Tracy&James | Wednesday, 4 March 2026
Tracy and I are not long back from our trip to Spain to compete in the 'Master De Lanzado A Mosca' casting event organised by the CNL (Comision Nacional De Lanzado). We had a really great weekend, made even better by the weather – in contrast to the rain, snow and hail of last year we had lovely warm sunshine. In fact it was the first time this year that I've cast in just a T-shirt, that said most of the Spanish casters were still wearing thick coats and hats, so I guess our definition of 'warm' differs considerably.
After some morning sight seeing and a leisurely lunch in Guadalajara on the Friday we were invited to a presentation 'evening' at the Fly Centre in the outskirts of Madrid. When I messaged to say we were heading over I was corrected regarding the time – apparently in Spain anything up to 9pm is the afternoon no matter how dark it is. Unfortunately we got delayed in the afternoon rush hour traffic on the A2 and didn't arrive in time for the presentations, but we did get there for cheese and wine and socialising outside of the tackle shop. After picking up some fly tying supplies and some big streamer flies (hopefully for chucking at cudas and sharks in a few weeks) we headed back to Guadalajara for a couple of beers and an early(ish) night before the casting competition the next day.
After some warm-up time, the competition events got underway with the #5 trout distance event. Fortunately there was a nice consistent breeze blowing down the casting court so everyone cast in very similar conditions. This produced a very tight result with the top four casters covered by less than one metre. Tracy cast great recording a 35.6m cast (with the MED line that she doesn't really like) and just missed out on the final by a metre. Ultimately it was Montxo that took the win after an equally tight final later on in the afternoon.
Next up was the ST27. Again the results were extremely tight despite competitors using different head length lines. Considering the men were falling short of the 50m mark, Tracy's qualifying cast of 47m was, to me anyway, the cast of the day – putting her in 4th position overall going into the final. This time Victor prevailed in the final taking a well deserved win.
Then we came to the Lake Distance event, I'll admit I was looking forward to this one the most as it has a unique set of rules that, as far as I know, is only cast once a year at this event. I've written previously about the rules and that last year I went in a different direction to most in my interpretation of the rules (using a DT#8 intermediate line). This year I'd tried a number of options in practice with the help of Steve from Celestial Fly Lines. After a good deal of testing I was confident that I had a better option than the previous year – where I led after qualification and was just pipped into second in the final. I can reveal now that my 'secret' line was a prototype called the 'spearhead' which is essentially a #7 weight floater that is inspired by ST27 shooting head designs. Whilst having beers on Friday afternoon :-), Victor let slip that he too had a great line, a fast sinking #9 weight with a rear bias to the mass. He also mentioned that he was casting this 45m in practice, so I knew the competition was going to be fierce. On the day we both cast our respective lines over 47m (over 150ft) but I won by the narrowest of margins, just 15cm!
Now there are people who don't like rules that leave so much scope for variation in the line, implying that fixing the same line for everyone is a purer form of competition. However, I'm the opposite – I really enjoyed the process of thinking about what would work best for me within the rules, knowing (and maybe hoping) that others may take an entirely different route. I would fully accept being thrashed by superior equipment because I would be learning something at the same time. As it was, the competition rules provided for a really exciting and extremely close result.
Finally the casting was rounded off with the accuracy event. This was tough as we were casting into a low sun, meaning watching the fly over the targets was near impossible. For example, after Tracy had cast I mentioned that, whilst watching from the side of the court, I saw her miss the longest target consistently four times in the same place (long). She was surprised as she thought she was hitting the target every time. Anyway, somehow I managed to take the win in this event, albeit with an uninspiring score, and with it I was awarded the overall win.
That night we joined the other casters for beers and traditional local food – yes the delicious pig's ears made an appearance along with marinaded dog fish. We can't thank the organisers and the competitive casters enough – we're always made to feel so welcome and the hospitality is amazing.
Sunday was spent in central Madrid with Mark, with him guiding us to his favourite eating/drinking spots. This was mostly exceptional apart from perhaps the glass of sherry which he described as having a bouquet of a rotting mullet (I may have embellished that from his actually words, but it's thereabouts). Thanks Mark.
I've actually got work to do this week – I'm not sure how this has happened and I will try and make sure it doesn't happen again. As such, fly tying is delayed until the weekend.
Hope you're having a great week,
James.