Tracy&James | Wednesday, 28 January 2026
In this FP I'm going to get straight to the point immediately: I believe it's time that competitive fly casters ditch the ICSF and set up an alternative to the World Championships under another banner. I wasn't a big fan of the original decision for fly casting to join the ICSF at the competition in Estonia. Incidentally there was zero talk before the vote, or certainly none that I heard, about whether this was the right direction to go in, so no discussion about the pros and cons amongst the casters gathered, before it was put to a show of hands at the team manager's meeting.
I believe the selling point to joining was increased funding and 'legitimacy' offered by being under the ICSF umbrella. In hindsight, after three World Championship cycles since the decision was made, it's clear that these promises haven't come to fruition, and to quote Lee Cummings “we didn’t know we were voting for access to more of ourfunds!!”.
The ICSF team annual fee has now been hiked to 1000 Euros from 600 previously, thus an inflation rate of 66.6% has been applied. Unless they are offering a totally different 'product' then there is simply no justification for such an increase. Now this seems to be where the sport is splitting – funded or large teams probably won't notice this increase. However, for small teams, maybe only one or two casters, that 1000 Euros sits squarely with them. I know for a fact that people are dropping out of competing purely on financial grounds. It's also the case that they've spread the championships to a full week rather than a long weekend, so it seems like the ICSF business model is to sell expensive package holidays with a bit of casting chucked in.
Then it comes to value for money. The fly casting teams are being asked for the same fee as the surf/plug casting teams. Now that may seem fair until you go and look up the calendar on the ICSF site. For the surf/plug casters there are at least a dozen competitions listed, for the fly casters there is one – the World Championship in Vinadio, Italy. So in simple maths, fly casters are paying at least 10 times more per event than the surf/plug competitors – how is that fair?
The result is that fly casters are already voting with their feet. Lee, Angela and family organised the biggest fly casting World Championships to date, with over 120 casters from 20 national teams. It was also the case that Cumbria offered the best value for money for visiting casters. The ICSF could have built on this wave of enthusiasm, but instead decided to treat the teams like a herd of cash cows to be milked, with the result that by the time we got to the last World Championships in Ahus, Sweden, they were down to 9 teams. So, under the umbrella of the ICSF the sport has lost over 50% of its competitive teams. With that in mind, how can we possibly say that the ICSF is good for the sport? It's been an unmitigated disaster.
Now perhaps the ICSF have decided that the amount of competitors in Cumbria was too many, thus have taken a simple economic decision to cut participation by increasing the price? This is the only logic I can apply to what's going on. If they can increase the membership fee by 66% this year then they can do it for the next year and the one after that etc. I hope the competitors in Italy have a good look round to see who's missing and have a think about whether they want to be part of a championship that is pricing out their friends – and we are all friends in the niche world of fly casting.
I truly hope that casters will see that the ICSF is steering us in the direction of an increasingly expensive and exclusive (rather than inclusive) championship. This event will continue to shrink until it ends up finding the best caster who can afford the fees and package holiday they offer. If an alternative is offered though, it is vital that casters and national teams get behind it. The ICSF do not have the exclusive rights to the World Championship title (just ask those who compete at SoR), what makes the title valid is us - the casters!
I'm hoping to get out to to practice for my first competition of the year in Guadalajara Spain this week if it ever stops raining. Incidentally the entry fee to this competition is 20 Euros and the prizes are much better than the ICSF World Championships!
Let's make it happen,
James.