Kamloops fly fisher Brian Danilkiewicz has been named to the national fly fishing team that will represent Canada at the 2023 Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championship in Islay, Scotland, next summer.
It’s not the first time Danilkiewicz has been tapped for the national team of six anglers.
In 2020, Danilkiewicz was in New Zealand for the annual Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championship, ready to get his cast on.
Just one day before they were to compete, Fly Fishing Canada told the team to head home due to the COVID-19 pandemic prompting countries to close their borders.
It was a disappointment for Danilkiewicz, but being chosen for the 2023 national team has given him a chance to once again prove himself.
“This is kind of my redemption tour,” Danilkiewicz told KTW.
The coming months will find him preparing for the three-day competition, to be held from June 27 to July 2.
Danilkiewicz said fly fishing in Scotland will be more challenging than fishing lakes and rivers in the B.C. Interior.
As well, the type of fish is different — with smaller, wild brown trout instead of rainbow trout, so common in Kamloops-area lakes.
“Brown trout are a little bit more aggressive than rainbows, Danilkiewicz said.
“They’re also a little bit more predatory and they’ll stay in one little area. If you hook one fish, that could be the only fish for that little area, whereas rainbows will stick together a bit more.”
The competition will see anglers fishing from riverbanks, standing on the shoreline, then wading out as deep as they can in an attempt to access the best fishing spots.
Techniques will also be vastly different than local methods of fly fishing, Danilkiewicz noted.
In Scotland, anglers cast their lines using a team of flies — up to three flies, spaced a fixed distance apart — a technique B.C. anglers are not permitted to use in freshwater lakes and streams. Locally, only one fly per rod is allowed.
“It makes it more of a challenge for us,” Danilkiewicz said. “For me to get practise, I’ll have to travel to Alberta or down to Washington state, just to get some practise fishing three flies. I have done it in the past, but it takes me a bit to get back to be used to casting three flies again.”
Fishers can have as many rods as they want to use, set up on the bank with them, and can switch to using a single fly if the team of flies method is not working for them.
Having always enjoyed fly fishing while growing up, Danilkiewicz said he really got hooked only after he blew out his knee playing lacrosse as a youth. He was looking for something new to do, competitive-wise, that would be easier on his body.
Danilkiewicz said he stumbled across some local fishing competitions in the Lower Mainland. Signing up, he said to himself, “I can fly fish.”
“I was really wrong. I was humbled very quickly,” he said. “It put me down the rabbit hole of, ‘OK, what are these guys doing to get to this level and catch this many fish, when I’m struggling just to get one fish?’”
It led him to where he is today, on the Canadian national fly fishing team.
Danilkiewicz moved to Kamloops from the Lower Mainland in search of a lifestyle change and quickly realized the River City lacked a dedicated shop for avid fly fishers.
In 2021, Danilkiewicz seized the opportunity to open his own business, Casting Loops Fly & Tackle, which is at 40-1967 East Trans-Canada Hwy. in Valleyview.
He said he seeks to offer higher-quality products, which have traditionally not been available within the Kamloops market.
The dedicated fly-fishing shop regularly hosts courses on fly-tying, casting and advanced methods and brings in top fly fishers to teach master classes.
As well, Danilkiewicz provides local guiding as a mainstay of his business.
Danilkiewicz said he can bring back some of the fly patterns that are developed in Europe, which translate very well into local fisheries.
“Basically, I go across the seas and learn about what they are doing over there [Scotland] and bring it back and see how it can adapt to our local fishery — bringing knowledge back as well,” he said.
“Hopefully, other people will learn from what I have learned.”
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