Tracy&James | Sunday, 2 January 2022
Mine and Tracy’s plans for the New Year celebrations didn’t work out quite as we’d hoped as a friend of ours started feeling ill during the evening. As such, our festivities were cut short and we found ourselves at back at home and pretty much sober as midnight struck. Usually New Year’s day morning is a bit of a write-off however this time, due to the lack of hangovers, we were both up (relatively) early and feeling good. We therefore decided to have our first casting practice session of the year.
I’ve set myself a challenge of beating the BFCC T38 record in practice and hopefully going over 200ft in a competition with the same outfit this year. To beat the BFCC record I’ll need a cast of 70 yards – which is a big ask for me with a single handed outfit. I should perhaps point out here that the ISCF and BFCC T38 disciplines differ in that at the BFCC casting is performed on level ground, whereas at the ISCF this event is contested from a raised platform. This makes quite a difference in terms of the trajectories available to the caster and the propensity of the line to ‘tick’ the ground and thus put distance sapping wrinkles in the fly-leg.
Over the last decade or so of competition casting I really haven’t put that much time into practicing with the T38. I suspect this is because the tackle used is so far away from anything I’d fish with, so I’ve not really been that motivated to perfect it. However, it is one of the events that counts towards the BFCC championship, therefore I feel I should make an effort. Now I have started practicing with it I can see how certain aspects, particularly the delivery, will help with other outfits also. I’m progressing reasonably well towards my goals; today I hit 4 casts over 200ft and my PB (set only a few days ago) is a few inches short of 69 yards. Considering my best in a BFCC competition last year was 179ft I’m quite pleased with where I’m currently at. That said, there needs to be a considerable wind assistance for me to get anywhere near 200ft which we rarely seem to get at BFCC events.
Incidentally, the T38 is currently the only BFCC record that Tracy doesn’t hold. It’s fair to say that in years past Tracy has confessed to hating the event and she hasn’t been anywhere near to the 165ft women’s best held by Lisa Isles for over a decade (set at the same event as my best ever result – the day after I returned from a saltwater trip where I’d been chucking a #12 outfit for GTs). However Tracy has also decided to do some practice with the T38, so we’ll see if this pays off with some improved competition results during the year.
I hope your hangovers have all dissipated,
Happy New Year, James (and Tracy).