Tracy&James | Sunday, 3 March 2024
I have just arranged the BFCC Calendar for 2024, albeit there's a potential for a few more activities. We start the year with an event at our local venue in Dodleston in Cheshire, which has proven excellent for distance casting records; generally there's a good breeze as the ground is quite open. It's on the Wales-England border so is pretty close to where we live and it means we can organise fishing on the Welsh Dee for the instructors and others around the day of the meeting.
Then we're off to Kent in June, later than normal this year, but it aligns with the World Fly Fishing Day so we can celebrate that too. This venue is practically in the back garden of one of our top instructors, Mike H, and is one of the favourite locations for many members. It's also handy for international casters as it's easy to get to being so near to London airports and the Channel Tunnel.
July is going to be a very busy month as we have two Game Fairs, the first in Scone Palace near Perth and the second in Blenheim Palace near Oxford. The championship will be run across these two events that combines #5 Trout Distance, Trout Accuracy and S55 Salmon Overhead. Everyone will cast the same gear with the Celestial lines supplied by Steve. We also have a big family event to organise over one weekend and hopefully a trip to Spain to enter Jose's competition.
During August we will be off to Derbyshire for some fishing on the Wye and running a BFCC event in a beautifully picturesque location near Bakewell. Although we're not going to the World Championships in Sweden, some of the other members of the UK team are and we wish them all well in their preparation and participation at it.
Hopefully we'll have a BFCC event in Jersey in September once the specific location is set and if so, we'll be able to go saltwater fishing for bass and other species whilst there. We have another big family event to organise that month too.
Then we finish the year with one of our usual venues near Brentwood, Essex. Again this is a great place often with deer appearing in the mornings as we set up, but then disappearing as the attendees arrive. The BFCC Championship always completes at this event and hopefully Bart, as the current holder of the trophy, will be back to defend his title.
MAY 12th (SUNDAY) - Dodleston Sports Field, near Chester, Cheshire
JUNE 23rd (SUNDAY) - Willesborough CC, Ashford, Kent
AUGUST 17th (SATURDAY) - Ashford in the Water CC, near Bakewell, Derbyshire
SEPTEMBER 7/8th - Jersey, Channel Islands (specific location TBC)
OCTOBER 5th (SATURDAY) - Bentley CC, Brentwood, Essex - Sunday 1st October
However before all this starts, we are off to the Bahamas again so currently we're preparing for that and James is promptly fly-tying to top up the flies that we lost last year. Plus he is making some garfish flies so we can try and be more successful in catching them. Friends who have been to the island recently have reported back on sites where bones have been spotted and this time we're staying in a more central location on the island so we can check out some of our favourite fishy spots more thoroughly.
James spent an afternoon on a blustery Bala lake this week Spey casting with Steve – trying out the Celestial competition shooting heads. He came back with a mark just under his left eye where the skin had been broken by a wayward leader and fluff. This serves as a reminder that however good you are (and James isn't great at double handed Spey casting), you should always wear some form of eye protection.
Whatever you are doing this weekend, enjoy,
Cheers
Tracy