?

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Yeah, well, this is my 20th year. Wow. Hard to believe that. So uh got I did my first team USA competition back in 2006 and then went to the national championship that year and barely squeaked on kind of the broader team. Uh, and then have just kind of climbed my way up ever since. So this will be my 16th world championship um out of those 20 years, and it's been quite the ride. Yeah, I've I've uh I've had a lot of fun. I'm still loving it. Don't really have any plans of stopping anytime soon, and it's nice to have it back on U.S. soil since that's only happened one other time in my tenure.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Wow. Wow, so it's been a long time then. So, Devin, how does one get on the USA fly fishing team?

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Yeah, so we we have what we refer to as kind of a two-year point cycle, and that point cycle ends with each national championship. But backing up from that, basically we have some small what we refer to as regional competitions. So there's just a bunch of one or or two-day competitions that we host at a local level that anybody can join. They're open to anyone. You just you have to become a member of Fly Fishing Team USA, basically, just pay a membership fee so that it covers our insurance costs and things like that. But generally, we don't even have entry fees for any of those competitions, they're open to whoever is first come, first serve. And so, based on your finishes in each of those competitions, you build up a set of points for uh about a year of that cycle, and then we transition into some larger competitions that we call interregionals, which are invitation only based on those points that we got from the regionals. And then we add the points from the ranking from the regionals to the points that we got from the interregionals, and add that to however you finish at the national championship, and then when you tally those all up at the end of the two years after nationals, the uh top 15 people get to be on the larger fly fishing team USA, and then the top three people get an automatic bid to the next uh two world championships, and then Glade being our captain actually gets to pick the next three anglers, but a lot of times they're kind of within the the top next uh few in the points anyway.

SPEAKER_03 7:07

Um so when you're not traveling the world competing uh uh for the USA, where do you call home, Devin?

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Uh I live in Wyoming, so I am the closest angler to where the actual championships is gonna take place. I'm still like five or six hours away from all the venues, but what what part of Wyoming are you?

SPEAKER_03 7:25

Do you live in?

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Yeah, I'm I'm in Lander, so I'm about uh kind of west central there.

SPEAKER_03 7:31

Okay. All right. Well, welcome and and glad that you're you're here. Glad let's talk a bit about the areas that you're gonna be fishing in. You know, you mentioned it's that golden triangle, the the some of the most desirable fly fishing waters in the world. Where will this competition take place? Now, as I understand it, it's it's not gonna be just in Montana, it's kind of spread around. So about where and why those areas were chosen.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Yeah, happy to do so. So the actual base of operations will be Idaho Falls, Idaho. Um, it's somewhat central. It's kind of the the largest kind of city that it's that's that's that's again central to the the location of the different venues. What we call them is venues, but uh there's five different ones. And and and I'll give just a really brief description of how the championship works because it's it's kind of in context here. But every day, one person from each world team will be at one of the five venues, and then they rotate to the next venue, and they just rotate around until all five anglers from each team have been to each of the five venues. Okay, so beat the five venues. I'll start I'll start with Montana just because it's uh it's maybe perhaps the most relevant. Uh but that'll be Hebgen Reservoir. As you get targeting uh primarily trout and of course whitefish count as well. Uh in this championship, all salmonids will be counted as uh as catchables. Um but Hebgen will be the one of the lake venues. We have another lake venue, which will be actually called a lake, a place called Sheridan Lake, which is a private lake uh just over the border in Idaho. We'll be fishing the Henry's Fork uh on a section of the Henry's Fork, which again is a very famous river. Yep. We'll be fishing the Teton River in Idaho, and then we'll be fishing the Grage River in Wyoming. So those are the five different venues uh that we'll be on um again for five days uh in the middle of September.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

All right. Well, it's gonna be exciting. Uh, you know, uh so for some of the anglers from around the the world, do you know which is it a lot of countries competing? Uh I mean, is there something you could name off here?

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Or yeah, I could I could I could name them all off if I thought about it. There's 21 different countries that will be here.

SPEAKER_03 9:47

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Uh there's there's I think 40 member countries, and uh so we have about half of the participation. Last year was the Czech Republic. That's as big as I've seen in a very long time. And I uh Devin, correct me if I'm wrong. I think we had 34 uh countries represented. I remember 32 countries, okay. 32 countries represented. So it's it's a little more challenging for a lot of the teams to travel to the United States. It's a it's a quite an expensive trip for them, yeah, um, in addition just to the cost of the actual championship itself. Um but uh yeah, so the 21 teams we've got I if I maybe just name some of the distant ones. Um we've got Mongolia, Japan, South Africa, Australia, um, Canada, USA, and then there's just really the rest of it is all kind of uh European and uh great, you know, the UK, you've got England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and then a splattering of of European country countries. And and I would be remiss if I uh if I didn't try to list them all, but you know, Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, uh, let's see, Belgium, Netherlands. I'm sure I'm missing a few, Devon. But anyway, but that's that's the bulk of them. I'm sure there's a few extras there.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

So uh a lot of great fly fishing countries, and I think for us Montana, sometimes we forget about that. You know, we we get all tied up in you know having such great waterways here that we we think it's it's kind of a Montana thing or a uniquely American thing, but not really the case. Fly fishing has been around a very long, long, long, long, long time uh since the beginning of mankind. And uh some of these Europeans are are pretty amazing anglers uh and have done so. Talk a bit, uh either one of you can answer this as far as how one competes. Is how do you win or or place in the the tournament? Is it size of fish, number of fish? Talk a bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Definitely want you to tackle that one.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Yeah, sure. So we fish every day in what's called a session, and the sessions are three hours long. Uh sometimes it's been four hours, but this time it'll be three hours. And your goal is to get the most fish points that you can in during that session. And there's a formula that just combines the number of fish that you catch with the total centimeters that that they end up being uh determines that fish point total. So you get 100 points for catching a fish as long as it's 20 centimeters or longer, which is about eight inches. Okay, and then you get another 20 points on top of that for every centimeter of length of that fish. So uh in general, I try to catch as many fish as I can in a session, and that's my goal because you hope that you're gonna come out ahead, and then you hope you just have some large ones that are mixed in with that that help break some ties if you end up having someone that's pretty close to you in in point totals. Um, and then when all those points are are tallied in a session, you get what uh ranked from first to last and then assigned a placing point based on that. So if you win the session, you get one placing point. If you're dead last in this championship, you'll get 21 points. Um the goal obviously then is to get the least amount of points. It's kind of like you know, we're playing golf out there. Uh, we want to go at the end of the championship, we want the least amount of placing points possible. And that's both as an individual and then in the team competition, the same thing.

SPEAKER_03 13:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:25

And if it comes down to a tie, if if somebody has the same amount of placing points, either individuals or teams, then their cumulative total of fish points ends up breaking that tie.

SPEAKER_03 13:37

All right. Um, so it a little bit like the the ice fishing, the world ice fishing championship for for our viewers that have uh uh remember last year we had the USA ice fishing team on and and uh they were just about to head to Sweden. And so we were we were uh kind of fascinated by uh how these tournaments do way, way different than than most tournaments that that you see around Montana. Um so very interesting how that works. And but especially for the ice fishing side of it, we were I got a lot of emails from people saying, you know, show us that fish again. What kind of fish was that? And uh because we a lot of them just were not fish we find in the United States. So how about for the the uh ice or for the fly fishing uh championship? Is that you you say all salmonids count? Would a competitor from Europe or the or anywhere around the world fishing in Montana, would they run across fish that they've may have never seen before, or are they all kind of the same?

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Yeah, it'll be it'll be interesting. Um you know, it because Montana, this whole area is a is a is a attraction from for a lot of people in the flat fishing world, a lot of the anglers will have been here previously. But yeah, um specifically, there are some species of fish that many of these anglers will never will have never caught. I mean, rainbow trout are have been broadcast through the whole world. Sure. Brown trout are are the same way. Uh we have the uh Rocky Mountain or the mountain whitefish, which will be unique, uh many that which is you know very very specific to our region. And we have the species of cutthroat trout, which will be again unique to our region. So many of them will not catch any of those fish. There's a chance we could catch some grayling, and many of them in Europe particularly have grayling in their rivers and lakes. Oh, they do, okay. Yeah, but the it's a different species of grayling. But um again, I I wouldn't I don't know that we'll catch any, but they're technically available for for catching.

SPEAKER_03 15:48

Yeah, you you find those in Hebgen. Um uh you don't catch them a lot, but I I get a kick out of whitefish because you you talk to fly fishing anglers in Montana and they go, ah, they're annoying. But in this case, we love them. Well, they're not bring them on.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

You know, I'm all about the whitefish. So give me all the whiteys. I'm a big fan.

SPEAKER_03 16:09

Well, I'll tell you what, you'll get those. Now, I know in it like in in uh um Hebgen, there are uh Chubb. Uh those are the Utah Chubb in in Hebgen, and those also often get considered as a bit annoying. Now, uh would they count as well?

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Those would not. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

So they're they're not a thing that's we'll be discriminating against the chubb. Okay. Well, uh that won't be a good thing. Also, suckers suckers will be discriminated against too.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

No suckers, no chub, no carp. Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

You'll get you'll get some you'll get some chub that'll get in your way uh there, but they I guess they've been catching them pretty well in the marinas and stuff. So uh when you're talking to some of these competitors, I don't know if you've had a chance to talk to any of them, if any of them are here yet or not, um is there kind of a a few of the uh same comments that you hear about um fishing in the United States and fishing in these areas that that foreigners talk about uh at all? Or tell us a bit about that as far as you know, you guys have fished all around the world. Uh what are some of the things that they say about our fishing?

SPEAKER_01 17:28

I know I'd definitely let you let you tackle that one again.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

Well, I mean, I would say in general, Glade's kind of already touched on it. But the reality is we're exceptionally lucky.

SPEAKER_03 17:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

Um and s and not to get overly, I guess, misty or whatever about it, but we're so fortunate in the United States to have especially in the West, to have fantastic rivers with lots of public access uh and fantastic lakes. It's not something that much of the rest of the world has access to. And even when they do, their fisheries are often pretty depressed, um, whether because of you know, mismanagement, pollution, over harvest, you know, you name it, there can be uh all sorts of uh impacts there. Um, but we are so fortunate to have excellent fishing and to have it at our back doorstep. And frankly, to have it be free to us. Yeah. If we just get a fishing license, we can go out and do it.

SPEAKER_03 18:30

Off we get to go, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

There's so yeah, there's so much of your Europe and elsewhere where that's not the case. You gotta go find the local club that owns rights to the water, and if they even allow it, you gotta pay for a day ticket through their club. Um, you know, things like that. So I think uh many of the people that I talk to at the championships voice their envy of the fisheries that we have. And um I think they're all pretty excited to to come and fish here again. I know when we had the championship in Colorado back in 2016, which was the only other time during my tenure that we've had a championship in the in the US, uh the competitors I know that are still in the the championships that were at that championship still talk about how much they enjoyed the fishing. And I expect, you know, the same will happen after this championship as well. So I certainly hope so. I mean we wanna we wanna show what good management and and and what good resources uh can can benefit all of us, you know, if if we continue to take care of them and um through proper conservation and standing up for the resources that we all benefit from and and having uh foreigners get to the chance to see that and maybe bring some of that sort of mindset back to their own country is always a positive thing.

SPEAKER_03 19:54

Yeah, I you know I've I've never got to fly fish or or freshwater fish really in other countries. I I've done some saltwater fishing in uh different places around the world, but uh I'm really glad you brought that up, Devin, because uh we are so fortunate. And uh I think that's that's something we should all be proud of, but also be mindful of too. Uh now I know like some of my friends went to World Cup soccer things and and interacted with a lot of the the people from Europe and and all around, and uh they had so many wonderful things to say about America. Uh and that that I think did a lot of my friends' hearts pretty good. That, you know, we we argue amongst ourselves a bit in the U.S. and that, but when people come here, they realize you know we're lucky in so many different ways from the freedoms we enjoy and that. So uh I gotta thank uh all of our uh military and that out there that uh keep us safe and keep us free. Um uh we really do appreciate what you do for us out there. And uh this particular podcast, we have just a ton of active military from bases and even on board ships that that do watch and and listen to this podcast. So thank all of you. Uh that you've uh you've uh created a pretty special country for us and keep it that way. Now, we're gonna take a quick break, but I don't want any of you to go anywhere because I I'm gonna ask these guys to name the most unusual fish that they have caught outside of the United States that it surprised them when they were throwing their fly in the water and that. And then we're gonna talk a bit about the actual flies that are used in this competition and and uh some of the techniques and uh way they go about it. If you remember in the uh World Ice Fishing Championship, boy, the gear was a lot different than what we used. So we'll learn about that right after this.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

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SPEAKER_01 25:18

Yeah, the opening ceremonies will be on the 13th of September. The fishing days will be the 14th through the 18th, and then we'll have our closing ceremonies on the 18th.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

Oh, okay. So uh kind of like the Olympics then, as far as you have an opening ceremonies and that, where does that take place?

SPEAKER_01 25:33

That'll be in Idaho Falls. There'll be a parade of nations and the whole work. So every team will have their national flag and we'll have a uh uh an opening ceremony. There'll be welcome remarks, we'll play the national anthems, and then uh at the closing ceremonies, we do something similar. We don't play all nations national anthems, we only play the winners, but hopefully we get some USA anthem up there during that time.

SPEAKER_03 25:53

Let's let's hope the Star Spangled Banner gets heard a few times. That's right. That's right. So let's talk a bit about uh the uh the the type of gear that you're using. Is there is it pretty standard fly fishing gear or are there certain rules and specific things that might be a little different than what our audience would would be used to?

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Either one of you. I mean all the above, frankly. Oh yeah. Uh it's a mishmash. Um that I think tournament anglers are famous for is being gearheads. Yeah. Uh so um we have some crossover. So I mean we well you know we I guess a lot of what you'd see, especially on the rivers, is maybe more finesse oriented than you might see in a typical situation. Um there are some rules that also kind of restrict some of the things we can fish. For instance, we can't fish your typical strike indicator, so you won't see anybody out there fishing a thing of a bobber or a float, you know, to suspend nymphs. We also can't fish split shot, uh, like we can't attach weight to our line. All any and all weight has to be built into our flies. So there's certain styles of nymph fishing that a you know a lot of folks just refer refer to as Euro nymphing that have kind of dominated the competition scene, at least from the nymphing side. Um but we still fish streamers, we fill still fish dry flies on on rivers all the time. But the especially on the dry fly side, you'll probably see sort of lighter rods than you might see in a lot of other um situations, lots of threes and four weights and much longer leaders, like leaders that are 18 to 20 feet long a lot of times. So really high-level finesse type fishing. Uh, and then on the lakes, you'll probably still mostly see six or seven weight fly rods, I would say. Um I would say the standard kind of lake rod that most of us fish is probably a nine and a half or a ten foot six weight. And some people might fish a five, some people might fish a seven, but a lot of us here in the States kind of rely on that six weight as our main rod. And then on the rivers, we can fish, we can have as many rods rigged as we want. So a lot of times we'll have a bunch of different rigs ready to go with various rods so that we're not constantly changing. But in uh the boat on the lakes, we're limited to one rod that's rigged. So typically that's why we'll kind of choose that six weight and have it be a little bit of a do-it-all rod for us.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

Okay. And the uh I assume this is all catch and release, right?

SPEAKER_02 28:39

Yeah, it is. Okay. Yeah. So all those links that we that I talked about with the formula that go into those points, you know, we we have what's called a controller. They're just a referee that stays with us. They make sure we follow all the rules, and then we have a measuring trough that you know will measure the fish very quickly and then get it back in the water right away, and the length is just recorded.

SPEAKER_03 29:01

Will there be any um television coverage, whether it be um on the internet or on any kind of uh the sports channels or outdoor channels that that'll be uh showing you know any of this or or uh the opening or closing ceremonies at all Glade?

SPEAKER_01 29:20

No, we don't have any uh nothing official. Um there'll be some uh YouTube uh you know uh you know, kind of social media content that'll be created uh through the champ throughout the championship, but we don't have any paid television coverage. That's a big ask for us for an organizer to pull together. Um but uh I would have been nice. I looked into how much that would cost the organization to pull that off. And then we'd have to sell rice to commercials and things like that. And I as much as I would have loved to have done it, I it was a that's a big big task. I decided against it.

SPEAKER_03 29:54

Yeah, I I started out in radio and then this all uh got going. I I came out of retirement to do these podcasts and and our our live um statewide and our live worldwide uh radio show and that. But uh radio is fun, TV is work, and it gets into a whole nother world. But yeah, maybe maybe next time we'll we'll might be able to help out with that in in some way.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

That'd be fun.

SPEAKER_03 30:24

Some of the stuff that we can do.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Yeah, no, it's it's what the one thing about this is that uh we're all volunteers, you know, there's no money in the game. Um we do this for love of sport. You know, uh the winners will get a medal around their neck and a pat on the back and uh you know and uh and a thank you for coming.

SPEAKER_02 30:40

Um then they'll go home and train really hard for an entire year to go to see if they can do it again. Do it again.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

That rank and we rely on yeah, we rely on volunteers to come help us. Uh Devin mentioned those uh we call them controllers, but they're volunteers. They're local people who are interested in the sport of fly fishing. Um many of them have interest because they want to see some of the world's best fly anglers come and demonstrate their skills in some of their local waters. Uh, you know, and and and Devin, not that he short sold it, but yeah, there are a lot of the techniques and the equipment, the materials, whether it's flies or rods or reels or lines or whatever it might be, that are innovated through the sport of competitive fly fishing. I guess, and and not to get into the competition scene, uh, that is somewhat controversial in in in fly fishing, not so much in bass fishing or or ice fishing, for example, but in fly fishing, uh, you know, it is a bit controversial. We don't claim that everybody should should competitively fish, but we believe that most, if not all, anglers benefit from it in some way.

SPEAKER_03 31:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

You know, people like like Devin and and many of our European colleagues, uh, you know, they are innovators and they are doing things to help uh people have more fun catching fish. Yes, like I always tell these guys when I'm the captain, I I can't be the captain because I'm the organizer this year, but I'm usually Devin's uh Devin and his teammates captain. And and uh often days when I say, hey, go have fun, and you know what's the most fun? Catching the most fish. And absolutely. Any fangler doesn't tell you that catching a lot of fish isn't the most fun, is lying to you. Okay. Um, I just like getting outdoors. No, you don't. You want to catch a bunch. You want to catch fish. And yes, you want to enjoy the outdoors. That's beautiful out there, right? But but we want to catch fish, and that's that's fun. And uh we want to help other people learn how to catch fish better with different techniques and catching catch fish in circumstances that are uncomfortable. Yeah, that's what makes the best anglers. Uh Devin, I I know Devin practices regularly, not just going to the places that are easy to catch, that he knows where the fish are every time, but he's actually looking at the water going, I bet there's a fish over there, and I bet that fish is harder to catch than the fish that I could just drop down to this next hole. But but if I want to get better, I need to learn how to catch that fish too. I don't know. Devin, if you have any comment on that.

SPEAKER_03 33:03

But yeah, I was just gonna say, Devin, what what did what have you done to prepare for this this world championship?

SPEAKER_02 33:10

Oh, yeah, well, this one has been a a little bit more well, I mean, the fact that the venues are at least within driving distance of, you know, uh for a couple day trip for me, etc., we've had uh quite a few competitions on the actual venues um to prepare for them, not only to learn how to to catch the fish the the best we can there, but also as uh from an organizing perspective, part of our job is to try and make the best beats possible. So when you go uh to a river, for instance, in these competitions, you're randomly assigned by the computer to what's called a beat, which is just a section of river between two flags, and you're required to stay there for three hours and and fish. And so part of being a good organizer is actually putting in a lot of effort into sorting out which sections of river are worth fishing and which are not, so that you're not basically handicapping somebody and or overly rewarding somebody else when they draw a certain beat. So we've had some competitions to try and sort that all out. But also I've been uh I've tried to identify, even when I can't get over to the rivers or the lakes that um are in the championship, because you know, like I said, they're five or six hours away from me, so I can't just go over there every weekend. But um I've tried to identify some other rivers and lakes that are as close to the the venues as possible, and I've practiced on them like testing every last piece of my equipment, my hooks, my flies, my approach, how I'm doing down to the smallest things like how you set the hook, how the angles you use, the pressure you use, the the how your position relative to the fish while you're fighting them, how you know, all of that stuff you analyze in detail down to the the little you know the the finest bit because in the end I can't tell you how many championships uh have been won and lost with one fish. People always ask me uh the you know what my favorite fish story is, and it goes back to the nine-inch brown trout at the end of my last session in 2015 that I caught with 30 seconds left after running back down my beat. And that was the fish that got me a bronze medal that year. And if I hadn't caught that fish, then I got fourth place. So those are like the the little things that you train on because you never know when it's literally gonna come down to whether you caught one more fish or whether you actually landed a fish that you have on, etc. And if you don't take every opportunity to practice that in your own fishing, then you're just yeah, you know, you're not gonna uh perform to your ultimate um capability. And I think that's what keeps a competitor up at night.

SPEAKER_03 36:13

Now you guys have traveled all over the place, uh, you know, competing around the world. What would you say is your strangest fish that you've come across, Glade, that you go, what the hell did I just catch? For freshwater fish, I'm talking here.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

Uh let's see. For me, uh I guess I've got a couple that jump bad at me. That first of all, I get I just came back from Norway, so it's fresh in my mind, but they the grailing in Norway are are pretty amazing. They'll get up to 65 centimeters, which is like 26-inch grayling. That's pretty amazing, and they're fun and they're plentiful, right? Um, they eat well uh and they're a good time, and they're absolutely gorgeous fish. If you've you've I'm sure most of your viewers will have seen grailing at some point. But these are exceptionally beautiful fish. Um on the other end of that spectrum, and I'm a Devin may even pick the same one, but uh the chub in the Czech Republic are they're pretty ugly. You know, but they're novel and they're actually really fun to catch. And they're there were times, and and as Devin indicated here, it's like those chub uh that the countered in the Czech Republic, uh, they made the difference between me winning a session and not winning a session. Wow. Now I was targeting, I was trying to catch them. It was it was great fun.

SPEAKER_02 37:34

Are they a strain of the Arctic chub over there in the Czech Republic, or is this a just a whole lot I would there's like a whole vast array of different cyprinted species in Europe that are totally different, and I'm not even sure what species of chub that one is.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

And there were two different ones we were catching.

SPEAKER_02 37:54

Yeah, exactly. Half the time, half the time I was having a hard time telling them apart, and I'm a fisheries biologist by training. So okay. Um now not I wasn't trained obviously on those cyprinids, but nonetheless, uh there were some minute differences between a bunch of different cool, unique fish over there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:14

So we're we're looking at this this fish now. That that's the suspect there. Uh, and yeah, we would not come across that here in Montana's waters. Uh and on the other side, uh, yes, we would love to catch grayling that size. We don't get to see that in the United States ever. Um, we're gonna take one last break and we'll wrap it up with you guys. I really appreciate doing it. One of the things that I I want all of you folks to stick around for is um if any of this interested you and you think, well, that's really cool. Well, there's a reason why I had them come on this uh this early, this this soon before that. And maybe you want to get involved. Maybe you'd like to help these guys out with the the tournament that's going on. I imagine Glade could uh put some some um folks to to use that might want to uh get involved. In fact, um we'll talk a bit about uh if you wouldn't mind bringing your boat over to uh uh Hebgen Lake because we don't want to be shy on boats. Obviously, the international competitors can't bring their boats. So um that's one of the asks I'm gonna have for you. But plus, I just uh would love to see everyone, you know, get to learn more about this. It's it's pretty neat that we have this here, very special. So we'll talk about that and wrap it up with these fine gentlemen right after this. They would not be a podcast if it weren't for the support of great Montana-owned companies like Rocky Mountain Truck and Trailer. So if you enjoy any of these podcasts and you happen to need a new trailer for work or hauling things on your next adventure, why not go see the folks that support what you like to do? For example, you can find right now at Rocky Mountain Truck and Trailer something that all folks who love Montana's outdoors can always appreciate, and that is top-tier toughness. Yeah, that's what we need here in Montana's great outdoors. Whether we're on the job side or the open road, headed for our favorite fishing spot. Here's what I want you to do right now. Head to Rocky Mountain Truck and Trailer either the next time you're in Missoula or right now at rmtte.com. Rocky Mountain Truck and Trailer is your dealer for baseline equipment dump trailers. You're gonna love these. What's great about anything from Baseline is everything they make is built to work as hard as you do. Baseline is a heavy-duty, high-performance trailer that hauls dumps and delivers no matter the load. Backed by real expertise and hometown service, you can trust. And the only place you'll find them is at Rocky Mountain Truck and Trailer, there at 5680 Expressway in Missoula or on the web at rmtte.com. As my friends at Rocky Mountain Truck and Trailer put it, baseline is basics done best. And don't forget, gang, you can also find the Diamond C Single Axle PSA trailer. PSA stands for premium single axle trailer, by the way. And I have to tell you, premium is an understatement. The Diamond C single Axle PSA has a sleek design, rock solid frame, and unbeatable performance. The PSA is your go-to for daily hauling, whether it's at the job site or at the campsite. And you guessed it, you will only find them at Rocky Mountain Truck and Trailer, your local Diamond C single-axle PSA trailer dealer, right there at 5680 Expressway in Missoula. Or go see them at rmtte.com. Rocky Mountain Truck and Trailer, your workhard and playhard headquarters at rmtte.com. Back here on the Montana Outdoor Podcast, these two folks on your screen, Glade and Devin, I want to thank you very much for for your time today and and what you're you're you're doing and and just you know helping promote this neck of the woods, which all of us uh here in Montana are very proud of, and in Wyoming and that as well. It's a very special place, and it's neat that the rest of the world's gonna get to learn a little bit about it as well. Um uh Glade, let's talk about how we Montanans could help you out as far as there what any kind of volunteers that you're looking for specifically. I I guess let's start with the boats and talk a bit about uh if people've got wouldn't mind bringing a boat down, um, talk about what kind of boats you're looking for and maybe uh entice us with uh uh some of the fun things they might learn about and see.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

Sure. Absolutely. So yeah, we do we have uh we're gonna rent as many boats as we can on Hebgen, but there's as any of your uh viewers or listeners might know, there are not very many boats for rent on Hebgen Lake. So it's a bit of a challenge. Um, but we are looking for uh a number of additional boats that we don't have yet. Uh again, we're only what three weeks out now at this point. We're still trying to track down the last few boats. But again, in general, the best boat for us is is a 14 to 16 foot beehole uh with a horsepower, something between 10 and 25 horsepower, some something along those lines. If it falls a little bit outside of that, that's okay. We try to keep the boats as standardized as as absolutely possible, but we know that that's not always the case. Yeah, maybe through 18 footers in there with uh, you know, 70 horsepower motors on or 75, I should say. Right. But uh again, we'll we'll truly do what we can to make them as as even and equal and Fair as possible. And then what would they get out of it? Well, they're going to get a nice, a nice fishing shirt, okay, and a hat and a thanks. And uh we'll help them with some gas money and we'll pay to more of the boats there at the marina. Um, and I we hope that they will learn um some very interesting techniques by being able to see some of these world-class anglers fly fish on Hebgen Lake. Uh, it is a little different than most people will have experienced. We have some specific uh uh ways of of lake fishing that would be a little bit novel to most people. Uh we won't go into details here, but uh but but you know it it would be something that's quite interesting. And and actually for me, it changed the way I look at lake fishing. Um I used to think lake fishing was a little bit boring from fly from a fly fishing perspective, I'll be honest. And I really prefer river fishing. But I go through seasons and it's really hard for me to stay off the lakes. Um and then I you know I kind of swing back to rivers for a while, but then I then I yearn for the lakes again. I know I'm sure Devin probably feels the same way, but but fly fishing the way we do in lakes is just the it's it's so much fun. We really, really love it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:05

It's a little more mobile and run and gun than kind of just anchoring up and throwing an indicator out there like a lot of folks end up doing. So it keeps the interest a little bit higher.

SPEAKER_03 45:14

Yeah, I think you folks are really gonna uh find this very, very interesting. Now, uh Glade, you'll want them to operate their boats so that they'll be in command of their boat the whole time and all that.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Yeah, that's that's right. That's right. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 45:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

But you'll if they're available, take I I guess if they would be willing to let us operate them, let's have let someone else or sorry, let us use their boat. I I'd be open open to that, but I assume most people prefer to operate their own boat, generally speaking.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

Okay. But if they don't have to, if if uh you can find volunteers that can operate the boat and all that. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 45:47

So uh that there's one big that's actually happening with my boat, because my boat is gonna be there and somebody will be running my boats.

SPEAKER_03 45:54

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

Thank you, Devin.

SPEAKER_03 45:56

Yeah. And the uh the they we don't know who might be on their boat, but it could be someone from different countries, so you're gonna get to meet uh very interesting people and all that.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

So yeah, yeah, I yeah, it'll be uh it'd be great. It's amazing the the kind of people you're gonna meet. Um yeah, we have lifelong friends. I mean, you know, how often do you get a meet a Mongolian angler? Yeah, right, that that you might be able to talk to and figure out how to go hook up with them in a future time and place to go chase after some time or something like that, right? Which would be pretty fun. Um but yeah, I mean anglers are showing up uh literally, I think the first anglers are gonna come start practicing, I believe, this week or next week. The French team will be here. I I believe probably the earliest, and they are the defending champions.

SPEAKER_03 46:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 46:43

Um both from an individual medal perspective and from the team medal perspective. So everybody's gunning for the French this year.

SPEAKER_03 46:50

Okay. So uh uh if you run across some people with accents, you know what they're probably there for is they're there to want to to to fish. So I I hope that you will consider any other kind of things that uh you would need folks to help you out with, or is it mainly the boats?

SPEAKER_01 47:08

It's it's mainly the boats. Um we have most of the volunteers. Uh I think all the volunteers are reset up for the rest of the rivers and lakes, the other lake, I should say. Um, but you know, if anyone wants to come watch, you know, it's not necessarily easy to watch on Hebgen. But, you know, and it's not necessarily easy to go watch on the rivers either, to be fair, because it's, you know, you don't want to interfere with the angling. Sure. Yeah. You know, you don't want to disturb the fish, etc., etc. But you know, but we welcome people to come and see what's going on. We hope people would um attract the the progress or the uh the accomplishments of uh the USA team, of course, and and how the results of every day is going. Uh I can share the information with you, Dale, and you can you can publish it up there. But there is a results page, uh daily results uh updates that's that happens that we could provide that link to you. Um we do have some social media content that will be put out there, as I mentioned, and some uh daily podcast will be viewed by by you know tens or hundreds of thousands of people all around the world. Okay. So we'll be uh I can provide that information to you.

SPEAKER_03 48:10

Yeah, and that'll be in your podcast uh description, folks. So um just go there and you can click those links and and follow along, which is gonna be interesting. I know I intend to do that. Um and you know, might even throw out a few comments uh to encourage these folks out there. Um Devin, what do you what do you feel uh right now? How do you feel uh you might do? You're in your backyard.

SPEAKER_02 48:37

I mean, we're we're in the backyard. Uh for once, we're not the ones at a disadvantage. So the the things that people have to realize is typically, you know, we end up showing up a week before a championship, and in five days or so of practice, we gotta try and actually figure out how to beat the home team who's been fishing their their whole life. Or half the time it's in Europe where a bunch of the European teams have been there a year ahead of time and done a scouting mission on the same dates the year prior. And so they have previous information that we can't get because we can't we just simply can't swing that. So for once, we get a bit have a home advantage, and we're coming off two really strong years. We've gotten bronze medals as the team the last two years in a row. Our one of our uh anglers, Michael Bradley, got an individual bronze last year as well. And so we have a very good team right now, a team that uh after six well, twenty years of being on the team, but sixteen world championships, I'm as confident as ever that we have a chance of uh a really good chance of bringing it all home this year. And I would obviously love to see nothing more.

SPEAKER_03 49:47

Well, we're rooting for you on that. Have folks in Lander been putting a little extra uh pressure on you to say, hey, you better bring home a gold medal?

SPEAKER_02 49:54

or Dale, I I try to keep a pretty low-key existence in town. So Well now everybody's gonna the guys in his fly shop are probably giving them some grief. But uh I own a I I run a fly shop. In fact, this is our warehouse that you're seeing me doing, you know, or at least parts of it.

SPEAKER_03 50:12

So that was my last question is what do you do when you're not when you're not uh fly fishing?

SPEAKER_02 50:17

So you're not fly fishing, he's fly fishing. Yeah, exactly. If I'm not fly fishing, I'm talking about it with somebody, you know, or or or selling them uh stuff themselves. So yeah. What's the name of your shop? It's called uh yeah, it's called Tactical Fly Fisher. So you can just find us at tacticalfly fisher.com.

SPEAKER_03 50:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 50:35

And that's uh that's my shop.

SPEAKER_03 50:37

Yeah. All right. And that's there in Lander? Yep. Okay. Tactical fly fishing. Well, there you go. And here's a guy that's been all over, so I I would imagine he could probably give you folks out there some excellent advice. Uh where do you call home, Glade?

SPEAKER_01 50:55

Well, I I don't even know. Um technically I tech Devin's Devin's gonna laugh because he knows my lifestyle, but I technically have a house in Utah in the Salt Lake City area, but I've also got a place up in Allen Park, Idaho, which is where I'm at right now. But I spend an uh an inordinate amount of time up here the last year or so because I'm getting ready for this championship. So I'm uh you know Devin mentioned earlier, you know, scouting out rivers and things. I'm out mapping beats. In fact, I'm going tomorrow, you know. And I was out here up here last week doing the same thing. So so I'm uh running around and in my real job, I am in the composite materials business, so carbon fiber composites. Most of the most of the business that we do is in the aerospace and defense industry. Um, but I have a number of other things that I touch and and some of it's fly rods and some of it's uh you know other things like cars and fast cars and stuff like that as well. But I tend to I tend to do a little jet setting in my real job where I get a travel around a bit. Um so in addition to traveling the world for fly fishing, I get to do a little bit of exploring uh for my my regular job as well.

SPEAKER_03 51:57

Fun. Fun. Well, uh so you're used to it. Well, this is gonna be great. I'm I'm really looking forward to it. Uh we're we'll definitely all of us here watching will we'll follow along and see how uh team USA does and and wish you all the best. Anything else that we haven't covered, uh guys, that you w want to make sure you get in? Pretty well got it?

SPEAKER_01 52:18

I'm good.

SPEAKER_03 52:19

Kevin, anything else?

SPEAKER_02 52:22

I mean come say hi if uh if if any listeners come to the championship, come say hi, introduce yourself. The reality is like the competition is we take it seriously, right? But at the end of the day, we're all just fly anglers who love to fly fish. And the one language that we all share together uh between competitors at the competition is a love for fly fishing. And whether we're miming that love because we can't speak the same language or we you know are actually talking about it, we're all there for the same reason. So we hope that you'll be, you know, that people will will have a a chance to enjoy seeing some other people come from around the world and that they'll also have a good experience because of the welcome they receive.

SPEAKER_03 53:07

Well, tight lines to you. I hope uh all goes well and thank you for spending time and and don't be a stranger. We'll we'll have to get uh you back on and talk about uh fly fishing down in Wyoming a bit and and uh that when you uh get a chance to rest after this uh this big competition and you as well, Glade. Be sure and uh stay in touch with us and let us know how we can uh help in the future as well. But uh guys, and I can't wait to uh see. So go team USA. Let's see uh let's see some gold come flashing through at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01 53:41

All right. Thanks, Del.

SPEAKER_03 53:42

All right, there you have it, gang. Uh so good to have those two gentlemen on. I hope you'll follow along and do it. And again, those of you that got a boat, uh boy, they'd sure love to use it. Let's uh let's represent Montana really well and uh get a few boats down there to help them out. Uh and of course, you know my emails on the screen now and also all over the place. So uh just send me an email if you got any questions or any of that, and I'll get it on to these guys and get those questions answered for you. So tell me talk again, folks. Uh be safe out there and be good to each other, and we'll see you next time on the Montana Outdoor Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 54:19

Thanks for watching the Montana Outdoor Podcast. You know, there's no way we could do this podcast without the incredible support of sponsors like Superior Hardwoods of Montana, home of the largest selection of in-stock, high-end wood products and flooring in the western United States. Let them guide you through the woods at superior-hardwoods.com. And of course, Rocky Mountain Truck and Trailer in Missoula, home of both snow clouds and accessories, and Diamond C trailers and accessories. Go see them on the web at rmt.com. We'd love to hear what you thought of this week's podcast. When you get a minute or two, shoot us an email and tell us your thoughts. Same goes if you have any questions for Rigor or this week's guest. Just send your questions or comments to downrigger at MontanaOutdoor.com. Hey, don't forget we should be dropping a new podcast this next Saturday. Until then, gang, we hope to see you soon out in Montana's great outdoors.