For those anglers that seek to represent their country in the sport of fly-fishing the journey has two elements.

The first involves selection. Teams for International Competitions are selected approximately eighteen months prior to the international event. By selecting teams well in advance of the event, it allows the members chosen ample time to arrange personal and business affairs, conduct there own fund raising functions to offset cost’s and generally allows more time to practice the fishing techniques that will be required when at overseas venues. Selection is a very competitive process and the selection journey involves qualifying to compete in the Australian National Fly Fishing Championships at FFA State competitions that are held in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia each year and then finishing in the top 20 or 25 anglers competing at the Australian National Fly Fishing Championships.

The second part of the journey is the financial aspects of representing FFA and Australia. For World and Commonwealth Fly-Fishing Championships in particular the cost of competing is substantial. Whilst FFA does its best to support team members a substantial part of the cost remains the burden of the individual representative.  Particularly when competitions are far away the participation cost can be prohibitive for some fly-fishers and whilst they are selected to compete purely because of what it will cost them they forgo their representative opportunity. This is a problem that is at the for of FFA’s fund raising activities and as FFA evolves it is constantly seeking to make representing Australia in international fly-fishing events a privilege that is available to all members regardless of there financial strength or weakness.

In 1988, Australia hosted the World Championships in Tasmania and again in 1999, where 23 countries took part in the competition in the Snowy Mountains. As always, Australia has the expertise to organize an event such as this. It was voted one of the best events ever, by the teams from overseas. Australia won this competition, followed by France and New Zealand. World Fly Fishing Championships have been held in exotic location like Finland, England, Spain, France, Portugal and New Zealand just to name a few.