Sweden 2001
As the biggest mistake I would see that the organizers were allowed to shorten stretches for 120 metres, and somewhere even less. The big river was probably 200 metres wide, but the active stretches were in a very narrow line along the banks and mostly it was not possible to wade far, and even the stretches on small river were short. In this case rotation should have taken place after a half of period, because in other the competition lost its sense. At my first sight of both lakes, where the competition took place, was clear that these lakes were not chosen well. Number of rising fish was very low, or there was almost no rising fish, which sharply contrasted with the lakes selected for practice, there were fish enough. Such competition, where one catches only few fish, does not make any sense. The Presidential Board should realize it during the inspections before championships, and the old mistakes should not be repeated while approving the venues. On the other hand there was only one organizational mistake at the opening ceremony there was missing the French team at the front of parade, as the Rules order for the last champions. Possibility of cheaper accommodation was very positive. The guides were not on the required level.
France 2002
Even if this championship was organized very well, there were also several important failures. Rules Modifications were handed out at the Captain´s meeting and this happened without any apology or explanations. Allowed use of drogue was not presented in there, but it was good that it was finally allowed. But during the unofficial practice nobody knew about it. Presidential Board should not allow double minimum length for trouts and graylings. The difference was in reality 10 cm, because there were no graylings between 27 - 30 cm. The Rules should state that minimal size may be only one. This double length was totally unreasonable. Practice venues along the rivers were very short, and on the Vologne River this stretch did not correspond by its character to the venue. Practice venue on the Thur River was so short and so heavily fished one week prior to the championship that there was impossible to catch anything. The Vologne brook should not have been proclaimed as the venue, because no eligible fish was caught in some beats during five periods. With respect to fish species in the Moselle and Moselotte rivers even chubb and dace should have been taken into account as the eligible species, and their length should have been universal, so 20 cm.
Totally ununderstandable was that all judges communicated with secret centre through the mobiles. Presidental Board should have undertaken some steps and not to wait that somebody will hand in a protest against organizers. Level of paid guides was horrible. E.g. our guide was fishing carps for three years and he did not know anything about flyfishing and the stretches he knew only according to the map. Draw of supervisors for the French competitors was not in order, even if it seemed so at first sight. Tickets were not shuffled and they were taken in the reverse order than they were put into a box. Stretches were extremely long and fish were only in few metres, which was an advantage for the home team, and they used their knowledge of it. Totally wrongly and in contradiction to the Standards filling of a competition lake was done. I do not understand why the trainings before were done with the residential fish, when everything was totally destroyed by stokies. This was unfair from the organizers.
Competitors very critised even the fact that the organizers gave the nice prizes to themselves and the competitors had only the medals, because even the trophy for the winner is rotating.
Very awkward is always appointing the JURY, where even delagates who have no idea about the Rules are asking for a place. This should be eliminated if the Presidential Board realizes that JURY is here to judge in a fair and qualified way. Jury should not be made in the way that anybody may apply, but it should be equal proposal of the Presidental Board which would take into account even the geopolitical conditions of Jury.
European - Belgium 2002
The mistake here was very late stocking and fees were very high, because they did not include any transportation and accommodation. There was half number of judges than at the river competition and half number of days than at the World Championship. Question of prizes for the competitors is the same like in the case of France. Rules Modifications were not delivered in time.