Our scouting mission for the upcoming World Masters Fly Fishing Championships that takes place April 24-29 didn’t go quite as Jerry Arnold and I planned. We intended to fish, turn a few rocks, walk beats and get an idea exactly how to catch these finicky wild brown trout of Asturias Spain. Instead a massive storm dumped ridiculous amounts of rain and flooded the region the day we arrived and we never made a cast.
But this adventure was far from a bust. We have a new friend, Pablo Castro Pinos, one of Spain’s best anglers. Despite not fishing, Pablo shared his local knowledge about flies and explained his tactics for these waters. Our Masters Team has enough experience to piece the puzzle together and I’m confident we’ll do well. And judging by the picture I took Sunday (top) and the picture I took today (bottom), the water will be significantly lower and very fishable.
Today Jerry and I enjoyed the five hour drive south to Madrid. Spain is an amazing country and thanks to not being able to fish we enjoyed many of the tourist sites around Asturias we never would’ve seen.
We fly home tomorrow and return in just three weeks with the rest of the Team USA Fly Fishing Masters Team for the competition. It should be an awesome time and we hope the rivers will be down and in perfect condition. As for now, I have more than two weeks at home for the first time all year. I’ll be working but in my down time I will practice my trout fishing!