Tracy&James | Wednesday, 23 October 2024
James and I spent last weekend in southern France with the Fly Casting Lab (FCL) team at the Dordogne Fly Fishing Festival. We had hoped to fish the River Dordogne however the predicted weather before we travelled indicated lots of rain for most of the time. Plus we had been advised that the river was already high. We landed at Bergerac airport to see the predicted heavy rain, which continued steadily throughout our drive to Argentat. When we had to divert from our planned route due to flooded roads, we knew we definitely wouldn't be fishing. The diversion caused a slight problem for us as we parked trying to work out another route using the sat nav in the hire car and asked for help from several locals. Sadly neither James nor I know any French and the locals we spoke to didn't know any English, so getting clear directions took some time. Thanks to one lovely lady, we managed to work out our route and off we went, driving through some flooded roads (that were only passable due to the fact we were driving an SUV) and then over a mountain on extremely narrow and unlit roads – quite stressful and treacherous when driving on the opposite side to what we're used to.
We arrived over an hour later than planned, but thankfully our landlady had waited for us and provided us with red wine and chocolate to recover. Our accommodation was a beautiful cottage on the banks of the Dordogne river, which was within walking distance to the show. Once we'd recovered from the drive and finished the wine, we met members of the Fly Casting Lab in a fantastic pub within walking distance for more drinks. We also joined them for breakfast in the morning and then spent the day casting and dodging the rain showers. The guys looked after us for the whole weekend and we enjoyed eating, drinking and casting with them and the other exhibitors. Mark Surtees joined us on the Friday and spent his time coaching trainee instructors and instructing beginners and improvers – so he had a great time.
On Saturday we spent the day at the show that had a great range of stalls selling fly fishing rods, clothes, holidays, etc. and an extensive range of fly tying gear. Even with our pathetic lack of French, everyone was so friendly and we managed to chat to many people, with frequent use of the translation apps on our phones. The FCL guys provided several demos during the day, inside due to the weather, before holding an indoor distance casting event. It was interesting casting on a red carpet with basketball hoops and curtains nearby – for me it was bizarre and my casting showed it as I cast pretty badly and not how I normally would. Analysis from Mark, James and Aitor after the comp helped me to work out what I did wrong, or rather they pointed out all the many errors I had made. A little embarrassing as there was quite an audience and I was the only female caster. The concept of the competition was that everyone cast with the same 5# MED line but could use their own rods. This resulted in a problem as after only a few casters the line was 'twisting' and resulted in a tangle that took ages to undo. Thankfully Jerome had another line so we could continue the comp, though we ensured the line was stretched in regularly. In the end the first person who cast won, Dylan with the other key members of the FCL in runner up places – Jerome, Francois and Laurent.
Dylan was presented with a magnum of Champagne, which he quickly opened and everyone had a glass or two to celebrate. The top four casters also won Celestial fly lines kindly donated by Steve. The rest of the evening involved more drinking, some lovely paella and cheeses and of course lots more indoor casting with an array of rods and lines.
On Sunday the weather improved considerably and we were able to enjoy the scenery whilst having breakfast sitting outside the cottage. The day's casting comp was outside the show on a rugby field and there was plenty of time to practise around the event – an unusual but lovely situation for me to not need to run anything so I was able to find a quiet area and go through my practice techniques. This involves casting non-hauled, back casting and PULDs – however the grass on the field wasn't the best to do the latter with 'clean' loops. This did work as I managed to compete with a reasonably good score compared to the rest of the competitors. James however found the conditions difficult and I was surprised to see him exhausted and sweating profusely after the 4-minute session. Most casters during the competition had head-winds during their session as the winds were light and swirly – so it seemed like a typical BFCC day! The ethos of the comp was friendly and fun and to encourage everyone to have a go. I was very impressed when a young girl who had just a lesson entered the comp and was cheered on and supported by the organisers. They presented her with prizes and I hope she continues practising and comes back next year to compete again. There were many ladies who took up the free lessons and one of them definitely agreed to come back next year to compete too. It was great to see so many young people getting involved in the distance comps and learning to be instructors. The FCL have a brilliant approach and I hope this continues.
The finals of the outdoor competition involved a shoot-out in pairs of the top four casters – this was a great format and watching the casting from the grandstand meant that we all had brilliant views of both the back and forward casts. The winners from the two shoot-outs then competed for the overall win, whereas the bottom two competed for third place. All the shoot-outs were extremely close with only around 20-30cms in between the casts. The winner was Jerome, who won last year, with Albano from Spain a close second.
As we had an early start to get to the airport for our flight home, we spent the evening sitting by the cottage eating local French meats and cheeses with a little bit of wine, plus exquisite cakes from a local patisserie. As we watched the river, we spotted several rises, probably from grayling, though they were on the other side of a very large river so we wouldn't have been able to cast to them. This was typical of our luck, as the rest of the week the weather was improving and the river level dropping, so fishing would have been possible. The rest of the casters went out drinking to celebrate, and we were really sorry we had to miss the fun. Next year I might organise a longer stay so that we can have more opportunity to go fishing, go socialising with the other casters and perhaps for me, get some practice casting on an indoor carpet in a sports hall rather than do it for the first time in front of an audience!
Whatever you are doing this week, enjoy and tight-lines,
Cheers
Tracy