On the Red Carpet

The indoor event was on the Saturday evening after the show and, as I had booked a cottage very close to the show, I was able to pop back and relax before the comp started. I also managed to have a glass or two of red wine, so was very relaxed when I was called to the 'red carpet'. Francois plays music for everyone to cast along to and my request was Nirvana – 'Smells like teen spirit'. It was really fun to cast to music and after kicking off my shoes (as the line caught my laces at one point) I did pretty well and cast over 30m - this comp is with an MED which is not my chosen line for distance. At the end of the comp, with lots of great music and casting, James came second to Jerome who won a magnum of champagne. The competition was followed by a fantastic dinner of frog's legs and barbecued sausage provided by the Show organisers.

Earlier in the day, the outdoor #5 comp qualifications had been run and I was really pleased that this year I was 7th overall (having cast just over 35m) and so I was in the final, along with James who qualified in 3rd, that was being run on the following day. The downsides to this was that we had only brought one comp outfit for the event to share and the final involved several timed sessions where each person cast against another finalist. From the previous BFCC casting events I knew that I was only able to do small amounts of casting and that my hand needed rest in between (the lump on the back of my hand causes discomfort when casting). Hence after using our outfit and winning my first head to head session (using a Celestial line), I was forced to borrow an outfit for the next session as James and I had a clash and needed to cast at the same time. I ended up with an unfamiliar rod lined with a MED line, a great outfit but one I'd need to practice with in order to get my best. I lost this one, but realised I had at least two more casting 'times' and, as such, I dropped out to protect my hand. Thankfully I still came 8th , so overall I was very pleased.

We are very grateful for the invite to the show and thank both the show organisers and the Fly Casting Lab team for a fantastic weekend. Hopefully if we are invited next year, I offered to run an accuracy comp over the weekend for anyone to have a go at. We thought it might be fun to encourage more people to have a go who perhaps aren't into distance. It also will keep me busy whilst the others coach, instruct and cast. I will just need to practice my French in advance to advise casters to 'extend and shorten line in the air' – I think I'll need my Google-translator or things could get tricky...

James and I are now starting to plan the casting and fishing activities for 2027. We already have the dates for the country shows in May and July, plus we are working out when our Bahamas holiday will be. The first event currently planned is in February which is the Spanish competition in Guadalajara – this involves 4 events: a #5 weight using an MED line, ST27 (my fave event), accuracy and the 'lake' distance event. I have already started working on my open stance approach again so that I can maybe cast an MED further. James and I are also prototype testing a new #10 Celestial predator line with Steve, hopefully this will be ready in time for a proper test on our saltwater trip.

BFCC events may have finished for the year, however we still have lots to do. We will have a new website and possibly some new venues to organise, as well as the usual ones. There's some membership stuff to sort and we're looking into new BFCC merchandise. James needs to start tying saltwater flies, he's been ordering materials but is finding it difficult to get hold of some items that he wants so has resorted to Temu. Plus whenever we get some days without stormy weather, I am looking forward to catching more grayling on the river Dee.

Whatever you are doing this week, enjoy.

Cheers

Tracy