Tracy&James | Wednesday, 26 August 2026
Tracy and I are keeping a keen eye on the results coming from the World Fly casting championships in Italy this week. We would have loved to be there in person, however the decision to extend the programme to over a week makes things impossible for us as we use most of our leave on an extended fishing trip in the spring. From what we've seen online, Vinadio looks like a stunning venue and we hope all the casters present, from whichever country, have a great time competing there. Maybe Tracy and I will be back when we retire – or maybe there will be an alternative competition that goes back to a long weekend format that we can travel to compete in.
As far as our remaining competitions for the year – we have four to look forward to. The first is a long weekend in Jersey where the BFCC is staging an event on the 12th of September. This event is a very relaxed one for me mainly because there's not many competitors to get through the individual disciplines but also because tasks such as setting out the accuracy event is taken care of by the hosts. Hopefully we'll also fit in some fishing whilst we're there.
Then we have an extremely busy October starting with the BFCC championship shoot-out at Brentwood, Essex on Sunday the 4th. This is an open entry competition so absolutely anyone can compete to win the British Fly Casting Championship – both the Open and the Senior (65+) categories. All seven events (#5 & #7 trout distance, trout accuracy, ST27, S55, T38 and T120) will be cast on the day and the overall winner will get their name on the Trophy. Equipment will be supplied for those who don't have a personal outfit (not many people have a T38 and T120 for example). We'd be delighted to have international competitors (a previous winner was Bart from the Netherlands) – Essex is close to the London airports, in fact it's probably quicker to get there from Europe than it is for Tracy and I to drive from North Wales. So if you're interested then please get in touch.
The weekend after we'll be travelling across to Derbyshire for the GAIA annual gathering, where they've asked us to arrange all the competition events for the day after they've finished their casting instructor assessments and demos. That should be fun and hopefully people won't be too shy to have a go at everything. I think I may be roped into Nick's casting demo as he is suffering from tennis elbow at the moment having overdone things with some heavy gear. We've also been told we can fish the Chatsworth House beats of the river Wye around the event, so we'll make the most of that.
Then finally there is the Argentat fly fishing festival in mid/south France. As well as the show there will be a couple of #5 trout distance events – one a demonstration comp in the exhibition hall itself (this is really tough) and then a championship held outdoors the next day. After the qualifications are completed this has a great 'shoot-out' format to determine who progresses in the comp and who is eliminated.
Between all that we hope to get out fishing. Autumn can be good for big grayling on the Dee.
I hope you're having a great week,
James.