Tracy&James | Wednesday, 22 October 2025
Tracy and I are now back in Wales after our last casting competition of the year at the Argentat fly fishing festival in France. This is run by the guys at the Fly Casting Lab (FCL) Facebook page and consists of an indoor exhibition event and an outdoor open competition, both cast with the #5 MED line. The standard of both these competitions is extremely high, the French guys have clearly put in a lot of work since the time I first cast against them, when they came over to a BFCC meeting, and it has paid off in the distances they are now hitting.
I did not perform well in the indoor competition, although the scores were extremely close with many of the placings being determined by a matter of centimetres. I think I would need a couple of hours of practice at least to get used to the indoor environment, but as things went my four minutes of competition were the first indoor distance casts I'd done since the same event last year.
The outdoor competition was better for me, although the very fickle, light breeze caused some anxious moments in picking the right time to cast in the qualification round. Knowing the standard of the competitors, there was a very real chance of not achieving a top eight spot if the breeze turned against you in the allotted time. Unfortunately the breeze was switching through 180 degrees every so often and this caught Tracy out. She decided to commit to her qualification effort only for the breeze to choose that moment to switch, as such there was nothing she could do to get a distance anywhere near what she is capable of in better conditions.
For once, however, I lucked out and the breeze was kind to me. As such, I qualified for the finals in first place. The format of the finals is that the casters would go against each other in pairs, with the winner progressing. It was also 'seeded' in that the top place qualifier would face the 8th placed caster, the 2ndplace would face the 7th and so on. Unfortunately for me, Albano (an exceptional #5 weight caster from Spain) had also had some issues with the wind in qualifying (drifting into his right shoulder) and was left sitting in eighth place – so I'd be facing him in the first round of the final. It was close but Albano's best was 20cm better than mine so he progressed into the final 4 whilst I was left to fight it out for 5th place at best. I won my subsequent head to heads and did finish in 5thoverall.
Both the indoor and outdoor events were won by Jerome who managed to cast some extraordinary distances (42m) given the weather. This was a genuine world class performance and a well deserved win. Hopefully he will think about forming a French team for the world championships next year.
With no more casting competitions on the horizon, Tracy and I can concentrate on some nymphing for grayling in the next few weeks. Also it may be the time to dust off my saltwater fly tying kit – I know I need to re-stock my Clousers before I start on bonefish patterns.
Hope you are having a great week,
James