Tracy&James | Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Several records were won last weekend at the Cheshire BFCC event. Steve took the S55g record from James, so adding to his success from earlier in the year at the UK Champs where he took the S55g title. Then Nick beat Bart's #5 record, adding to his win at last year's Game Fair Champs. Also Stuart took the S55g S60 (senior aged 60+) record from Stewart.
Both cast well over the seven events that we run at a BFCC meeting, however when the data was entered into the computer, James won the day as the overall winner. We were surprised, and pleased, as James has been struggling with getting back into distance and accuracy casting whilst his right hand is healing. He's still not fully recovered, but due to the support of the other competitors who helped with 'thicker' rod handles that he could hold more easily, he was able to enter all the events and cast a mixture of left and right handed. He was, of course, frustrated at being injured on such a good day for distance, especially as these days are few and far between at BFCC events.
One of the interesting aspects of having a left handed competitor is that the lanes are typically set up for right-handed folk and as such this puts the lefties at a disadvantage. For future events, we intend to consider this more and allow left-handers scope to move the tapes to a more favourable wind direction for them.
We had a good attendance for instruction with Mark as our main (only) instructor and the feedback has been fantastic with several of the attendees sending messages such as 'thank you for such a lovely and informative day. So much practical advice for us to take away and to work on improving our casting.'
Personally, I was pleased with most of my results, but not all. I have started practising more with the T38 and it seems to be helping with my results in not only the T38 but also the ST27 where I extended my women's record. Also my accuracy practice is working too, although I can regularly score over 50 on our practice area in front of our house, I haven't yet done this in the comps. However currently my 5# and #7 comp results are not comparable with my practice, so I evidently need more work here on my comp tactics. My best cast on the day was with the S55 outfit, improving my record to 194 feet – my next target is joining the exclusive 200ft + club. We have a new T120 line from Steve and have been practising with it today, I found my distances were better and James did some very long casts. I also tried a new stance, open rather than my usual closed, and this is helping with my technique too.
Our next BFCC meeting isn't until August as we are running casting competitions in two country fairs during July. The first in Perthshire Scotland during the first weekend and the second in Warwickshire England over the last weekend. The comps involve only accuracy, trout distance and S55g, however we intend to run a Spey comp in Scotland too. These are open to anyone to enter and with the first three events, casters combine their results into an overall championship. This means that you need to be good at all three events to win.
At the weekend, I also went river fishing for the first time this year and although it was only for a few hours, I enjoyed catching some grayling and a small brownie. We went with Mark and Chris and James mainly guided us as he wasn't sure about casting. It was a lovely way to spend the evening. Hopefully we'll get the chance to go again soon, though it might be in Scotland.
Whatever you are doing this week, enjoy and tight-lines,
Tracy