Tracy&James | Wednesday, 1 January 2025
Happy new year to you all. I've decided not to make any casting new year's resolutions this time, mainly because I never seem to achieve them – for example, my 200ft cast with the T38 has been stubbornly isolated to the practice field and nowhere to be seen at a BFCC competition day. That said, I did resolve to improve my competition accuracy a year ago and ultimately (after some not so good attempts) I did break TC's BFCC record. I shall keep up the practice this year in the hope of pushing the record higher.
So rather than set targets for myself, which have very little chance of coming to fruition, I thought I'd write a very brief summary of the casting competitions that Tracy and I entered in the last year. The start of the BFCC season was beset by poor weather and poor attendance (maybe because of the weather?). The Dodleston event, that should have been the first, was postponed and ended up being the last event of the calendar in November. When things did get underway a number of the usual competitors were absent and, as such, I built an unassailable lead in the championship quite early on. This was a bit of a shame as all the previous championships have been very close affairs, especially since the introduction of the 'best two results count' method of determining the winner. After a quick discussion amongst the club, it was decided to make an exception for 2024 and offer up the Bentley, Essex event as a one off shoot-out for the BFCC trophy. This was a much more competitive event, but it turned out that I won this one also (thanks in part to my accuracy score). I really hope that 2025 sees a return to the type of competition we've seen in the past, but I'm not sure it will.
One change to the BFCC competition rules for 2025 will be the introduction of a senior's championship. These days there tends to be more casters in the 'older' categories than the younger ones, so we've decided that there should be an additional championship for the over 60's (they can, of course, still win the open class). Hopefully this will provide an incentive to keep practising and turning up to compete.
The two Game Fairs were a totally different kettle of fish to the BFCC events; we were rushed off our feet with competitors. In Scotland, the wind was quite variable thus requiring the top competitors to pick their casting time carefully (like the good old days when the casters would be sat on the grass near the casting platform with their entry tickets pre-paid waiting for the optimum wind). As I recall, both the senior and junior championships (combined accuracy, trout distance and salmon S55 distance) were very close with Robert Reid and Jack Gow respectively taking the wins. There were lots of daily prizes given out also. At the English game fair there was pretty much zero wind for the whole weekend and the casting conditions were tough (quite like a typical BFCC day). Again the casting competition area was extremely busy with championship entries and daily events. The English game fair championship winners were joined by the Scottish qualifiers for a shoot-out for the overall championship. I managed to win the English leg of things but proceeded to make a balls-up of the grand final which was ultimately won by Nick Moore. Jack Gow followed up his Scottish win by taking the overall junior championship with a superb result in the final. For once, Tracy had a number of competitors willing to take on the three disciplines in a women's event, and she came out on top with Marina Gibson in second.
Tracy and I also travelled over to the Dordogne, France to compete in the casting events at the Argentat fly fishing festival run by the fantastic folks from the Fly Casting Lab (FCL). We enjoyed this event immensely but the less said about my casting the better – for some reason I cast poorly and didn't make any of the finals. I'm really going to up my game for this one (that's starting to sound like a resolution though!).
As for this year's competitive casting, our season is going to kick off with the UK championships in Millom, Cumbria in March. Tracy and I will be entering all six disciplines including the Spey events. Obviously we won't be competitive in these, but we are both hoping to get in legal casts on both sides. We're still hunting some local water to practice in though.
I hope you have a great 2025, and if you've made any fishing or casting resolutions that they are fulfilled.
All the best, James and Tracy