Tracy&James | Sunday, 28 November 2021
We had planned to go casting today but events transpired against us. I had planned to start a casting experiment to be reported here so I’ll have to save that for another day – hopefully it will be an interesting one but without actually going out and testing I’m not sure if what I’m planning will work. Instead we spent the day shoring up the fences in the garden which had been blown down, or nearly blown down, in the extremely strong winds we’ve had this weekend. When I say we ‘shored up the fences’ I should point out that in terms of practical DiY skills I’m pretty lacking, so actually I watched Tracy’s father do it – although I did hand him all the right tools at precisely the right time when needed.
In hindsight it would have been too windy for all but the heaviest outfits today, i.e. the T38 or T120. Actually, I’ve been working on my T38 a bit lately as I’d like to improve ahead of the next BFCC season. The T38 is the only one of the seven events that are cast at a typical competition day that I haven’t beaten the overall record with in practice. I guess in today’s weather I would have been given an opportunity to get close (I only need to improve by a few feet). I’m also pretty certain the BFCC record was set in a big wind at an open venue that we no longer visit. In fact, it’s one of the oldest records on the books and no one has got even remotely close to it in all the time I’ve been attending events. That said, the T38 is such a specialist event that I suspect very few people practice it, or indeed have an outfit to practice with. A 200 foot cast with this outfit is a seriously high benchmark and that’s what I’m hoping to achieve next year in competition. However, it will probably go the same way as the 130ft #5 weight competition cast that I’m forever chasing (although I did get close a couple of times this year). Next year will be different though.
Have a great week,
James.