Tracy&James | Wednesday, 13 November 2024
As I write I've not long got back from a Spey casting practice session at Bala lake in North Wales. The previous time I was there I felt that I had a breakthrough in my left hand up single Spey. Initially casting a 15ft rod, with a 70 odd foot shooting head, left handed felt completely alien. Even the snake roll to lay it out before making the angle change cast was difficult – to be fair though, perhaps learning with a 70ft competition head isn't the most sensible of approaches. However, at the end of that session I was consistently putting out 'legal' casts, sure they wouldn't be winning me any prizes, but at least they'd get me a left handed score on the board.
Today however it seemed like I was right back to square one. I couldn't even get the set-up cast right, with a lot of casts starting with a far from optimum curved line. It didn't help that I was casting a different rod (with a very different stiffness and bend profile) which seemed to throw me off completely, suggesting that my technique is not in the slightest bit robust. Once I changed back to the rod I was using for the previous session things did improve. I could have done without the frustration of the prior hour and a half and I apologise to anyone in the vicinity who heard my swearing.
Tracy has not had a good time casting this week either. As she wrote about in last week's FP she's decided to try and change her style slightly. She started this at the weekend, twisting her body to take her rod hand back behind her shoulder whilst flopping her wrist. The first steps of this, producing massive loops but with the leader end on the correct upward trajectory, seemed to go ok. However that evening she mentioned that she was having some discomfort in her knee, and by the following morning it was extremely painful and swollen. I probably shouldn't say that she's now got a hilariously weird limp that would most definitely qualify for approval by Monty Python's ministry of silly walks. This isn't great timing for this weekend's BFCC casting competition in Dodleston, Cheshire.
Dodleston was due to be the venue for the first BFCC casting day of the year, however it was cancelled due to a flooded pitch. Tracy has however managed to secure the pitch for this Sunday for a competition only day (sorry, the BFCC can't offer any instruction other than competition coaching this time). Given the limited daylight hours at this time of year we're hoping to get set-up quickly and get the events underway early, hopefully we'll have time to run the usual 7 disciplines given that most attending will be experienced casters. If everyone turns up who says they are coming then it should be a highly competitive event – we just need to hope that the weather is ok. This event won't count towards the championship (which was already decided at the last meeting), but the results will be published in the usual manner.
If you can make it to Cheshire (the road access is really good) and fancy having a go in the competition (or even in just a couple of the disciplines) then please come along.
Have a great week,
James.