Prototype Line Testing

I've written many times here about the 'SA MED only' rules in the trout distance event at the World Championships – I can see its merits, but I can also see its downsides. At the BFCC there is no such rule, as such casters can select any commercially available, unmodified and AFFTA weight compliant line (i.e. no prototypes, no home-made 'specials' etc.). The BFCC rules have been updated along the years, for example trout distance lines have to be a minimum of 90ft in length (to avoid a manufacturer making a double taper, for example, that could be aerialised as a shooting head). Also lines have to have the fattest part within the first 30ft that is weighed against the AFFTA scale, this prevents a manufacturer from making an extended triangle type taper where the bulk of the mass is behind the bit that gets weighed.

This still leaves plenty of scope for development though; head length, front taper, rear taper, core, coatings etc. What is very apparent from my own casting and watching that of many others, is that the MED, although a truly great line, is not necessarily the best choice in all weather conditions for all people. It's great therefore that at the BFCC the casters have the option to chose what suits them best on any given day, and which caster doesn't like a bag full of lines to deliberate over. That said, over the last few years just 3 or 4 lines have dominated the Trout Distance events (#5 and #7) at the BFCC. I suspect that number is going to increase once the final version of the line that Tracy and I have been testing is released by Steve at Celestial. Our tests both showed the exact same trend – one of the prototypes was distinctly better than the others (they were all good though). We confirmed this by casting on different days (but always in a following wind as this line is designed for conditions when aerialising 85ft plus of a MED becomes difficult), so we're pretty confident that the line is great, or it is in our opinion anyway.

That said, opinions do vary. A while back Steve asked myself to test a new T120 line that he was developing for event 6 at ICSF competitions. A few of us chucked this line about after the Dodleston BFCC event, unfortunately after the tapes had been wound in and without the typical handling line behind the head which helps enormously with the grip. We all agreed that it was going really well, better than the barstool line that we'd all just cast in the competition. I was therefore looking forward to testing a properly configured line in the same conditions on my local casting pitch (Tracy and I store the BFCC rods in between events, so I'm in an advantageous position to practice with them). It wasn't too long after Dodleston that the weather forecast was for a similar wind, thus I headed out for some testing. It's fair to say that I was blown away with the difference in the Celestial T120 line in comparison to the barstool. In fact I ran out of room on my field, where the wind was blowing diagonally across the football pitch, and ended up carefully pulling the line down from the branches of a tree that I measured was 240ft from my casting position. Anyway, I was anticipating that the ISCF casters that were also chosen to test the line would have a similar experience. This wasn't to be though, in fact the consensus was that they didn't like the line at all and wanted a taper more like the barstool. I have no real explanation for this, however if anyone wants to try it out for themselves both lines will be available for comparison at all future BFCC events. I know for certain which one I'll be selecting for the competition though.

Hope you're having a great week,

James.