Casting Champ

Casting Champ

Tracy&James | Thursday, 12 October 2017

The BFCC competition fly casting year came to a conclusion on Sunday with Matt Tonkin taking a well deserved British Championship win, beating me into second place. The format of the championship meant that it was still all to play for going into the last event of the year and, as it transpired on the day, the result was decided only after the very final discipline, accuracy.

I was drawn early to cast the accuracy and was pleased to post a good (for me) score which took the lead and edged me ahead in the championship standings. As such Matt needed to improve on the scores that he’d posted from previous events – and duly he did exactly that, registering a score that put him in second place. And that’s how it stayed and Matt won the ‘virtual’ championship trophy – although there is a real one on the way to him sometime soon!


Looking back at the championship scoring, it highlights disciplines that individuals are particularly strong or weak in (Matt has no weaknesses, he’s as good with a #5 weight as he is with the T120).  For myself I have two outfits that I need to improve with over the winter; the ST27 and the T120.  I managed to lose 7 points to Matt in just these and when his overall winning margin was just 3 points, it’s obvious that I need to improve with them. 

What was particularly pleasing to see at this last meeting was Zhongxiang winning the #5 weight competition.  I first saw Zhongxiang cast at the Sportfish show in May of this year, he was a putting out a really nice loop but topping out somewhere below 100ft.  We got talking and he was persuaded to come along to some BFCC meetings where he clearly got the distance bug.  He also did what many never do – actually go out and practice!  Just 6 months later and he’s won his first competition, so we’d better watch out next year as I’m sure this win is just the first of many.

So if you’re reading this thinking that maybe you’d like a go at improving your distance casting, then come along to a meeting, you never know we may help you become a potential winner.

All the best, James

championship results

PA081162

PA081181

PA081231

PA081235

PA081184