Rickard Gustafsson | Saturday, 22 August 2026
I posted a bit about the Swedish nationals in the last FP. Even if I was a mess and a disaster, or as I use to ask Paul; how does it feel to coach a moron? I ended up doing quite good.
I started by getting on the plane in the front of the plane when my seat was in the last row. The sitting down in the wrong seat on the wrong side. So a flight attendant came with some confused passengers and asked me if I was sure I was in the correct seat.
On the competition day I did show up to the arena without the reel bag. It was left at the hotel. So nothing do but go back and get it. Finally back with all the equipment I started to warmup. Looking at the leader and trying to figure out if the leader was damaged or not. If it could get me into trouble. So I decided to switch after a thorough warm up with the first attached. Then I popped in the AirPods to continue the warmup. Suddenly someone comes poking me “they are waiting for you”. Good start of that round. I didn’t make it to the final. But close, right below the cut.
After accuracy I started to prepare for trout distance. Which didn’t feel great. So I started to switch back and forth between the line I had used for practice and the one I had intended to use for the competition. Couldn’t come to any conclusion. A bit different leaders on them and none felt quite right. I had my AirPods in and casting on the court that we should use for the competition. There I was testing lines when someone asks me are you ready? Apparently I was first out and in the correct lane. So which line to use was decided for me. The conditions weren’t the easiest. We were only three casters sticking it past 36 meters.
In the final the story almost repeated. A messed up leader made the decision for me then. In this competition only the top three casters made it to the final. Me, Seppo and Magnus Hedman. So three out of eight casters from the final in the 2024 WCs.
Next up was salmon distance. Something I’ve casted by signing up for the event in competitions and borrowing gear when getting there. This time I had my own rod, bought it a couple of days before the competition. Borrowed a line this time.
By casting salmon in a few competitions I’ve started to figure it out. I ended up winning the qualifier with a cast that was 7 centimeters longer than Magnus Hedman. 52.71 for me and 52.64 for Magnus. Magnus ended up as a winner with 53.01 and I second with 52.64.
That was it for competitions for the first day. I ended the day strongly by almost putting deodorant on my toothbrush. It took me a couple of seconds to figure out what was wrong there. I had the bottle opened, felt that something was wrong but it didn’t click at once what was wrong.
The second day was just seatrout distance. No need to talk more about that. But there is a saying, every day you don’t have to cast seatrout distance is a good day.
I good some analysis and fixes of my seatrout technique by Seppo after the competition so now it is starting to feel better. Watch out.
The competition was hosted by the club Storöringens Fiskeklubb. They did a fantastic job. An arrangement worthy a World Championships! Multiple disciplines going on at the same time. Everything just working. Everything following the schedule. We got extremely lucky with the weather also. The forecast said heavy rain the whole weekend. But both days the rain stoped right when the competitions started.
This year Sweden arranged the nationals for parasport in casting sport. What a fantastic gang that showed up there! Pure joy to be there and compete. So proud to be competing and cheering on the other competitors when they did cast.
My suitcase is still half packed so hopefully packing tomorrow will go smoothly. Just to put some shooting line on the salmon reel, add the line, tie some leaders, maybe tie some accuracy flies, change shooting line on one of the MEDs. Meet Paul. It’s going to be a busy day.
Cheers Rickard
