European Fly Fishing

Association (EFFA) René Widmer

Sekretär

Friday, 24th July, 2015

On a very hot day EFFA Secretary René Widmer and his son Simon erected the Tössegg camp, a 3 x 6 m tent, and further 4 tents. It was most welcome that

towards evening Uwe Rieder joined and helped with the installations. Around 4 p.m. René drove to the Airport to collect our norwegian friend Ryan

Marchese. On their return they were pleased to find a finished tent camp, including hungarian participant Gergely Kapocsi's private Igloo.

A little exhausted we all went to dinner at the restaurant Tössegg where we were also joined by Jean-Paul Kauthen whom, in view of an upcoming storm we

rapidly helped building up his own igloo. All together we had a good time and finally crept into our "lodgings" which had to be defended against the storm.

Saturday, 25th July

All participants met on time and, as planned, started the day with a shopping

tour to buy the necessary provisions. Later we inaugurated our "class room" tent and immediately started with the Guide Theory. Who is a good guide? Which information does he need? What is important…

During lunch a most unfortunate incident happened when Lukas considerably

hurt himself with René's axe while building another tent. Jean-Paul who, as EFFA Instructor, did not have to go through the casting tests, drove poor Lukas to the

hospital. The casting tests were by all successfully finished, despite strong winds, which was of course greatly welcomed.

Fortunately Lukas had been well cared for at the hospital and returned to the team and successfully went through his test.

Towards evening followed the presentation of the self-tied flies. After each participant had presented and tied his prototype the second test was also

performed.

The entertaining part now followed as each participant prepared his dinner under the eyes of the others. The results were quite amusing, some meals almost "Chef

„like, others rather on the simple side… and the different cooking systems, too, were worthwhile watching…

Sunday, 26th July

Quite a laborious day was in store for us. We started it with Outdoor Skills, this

time out of the class room.

The highlight of the day was the joint cooking and dinner from the burrow

The team was very enthusiastic about this and enjoyed the day tremendously with lots of work and information but without tests.

In the course of the evening we were joined by the CPR Refresher and Sabine Leu Flury. The day finished around 11 p.m.

Monday, 27th July

This morning we went to the swimming baths in Rafz in order to carry out the water and medical tests. In the pool specially reserved for us we swam our 200m altogether. After that each participant individually had to undergo a swimming

and medical rescue test under the supervision of Sabine. Even a member of the press was present who made a report on our activities.

After lunch at the bath restaurant we drove to the Rhine at Neuhausen, René's home water, to carry out instruction and tests with the casting bag. René's son

Simon enjoyed a second dive into pleasant waters.

During the evening we distributed the maps for the test areas (without tasks of

course) so that the teams of two and three could go path finding in their areas.

Tuesday, 28th July

The last day stood under the sign of - guide test, - closure, - certificates and - departure. The teams went successfully through the guide test by delivering excellent results. It was appreciated that our president Daniele took the time to

congratulate personally the testees.

After delivering the certificates we dismounted the tents and handed back the

material to the Tössegg crew. Congratulations to all and thanks to the instructors, Uwe Rieder, Sabine Leu-

Flury and René Widmer.

René Widmer EFFA flyfisching guide, secretary Rafz, 4th August, 2015