Tracy&James | Sunday, 3 April 2022
Next weekend sees the BFCC heading to a new venue, Brecon in Wales. The venue was suggested by a club member who used to attend the college whose playing fields will be used for the casting tuition and competition events. It also turns out that the river Usk flows through the grounds, plus the river Wye is not too far away, so Tracy and I are hoping to combine the BFCC day with some fishing.
At the last event, in Cheshire, the weather was unusual for the BFCC in that there was a steady wind blowing, perhaps not the best for the instructors to deal with but the competitors really appreciated it. Tracy did really well with the heavier gear, the T120, S55 and ST27 beating her women’s records in all of them, however she ran out of steam a bit with the lighter gear and struggled to get a big carry back into the wind. As such, she’s been working on sharpening up her back cast this week. I find it interesting that as the wind speed drops the distance that I beat her with in practice also drops, sometimes to the point where she beats me (this is almost always a flat calm when it happens). A few days ago she beat her #7 trout distance PB in practice, on that day I could only muster a cast that was one foot further with the same outfit.
I’ve been practising a bit for the accuracy event as I’m still way behind the best in the club at it, and I’d like to beat TC’s record that was set last year before his return home. The trouble with this event is that I find the practice more physically demanding than my distance practice. That may come as a surprise to some being as the maximum distance required is just 50 feet, but the event lasts for 5 minutes (maximum) and requires the caster to make 16 casts. For a distance event I usually make 5 or 6 casts usually with three false casts in each (delivering on the third). For the accuracy event I tend to make more false casts trying to perfect the exact distance by attempting to hover the fly over the centre of the target, so by the time I’ve made 16 casts I’m pretty knackered [I should point out that I don’t haul for this event as I don’t want to pull on the rod, I also track the rod vertically between my eyes – I still manage to miss quite a lot though]. I’m also conscious that to get good at the accuracy competition you’ve got to put the hours in, but this for me risks flaring up my tennis elbow which I want to avoid at all costs. With all that considered I should have caught up with TC sometime around 2052 (probably July 2052).
If you can get to Brecon next Sunday then perhaps think about coming along to the meeting. The feedback that Tracy gets from people who have attended for instruction is always great. Combine it with some fishing and you have a perfect weekend break.
All the best, James.