Thirty hours, three time zones, three separate flights, one smoky bus, lost in a taxi, no sleep and a few dodgy looking locals, but we made it. Thanks to Recfish West, the Australian Government through their National Recreational Industry Development Strategy, Recfishing Research and FRDC, myself and a handful of other Young Leaders are currently attending at the 7th World Recreational Fishing Conference in São Paulo, Brazil.

Having now spent the last four days with the young leaders that are attending, I feel confident in saying that the future of fishing representation is looking bright in Australia. We have some very talented, level-headed people learning from the world’s experts about best practice fisheries management and case studies on different things that are happening the world over.

One really interesting thing that has been presented on is a five year study on stocking of hatchery-bred pike into naturally recruiting pike fisheries, by Professor Robert Arlinghaus. The study showed that when doing this, there was only a short term spike in fish population following stocking, followed by a rapid return to pre stocking fish numbers. The hatchery fish were biologically weaker than the naturally recruited fish and were therefore predated by the stronger wild fish. Arlinghaus noted that one waterways in the study was stocked with larger fish to avoid heavy predation, however the same results were found due to them being both biologically disadvantaged and having established poor feeding habits in the hatchery.

I later spoke with Arlinghaus over lunch and explained the Victorian north-east trout situation. When asked if the same scenario could be expected of trout stocked into rivers, he agreed that fish stocks would not be improved by stocking, as any remaining naturally recruited trout would out compete the hatchery bread fish in their efforts to recolonise. He also spoke about the need to establish why trout haven’t naturally returned to the area, as any stocked fish would likely disappear also.

Enough of the political science though, in terms of flyfishing Brazil is a developing country with a massive social divide so recreational fishing is only just starting to catch on in the middle class. The result is that there aren’t many local people here who fly fish. In fact there aren’t many people here who fish in general. There is also an issue with pollution and what we would describe as poaching in public waterways within driving distance of major population centres. Therefore many of the local anglers go to ‘fish parks’ which are similar to trout farms, except they take it much more seriously. Yesterday conference attendees travelled to one of these parks and fished for many species including dorado, peacock bass, payara, carp, tilapia and several other species. For the first time ever I used a pellet fly which was nothing more than a piece of cork glued to a hook. I managed to hook several fish, but never landed anything. Next to me was the park owner who landed about 15 fish in half an hour using the same method, so there was certainly still an element of skill involved.

These parks definitely have their place here, as the population density couldn’t sustain good quality wild fisheries within a reasonable driving distance from a city.  For example here in the city of São Paulo there are over 22 million people; that’s almost as many as all of Australia in one city.

Adding to my excitement, I have been lucky enough to spend time with several local flyfishing identities including the legendary Betinho Oliveira. Betinho was invited along as a guest presenter and exhibitor and has his own TV show, magazine and also works hard to promote the sport at public events. Unfortunately he speaks little English and I speak no Portuguese, but we’ve managed to strike a friendship and I have received some sound advice for my peacock bass trip next week, including how to target large vampire fish on the fly. (Lucky I packed my Boga grips!)

That’s probably enough for now. Today the young leaders and I will be heading off into a remote part of the Amazon for a week of exciting fishing (at our own expense), so hopefully I have some more stories soon.