Tracy&James | Wednesday, 28 May 2025
The first British Fly Casting Club (BFCC) meeting of the year was held last Saturday in Bath, Somerset. BFCC days offer club members and day visitors the opportunity to have their fly casting tuned guided by a group of very experienced instructors from a number of casting organisations. They provide tuition from complete beginner level through to running mock assessments for potential casting instructors. Tracy and I attend for the side-hustle of casting competitions, where people compete across seven events (or just the ones they want to enter). This was the first time I've competed as a left hander and I chose to carefully select the disciplines I cast.
The first competition event on most BFCC days is the trout accuracy. I didn't cast in this because I simply lack the stamina in my left hand to complete the event. Typically I take around 4 – 4.5 minutes to complete the accuracy course and even right handed I find it more tiring than distance casting as there is very little break where the line isn't being false-cast (unlike for distance, where you can put the rod down if you wish and retrieve to start the next cast). I think if I can put some practice hours in, I may be able to build the muscle strength to allow me to enter this one next time – I won't be accurate though, that will take many, many more hours.
The next event I ducked out of was the T38. Those who have cast this outfit will know exactly why I avoided it, in fact many avoid it with their dominant hand – it's an absolute beast. I suspect this is the competition event that will be the very last for me to come to terms with as a left hander, I can't see me even attempting it in practice for many months. The T120 outfit was dismissed for similar reasons – a 120g (1850gr) sinking shooting head on a 17ft double hander is just too much for me right now. That said it's a potential for the next event as I found I could handle the S55.
The S55 was actually a success for me in Bath – I managed to win it. That said, I did cast it with my normal technique i.e. right handed. The S55 is double handed event with a 15ft rod and a 55g floating shooting head, thus much more like fishing tackle than the T120 (albeit maybe for bigger rivers). I've been told many times that I'm too 'top hand dominant' in this event, but I think these observers are associating my top hand (right) movement with where the power is coming from, whereas I know that isn't the case. So with just my index finger trapping the running line against the upper handle and my other fingers not in contact (because I can't bend them) I still managed a 57m (188ft) cast for first place. Because of this, I'm tempted to try the T120 at the next event.
Next up was the ST27 and another one I avoided. I'd briefly tried aerialising the shortest head I use for this event in the week prior to the BFCC day and it was a bit of a disaster. That said, I had another go after the competition had concluded (which Tracy won incidentally) and there was some semblance of hope. The short head is around 55ft which means a carry of around 70ft on the 10ft rod that we use – although left handed I was never in absolute control, I could keep it in the air for two or three cycles before it collapsed. So again, there's potential for getting a cast off at the next competition.
This then left the two trout distance events, the #5 and the #7. I did as well (or as bad) as I expected with these outfits, 95ft with the #5 and 104ft with the #7 on a day when 120+ft and 130+ft was needed to win the respective comps (well done to Mike H by the way). Now, holding a rod in my left and hauling with the right still feels the most unnatural thing in the world to me right now; I don't know how many hours are needed before it starts to feel a bit more normal but I suspect I'm a long way off. I also know the quality of my loops left a lot to be desired, especially the forward cast where you could drive a car between my fly leg and rod leg. Actually for short casts, maybe up to 50 or 60ft my loops were ok (as one of the instructors mentioned when I had a lesson with them), but things went awry when going for distance. I think loop shaping will be the main focus of my attention of the next couple of weeks – I have some drills which hopefully will help me improve. I also need to look at how my body moves in order to improve my tracking which was pretty awful.
So I've got my work cut out for me over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll see an improvement when I cast against a tape at the next BFCC day in Kent (in under two weeks time).
Have a great week, James.