Tracy&James | Sunday, 21 January 2024
Following on from James' FP last week, there has been lots of discussion about costs and resources required to run fly casting competitions. I have found this very interesting as one of the key members of the British Fly Casting Club, BFCC. We run several one-day fly casting competitions during each year and charge competitors minimal fees as the BFCC pays for the venues and we use volunteers from the Club to run the competition events. We run an open championship throughout the year for any competitors who enter at two or more BFCC meetings. The 2023 winner was Bart De Zwaan from the Netherlands. Casters can also claim records and they only need to be a BFCC member and not necessarily British. We have found that this sort of approach encourages international entrants and over last few years we had casters from the Netherlands, Spain, France, and Switzerland.
We also run casting comps at three Game Fairs (GF) in the UK and whereas the venue and pontoons we use are paid for by the GF company, we still use volunteers to run the events. They get free entry to the fair and a free camping pitch if they require it (I'd recommend it for the evening drinking and casting). Also, the overall winner of the three GFs receives a gorgeous trophy. It's currently on my mantle piece as James won it in 2023 (the overall competition comprises of three disciplines – trout accuracy, #5 trout distance and S55 salmon distance).
We also run and compete in virtual casting competitions – currently we regularly support the Geelong Overrunners, organised by Chris Baty, and they routinely enter the BFCC competitions virtually. There are plans this year for a competition between the two clubs – a sort of 'ashes' for fly casting, we're still working on the details of how exactly this will work.
Most of our activities are conscious of people's availability and hence we run them over the weekends. So the latest dates for the WC in Sweden surprised me, as it would mean that James and I would need a week's leave to attend. As I haven't seen a detailed agenda, I can't even work out if I could get away with attending fewer days as I would only compete in 3, or maybe 4, of the 6 events. However sadly this isn't something I need to focus on as the participation fee has priced us out of attending. Paul thinks there maybe some 'movement' on this fee by the WC organisers, but who knows.
So rather than allowing my disappointment about not attending to cloud my casting year, James and I have decided to focus on what other events we can attend. So currently we have three GFs in the UK (Welsh June 8-9, Scottish July 5-7 and English July 26-28) and a Spanish event provisionally scheduled for the 21st July. I will soon organise the six BFCC meetings starting with Cheshire probably in March and ending with Essex in October. I am aware that there may also be events in the Netherlands and France, so it could be that we collectively run some sort of European 'round robin' championship.
Whatever happens with the WC, good luck to all those who are planning on attending any of the fly casting comps during 2024 and James and I hope to catch up with you all at some point.
Cheers
Tracy