Choking

The French competition itself was a bit of a mixed bag for me. It was only the second time I'd used my new (to me) #5 distance rod. I've decided to retire my (actually Tracy's) TCX#10 on the grounds that I was chewing through the snake rings at an alarming rate and subsequently ruining fly lines even faster. This rod has subsequently been fitted with a new set of guides by Renee at Foxons in North Wales and is ready for us to collect it. We've decided that this rod will return to it's primary function of being Tracy's saltwater predator outfit and we'd use something different for distance work. As such, I was on the look out for a rod with fully lined rings and was offered a HT#10 with a full set of Torzites by someone who was selling it as they were worried about aggravating their tennis elbow by casting stiff rods (can you guess who?). The very first time I used this rod was at the last BFCC meeting of the year in Essex, where I managed to win both the #5 and the #7 trout distance disciplines with it, so I was off to a good start.

One significant change I've noticed with using the HT#10 is that I no longer feel the need to off-set the rings. With the TCX#10 I always used to rotate the top three sections 90 degrees clockwise. This would often annoy Tracy as I would forget to put them back straight when handing the outfit over for her to cast, leaving her to wrestle with the joint which I'd generally wedged really tightly in place. We've also both noted how 'quiet' the rod is when casting i.e. we don't hear our old, practice lines sawing on the rings any more. We both need to spend quite a bit more time getting used to the rod, but first impressions are good.

First up in France, on the Saturday, was qualification for Sunday's #5 Trout Distance Championship. There were a lot of entries, thus this went on for a good few hours all the time with a variable wind that swirls within the hollow of the rugby pitch at the side of the exhibition hall. It's always a bit nerve wracking when you're studying the wind whilst waiting your turn to cast, however things worked out OK for me as I qualified in 3rdposition overall with a distance of 37.4m. Tracy also did very well with a cast just over 35m ensuring we both had a place in the final where the top 16 would cast it out in a series of head to head battles.

This outdoor qualifying was also used to select the casters for the indoor exhibition event later that evening. I've previously had exactly 8 minutes of indoor distance competition experience from my two trips to the Argentat show, and it's fair to say I've struggled. I was therefore pretty pleased to end up with second place this time, with a cast a fraction short of 34m although I did miss out on the magnum of Champagne first prize which was won by the awesome Jerome. Tracy also impressed with a cast of over 30m.

There's an active thread on 'choking' on the board at the moment, and I think I provided a classic example of it in Sunday's outdoor competition. Here the top 16 are pitted against each other in a series of head to head cast off's. The top qualifier initially going against the sixteenth place, the second against the fifteenth and so on. As such, the first round, which determines the top 8 casters was a relatively low-pressure affair. However, in the next round everyone in that top 8 is going to be casting against a very good competitor – and it was here that I blew it. I think I somehow managed to cast 30m or something, way below what I'd managed in the indoor competition the previous evening. Now although the weather conditions for that session were far from ideal, they weren't as bad as my performance suggested. With this loss the best I could do was fifth place if I won all my subsequent cast off's. With no real pressure that's exactly what I did, but in doing so I recorded the second longest cast of the whole competition at 38.2m and just 10cm short of the longest overall (again produced by Jerome). So I was annoyed with buggering up round two (I would have liked to have progressed to the final shoot-out obviously), but with the small consolation that I was competitive when in the right frame of mind.

Tracy and I now have a winter break from casting competitions, hopefully I can use the time to work on getting my best casts out under whilst under pressure. We may have to introduce wagers to our practice.

Hope you're having a great week,

James