Tracy&James | Sunday, 28 August 2022
Tracy wrote her reflections on the World Fly Casting championships last week, so I thought I would add my comments this week. The first thing I must mention is what a beautiful country Norway is, the countryside views on the three hour drive from Olso airport to Gaustablikk made the painfully cramped conditions in the back of the car worth it. What was noticeable, coming from the dirty streets of the UK, was the almost total lack of litter, even in areas that ‘collect’ rubbish such as urban motorway verges. This suggests to me that the Norwegians love their countryside and wouldn’t contemplate sullying it with the detritus of modern life. I also suspect this is a learned behaviour where litter louts are admonished by society in general, a far cry from the UK where (some) parents not only allow their children to litter, they actually encourage this behaviour by doing it themselves. (Having just come back from Norway I’m perhaps more sensitive to the state of the picnic areas by our local river).
Anyway on to the casting. As always there was an awesome display of casting in all the six events that make up the weekend. Of particular note to me was the women’s competitions (because of my involvement of training with Tracy, not because I’m thinking of changing my name to Janine and entering). At every championship the women’s game seems to ratchet up and now the top performers in each event are right up there with the best of the men. Queen of the single handed events was Maxine McCormick who took a hat-trick of gold medals in the accuracy, trout distance and the ST27. Maxine has dominated the accuracy event since Estonia in 2016 and this time she astonished the assembled casters by recording a perfect score of 80 requiring 16 perfect casts in a row. This world record, and her subsequent final performance, secured the championship and would have been more than enough to take the win in the men’s event also. As an aside, the men’s accuracy gold was won by her father, Glen – so there’s at least two unfeasibly talented casters in the McCormick family. Maxine’s performance in the single handed distance events was no less impressive – her ultra-tight loops during false casting are a pleasure to watch and her line-speed on delivery is awesome. Her final distance achieved with the MED #5 line, 39.5m or 129ft, was up there with the best of the men and would have landed a place in their final. 50.5m (165ft) in the ST27 is also a measure of how she has driven women’s casting onwards and upwards, for context only two men have cast over 165ft at the BFCC since the event was introduced.
The women’s double handed events are also progressing at pace. It used to be that 50m in Salmon Overhead was seen as a benchmark of a great performance (it probably still is) however, in Norway, Tracy did not even make the final with a cast of 51m. Another star of women’s casting, Anna-Karin Wiklund, led the way in qualifying with 59m although she eventually lost out to Tone Matinsen in the final. In the Spey casting there are a number of women knocking on the door of regularly hitting 50m in the 16ft platform event, led by multiple world champion Anita Strand, and I don’t think it will be long before 100m is broken in the combined 15ft discipline, especially with multiple Spey-O-Rama winner Whitney Gould leading the way (the UK team were working hard on poaching Whitney for their team – being born in London must count as eligible surely?).
Another stand-out performer for me was John Waters in the men’s veterans’ class. This was not just for his casting skills but for his willingness to chat and pass on his considerable experience to anyone who wanted it. I have no doubt that John was the most popular caster at the event and the cheer when he picked up his gold medal for winning the trout distance nearly took the roof off the sports bar where the medal ceremonies were held. What I didn’t tell John was that I snuck back on to the casting platform immediately after his final. With a couple of UK team members sat perpendicular to the measuring ropes, thus calling out accurate distances (not what I ‘guessed’ they were from my aspect of looking down the ropes) I proceeded to see if I could beat his winning distance. I gave up after about 15 minutes of falling well short and I can’t blame the weather as it was identical. It just goes to show that technique is key, and John’s technique is impeccable. I will be taking on board everything that John told me about throwing sports and wish him all the best as he embarks on his PhD in bio-mechanics which will no doubt advance fly casting sport even further.
Tomorrow (Friday as I write) I have Nick coming over to go fishing on the Dee. The weather forecast is good and the river level is steady (albeit at its summer low). On Saturday we will also be joined by a couple of others for some casting practice. Nick wants a tune-up in preparation for the Welsh Game Fair, particularly with the salmon outfit, and Callum and Chris are keen to improve their single handed distance. I may start things off with a throwing competition as advised by John.
James
