Tracy&James | Thursday, 25 May 2017
On Sunday Tracy and I attended the BFCC casting day in Willesborough, near Ashford, Kent. This event saw the introduction of the 55g Salmon overhead discipline, with identical rules to those in the world championships – i.e. maximum rod length 15ft with a floating line that weighs no more than 55g. We were grateful that both Steve Parkes and Brian Szukala turned up with outfits and were willing to let others use them.
The rods that these two brought couldn’t have been more different, with Steve’s being a very tippy, stiff, yet light, prototype (i.e. he didn’t get time to put a proper handle on it), whilst Brian’s was a traditional, off-the-shelf, through-action Spey rod rated as a #10. Rather than make people select which one to cast in the competition, we decided it would be fun for everyone to cast both rods to see which one came out on top.
The results, when averaged, revealed that there wasn’t a lot separating the two outfits – only a couple of feet, and there was a fairly even split in the numbers of people that made their best cast with each rod. For example Tracy’s best was with the tippy rod, whilst mine was with the through-action one. Fittingly the winning distance was tied between Steve and Brian, each using the rod that they had supplied (although Steve subsequently won the shoot-out for first place).
Another stand-out result on the day had to be Tracy’s cast in the #7 event. Most of the time Tracy is competing in an otherwise all male entry at BFCC competitions, thus her second place overall was a fantastic achievement – taking the women’s record and beating some of the club’s big hitters along the way, myself included. (The full results are on the website - http://www.thebfcc.co.uk/category/results or the Facebook page). Obviously I practice with Tracy all the time so I know what she’s capable of, and there’s certainly more to come on the right day!
This weekend for us is almost definitely going to include a trip up to Farmoor reservoir to fish for their super-fit rainbows. Have fun whatever you decide to do.
All the best, James.
