Organization
All competitions held by Fly Fishing Team USA (“FFTUSA”) follow, with some exceptions, the rules set forth by FIPs Mouche, the governing body of international fly fishing competition. FFTUSA runs competitions in “cycles”, which are periods of around one and a half years where anglers can participate in competitions to earn points towards making the team. To earn points in a FFTUSA cycle anglers must purchase a FFTUSA Membership and sign the code of conduct.
Cycles are organized into three levels of competition: Regionals, Interegionals, and Nationals. All competitions are competitor controlled, i.e. judging is done for competitors by other competitors, in order to ensure fairness. Regionals are one day, twelve angler competitions held for anglers local to the West, Midwest, Northeast, or Southeast regions. Anyone is free to compete in any regional, however anglers can only earn points while fishing a regional in their self declared “home region”, with the exception of one outside regional per angler per cycle. Each regional is worth twelve regional points. The top five finishes for each angler are added up at the end of the regional portion of the cycle, and anglers are ranked by their totals. The points are then “normalized”- the top angler in each region takes twenty “regular” points, the second nineteen, and so on. Any regionals held after the regional portion of the cycle ends are counted as a part of the next cycle, which is why cycles are longer than one year.
After the regional portion, there are interregionals. These are two day, twenty four person competitions that are available only to the top twenty anglers in each region at the time they are announced. There is at least one interregional held in each of the four regions every cycle, with up to six total. Anglers can compete in three interregionals, but may only count their top two finishes. These competitions are worth twenty four regular points. Unlike in regionals, fish in interregionals are measured to help avoid point ties.
Each cycle ends with a National Championship. This is a 3+ day, forty eight point competition available to the top forty eight competitors in the rankings after all the interregionals have been completed. It can be held anywhere in the United States. After the National Championships, the top fifteen anglers are asked to join FFTUSA. The top three ranked team members are then are automatically added to the Worlds Team, which competes at the World Fly Fishing Championships that year. The remaining two anglers and the alternate are then chosen from the new pool of team members by the Team Captain (an elected position chosen the prior year).
For more detailed information on the structure of cycles and competitions, eligibility, and team selection, click here!
