Rickard Gustafsson | Saturday, 16 May 2026
Today, Thursday, we had a small competition. We planned it right after the one we had in April. We ended up with the same participants as the last time, we had two more registered but their car broke down on the way to the competition. That was sad as it would have been nice to catch up with Seppo and Stefan. And a couple of more casters in the competition wouldn’t have hurt.
The weather hasn’t been on our side on the competition days. Today we had some wind in the start of the competition and later in the competition we had quite a strong wind. Always in a bad direction as the wind turned after every time we built or adjusted the course. And in the end of the competition we also got heavy rain.
The weather was actually better than the forecast for most of the competition. So not as bad luck there as we suspected. We started the day with accuracy at 8, didn’t help to avoid the wind that much. Because of the wind I decided to try a bit stiffer rod in the competition today, I went for the HT7. I have done some accuracy in practice with it and had a feeling that it would do a good job in rougher conditions. No problems casting for the closest target at 8 meters with it and it was really good for the furthest target at 15 meters. If we would’ve only competed at the 15 meter target I would’ve certainly come out on top. I had a lot of fives on that target and the loops were sharp. I have a problem with the light conditions that early in the morning, I rarely can see the fly. It doesn’t help that on all competitions this year I have casted with either no sunglasses or without correction. But now I at least have ordered new contact lenses. Next is to get some prescription sunglasses.
So I need to learn to see the fly or just gauge the distance by looking at the fly line. So considering that the scores of 46 and 54 are almost decent.
After we were done with accuracy and we gathered for planning the following events and have some coffee I heard a very band sound as I took a step. It was not a rod that I had stepped on but the sound was very similar. I had stepped on a small disposable plastic glass. I froze for a second there and then we remembered the plastic glass and had a laugh about it, “that not a sound you want to hear around a bunch of rods”. If I only knew…
I setup my trout distance gear and started to warm up a bit. Test if the leader and fluff worked well. I was casting with a side wind but things felt decent. I did some carry and no real casts just to get going. As I was doing a back cast, just to lay the line down, didn’t apply much power and suddenly the power disappears from the rod and the sound of stepping as on a plastic glass is there again. The lowest ferrule had cracked. I felt physically sick. I need this rod. It cannot break now! I mush have jinxed it as I told Paul maybe a week a go that I should probably have one in backup. Nothing to do about it at the moment. Just feel a bit sad and out of balance. And it is time to get out on the platform and cast. So I string up the same rod as I used for accuracy. Not what I had hoped for today. On the platform the wind had turned so almost every cast the line slapped me. But casting 37.5 meters after the line has ticked you is quite the cast. I did better in the second round where I did a bit better increased the distance to 39 (39.5?) meters, 38.5 and 38.5 meters. This didn’t cut it today would’ve need a meter or so more to win. But closing in on 130 feet with a number of casts without hooking up a really good one is not bad.
We did turn the court for seatrout, but that didn’t help. I think the wind decided to turn back when we were done so now we had the wind blowing the line to the right. Here I got 47 meters and second best caster got 43, if I remember correctly. We decided to call it quits after one round here as now the wind picked up a bit more the rain started to pour down.
I wonder if I’m closing in on Paul and broken rods in this tempo?
I think I’ve heard a song about people breaking rods? You might recognise it:
Breakin’ rods in the hot sun
I fought the trout and the trout won
I fought the trout and the trout won
I needed money ‘cause I had none
I fought the trout and the trout won
I fought the trout and the trout won
Snapping a rod is a bit “interesting”. You first feel that the power just disappears then you hear the crack. At least that’s how it is for me, I feel that something bad happened before the brain registers the sound. I probably should know which part of the brain that should register this first, but I cannot remember.
And it is time for the HT10 to visit the rod doctor in Spain. The first time it had to be rushed as I was going to Piteå to compete, it is a the same thing this time. Just a little bit more time to play with, like a week more time work with. So I need to get a backup rod, or two backup rods. Even if the HT7 seems to be a good backup rod that can do both accuracy and distance fine I think I should have something a bit more like the HT10 as a backup for distance.
Cheers, Rickard
PoD: The conditions of the day