Hello from a newbie from British Columbia, Canada

[Dejon Hamann]

Great to see 5 loch sessions in a competition.  I can almost guarantee that if team usa doesn't have conflicts they will probably have AT LEAST 1 team there... if not more.  

I'm beginning to see it's going to be very hard for me to "sit the bench" for the next 2 years 

[Todd Oishi]

We had a stillwater based competition for our 2007 NFFC in Alberta (one bank and four loch-style sessions). My team was fortunate/lucky to have won the Team Gold as well as the Individual Gold and Individual Silver medals, but I do have my reservations about a championship that doesn't have a somewhat equal balance of both stillwater and river venues.

Our previous year's NFFC (2006) in Ontario had five river sessions, so it did even out if you took into consideration the competitor's results from both years. This data still allows FFC (our governing body) to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors that are trying to earn a spot on our national teams.

In my opinion; a mixed competition (rivers and stilwwaters) is far more interesting as it shows which competitors are able to fish both disciplines equally well, and would be best suited for the mixed bag of venues that we encounter at a "typical" WFFC or Commonwealth championship.

For example... sending a competitor, that is proven to be a river specialist, but performs poorly on stillwaters, to a championship that is dominated by stillwater venues makes little sense in the grand scheme of things - and the same could be said of a stillwater specialist that struggles on rivers.

These competitions allows/forces the competitors to improve and focus on both aspects of their fishing, and to recognize their weaknesses and areas that need improvement.

Should be a fun and great competition regardless, and I do sincerely hope that you can somehow manage to squeeze onto Randy's team once again!