Tracy&James | Sunday, 21 August 2022
Four years waiting, but worth it. The World Champs in Norway was fantastic. Thank you to everyone who organised the event, the location was beautiful and accommodation amazing. It was wonderful to watch all the brilliant casters in all the events.
My travel to Norway was a little stressful and tiring – we were up at 4am to catch a flight, had to spend hours in security at Manchester and eventually landed in Oslo, hoping that all our luggage also arrived. We’d hired a car to drive to Gaustablikk with fellow UK casters and spent some time playing ‘tetris’ as we tried to get all the rod tubes and luggage and us in the car. As I was the smallest person, I took the middle seat crammed in between James and the luggage. A few hours later, we arrived and I was thankful to be able to stretch my back and take in the gorgeous views of the hotel and its surroundings.
After checking in, putting the luggage in our lovely room (we had views of the casting lake, so could already see people practicing), we went straight down to the lake. First to the Spey casting area, with the treacherous pathway and extremely large ants. Then to the other casting area where the trout, sea-trout and salmon overhead distance events would be held. That evening we caught up with the rest of the UK team and other competitors, had a little practice session and an early night.
Day 1 of competition was sea-trout in the morning and salmon overhead in the afternoon. We noted the casting order in the morning; the men first, then women, then seniors. So I had quite a wait, but spent the time photographing the male competitors casting. During the first pairing, I realised that there was a new aspect to the casting session – partway through, the two competitors changed lanes. This was to ensure there was no ‘lane bias’ as observed at previous competitions. As always wind conditions varied throughout the morning, resulting in some casters having favourable winds and others casting into side or head winds. At the end of the men’s qualifying, we had one of our UK members in the final – Kirk who had also just beaten his son Blaine and knocked him out of the finals. This was a great start for the UK team – especially as Kirk was our Captain. My turn came and James supported me; I was told I cast well, however came fifth overall, just out of the finals. As I haven’t cast with women for years, I decided to just cast smoothly and stay calm, as I was curious to see where I came in this field. I was really pleased with the results though could see improvements that I need to make to be more competitive. For the seniors sea-trout final, John Waters qualified in fourth and it was amazing to watch him cast – I think he got the biggest cheers throughout the whole competition.
The morning session over-ran and we had a very quick lunch and then went straight into the Salmon overhead qualifications. Again men, women, seniors order. By this point we were all casting on the other court (there were two casting platforms and competitors could switch at any point during the qualifications as long as the fellow competitor they were paired with also agreed to switch). After a very long men’s qualification, again taking the opportunity to take lots of photos, the 8 finalists were announced and James was in fifth place. He was so pleased with this, as he had come to this competition with a seriously painful case of tennis elbow and wasn’t too sure if he could cast. This was a result of casting too much at the Ragley GF a few weeks earlier.
However he still supported me during the women’s competition where I was first up with Birgit. Again I took to cast smoothly, though my first three casts were out of the lane as the wind was constantly switching so I had to move up and down the lane to work out the best starting point to cast from. After everyone cast, I was in sixth place and had thought there were 6 in the final, as did Whitney who was in fifth place, but we soon found out that due to the numbers entered into the event, only 4 casters would be in the final. So instead, Whitney and I cheered for the four finalists and watched amazing casts from all of them.
Before the ladies final, we had the men’s and James cast with me supporting. All went well for two casts, then the backing line broke and tangled around the rod. It was at this point, I realised that although we had scissors, fluff, etc to deal with any breaks – we didn’t have James’ glasses! So trying to tie a knot was difficult and annoyingly after another cast it broke again. The knot he then tied was close to his carry point so he had to make an unwanted change to his overhang. He then changed lane, but was so flustered by the whole episode that he cast but perhaps not as he would normally do as he was now conscious of the knot. One learning point was that we now know that the time-out would have given me the opportunity to go get his glasses so he could tie a knot and that we didn’t need to rush as we did. Anyway he was really pleased to have been in the final, and we’d never had a line breakage before with this outfit – so this made us realise that perhaps we need to check and change the backing line, especially the bit that gets worn by the tip ring.
The evening of Day 1 involved a lot of drinking, as we were really pleased with our casting and we had a day off competing the next day. This meant that for Day 2, I was feeling a little under the weather. However I still managed to support the only UK member, Trevor, who competed in accuracy, though his disqualification may have been due to how the UK team strip off the line at the start – apparently there was a new rule about this that none of us were aware of. I also managed to support the two UK seniors who competed in the Spey 18 – Harry and Stewart – then cheered on Blaine and Stephen Pugh in the men’s qualifying, but sadly missed Steve Parkes as I went to get a quick lunch, but wasn’t quick enough. None of the men qualified for the final – Blaine was so close though. Initially the seniors were told they wouldn’t have a final so Stewart who qualified fourth put his gear away. By lunchtime we heard that there would be a final, so Stewart got ready for his first Worlds final. He didn’t get in the medals, but he cast beautifully with all the team cheering him on.
Day 3 involved the Trout distance and Spey 15 events. The wind was extremely changeable for both events, again with casters experiencing flat calms, head winds, etc. Blaine qualified in the men’s final and I qualified in the women’s – so it was a good day for the UK team. Again I missed Steve Parkes competing in the Spey 15 as I was competing in the trout distance at the same time. John Waters qualified for the senior’s trout and we all cheered when he won. In the Spey 15, Stephen Pugh qualified for the final and cast smoothly with very consistent distances finishing 6th. Our best UK team result came in the senior’s Spey 15, as Stewart took silver. Well done Stewart, stunning casts.
The evening of Day 3 was as always great fun with lots of drinking and a very late night. It was great to catch up with everyone and meet new people and I am so looking forward with casting with everyone again soon.
Much thanks go to all the organisers, helpers and judges as they were very long days in hot conditions. The boat judges did a sterling job considering how long they actually spent on the water. Also thanks to Captain Kirk as he was always there to support all the UK team and he and Blaine were great in taking photos, being the second to many casters and not just the UK ones, and generally being there to cheer everyone on.
I’m now looking forward to my next competition, albeit I’ll be running it - in Jersey in the Channel Islands (it was really lovely to actually compete and not have to worry about organising anything). It’ll be a fun weekend catching up with friends and going salt water fly fishing on Saturday and casting on Sunday. If you get the chance come along,
