Tracy&James | Wednesday, 30 September 2026
This is my final plug for the BFCC fly casting day that's being held this Sunday at Bentley Cricket Ground (near Brentwood) Essex. As usual there will be a number of top notch instructors attending who will tutor anyone from absolute beginners to advanced casters preparing for their own instructor examinations. Meanwhile, Tracy and myself will be helping to run the competition events where the British (open) championships will be decided. Whilst the Seniors championship (65 and over) has scores carried over from all the events of the year, the Overall championship will be reset to zero so everyone who casts has an equal chance to win. I should point out that it is also possible to win the seniors, currently John Reynolds is leading the way – but this could all change on Sunday.
Unfortunately we're two competitive casters down, Nick is suffering from tennis elbow (brought about by doing too much practice with a heavy outfit), and Tracy who has issues with her wrist. Tracy saw a doctor this week to look at the lump that appeared maybe a year back, but has become increasingly painful in the last couple of months. She assumed it was a ganglion but the doctor thinks it's too hard so has ordered up some further tests, starting with an X-ray. Although she can fish with light outfits, it's unlikely that she'll be competing in the accuracy (in my view, the most stressful of the events) or the T38. She might do the others though, depending on how she feels on the day.
What's fairly unique about the BFCC competitions is that the competitors can choose the order in which they cast the distance disciplines. Things kick off with the trout accuracy event which everyone does in turn, then a decision is made to either cast the 'heavy gear' – the T38, S55 and T120 or the 'lighter gear' – the #5 and #7 trout distance and ST27. These two groups of events are either cast in the pre-lunch spot or in the afternoon, depending on the weather forecast (with the intention that if the wind strength is changing during the day, the heavier outfits will be cast at the highest wind speed). If there's no change in the wind forecast then the default position is that the heavier gear is cast first. However, within the groups of three disciplines, the individual decides which outfit to use in which order. So each caster gets three time slots in the morning and three in the afternoon to cast the six distance events in an order that suits them best. After everyone is finished the results are entered into a spreadsheet, along with the accuracy results from earlier, and the overall winner is determined on the usual percentage system.
Tracy and I have been to the River Dee a few times this week. The grayling are looking to pack on weight before the winter and are avidly feeding and perhaps starting to shoal up. We've picked the warmest days of the week to go and we've found rising fish on each occasion. I'm not actually sure what they are rising to take because whatever it is, it's too small for me to see. How I tackle such situations is to pick out the smallest flies in my box, these are all typically drab colours such as brown or black. My thinking is that if I can't see what the fish are taking, then if I also can't see the fly I'm fishing then I must be matching the hatch! Anyway, this seems to work for me although I do find myself striking quite a lot as fish rise somewhere in the vicinity of where I think the fly should be.
Hopefully we'll be back on the river some time this week before heading down on the long drive to Essex for the BFCC day. We're looking to make the most of the dry fly fishing before we resort to euro-nymphing. Hopefully we'll see some loopers in Essex – and may the best caster on the day prevail.
Hope you're having a great week,
James