Rickard Gustafsson | Saturday, 15 August 2026
The alarm went off at 4:20 this morning. Get up, brush teeth, say goodbye to Minna and Ronja, carry all the bags down to the taxi and off to the airport. Had to get a taxi to save a lot of time, a little while ago it would’ve meant to save just a little time because then I was lucky to have the airport shuttle passing right outside of my door. And a bit early to ask Minna to drive me. So now I’m in the metropol Örnsköldsvik to participate in the Swedish nationals and next weekend I’ll fly to Italy for the World Championships. Feels like I will just be home to unpack and pack the bags again.
I thought it would take much less time to pack for the competition than it actually did. Tie some spare leaders, unpack everything not needed from the reel bag, making a travel tube for the salmon rod takes more time than expected. One week ago I decided it was time to get my own kit for salmon distance instead of running around at the competition to find a kit to borrow. So now I have the rod, but no line and reel yet. The line is stuck at customs. So I will borrow those things this time and plan to have that sorted when I’m going to Italy. So now that I have a salmon rod it means that I travel with one extra bag. Earlier I could fit all rods in my suitcase. I should also find a new reel bag. The one I have is great, but it is too big. It feels like it takes up half of the suitcase. And it would be neat to have one reel bag for my competition kit. Packed and ready to go.
The first time I did cast salmon distance was at the WCs 2024 in Sweden. I entered the salmon distance event because Paul told me to do so. Something along the lines of “I always enter all of the overhead events and borrow equipment for those disciplines I don’t have”. Since then I have casted salmon a couple of more times and find it quite fun so it will be fun to be able to practice the discipline a bit and figure out how to use both hands when casting. Maybe even start with Spey casting in the future.
This evening we will have our first get-together with the new Swedish head coach of the fly casting and casting sport team. The team will get an introduction to Niklas and what’s happening in the future. So I’m working on a presentation for that also. I’m feeling a bit lost on that point as I have been super busy with work related stuff right up to the day where we went on vacation and since then everything is a bit in a haze.
I hope the weather will be better at the competition than the forecast. Being outside all day in rain takes a bit of the fun out of the competition. For some reason people become a bit less talkative when they are cold from the rain. Or maybe that’s just me.
So now I have improved my situation. I went and bought a pair of reasonably nimble shoes that are waterproof/water resistant. That will make things better. Now a work meeting and then it is time to go to the competition area and check it out and prepare for the meeting with the casters.
Second update. Now I’ve seen the field we will use tomorrow. I missed to take a picture when the whole court was setup. This time we will have an arrangement suiting the nationals!
And my new casting shoes work well.
Cheers, Rickard