Tracy&James | Wednesday, 3 June 2026
The River Dee didn't really play ball for Chris and Nick's visit to North Wales at the weekend. Although the level was good and the weather was nice I had a slight sinking feeling when we turned up to the beat to see very little in the way of fly life and nothing rising. I will admit that where we fished wasn't my first choice, as when we arrived there, another angler was making his way across the field to the river. I didn't feel it was appropriate for the four of us to join him, even though it was quite a long beat, so we got back in the car and went elsewhere. I probably need to confess it was my fault we were a little late; the previous evening was quite heavy on the red wine and this led on to competitive knot testing which continued until about 2am. Thus when my alarm went in readiness for getting out of the house at 8am I ignored it in favour of another half hour or so of recovery time. Nick and Chris were, of course, ready for the allotted time, but then had to wait for me to have a coffee etc.
Nick's previous job, before teaming up with Paul for uber casting instruction, required a safety-led approach to getting things done; he brought this methodology to the evening's knot testing arena with the introduction of 'safety-socks'. Obviously these usually protect the feet from their usual hazards: cold, rubs from shoes, badgers etc., however they can also be deployed on the hands in the case of drunken knot testing, to prevent the monofilament from digging into the skin. It didn't help him win in the competition though, with his chosen knot going down to the J-knot tied by myself (the same result as obtained in my Instron tests a few years back).
Between the four of us we did manage to catch four fish, two on deep nymphs, one on a streamer and one on a dry fly, so things could have been a lot worse. With not much happening we decided to cut things short and go off to Foxon's in Llangollen, a game fishing shop. Nick, being probably the biggest tackle tart I know, was remarkably restrained with his credit card – although he was seriously considering splashing out £120 for a stick at one point. After a very quick coffee in the nearby cafe, there was a mad dash home in order to meet Mark and get him logged into the WiFi so he could take part in the FFI discussion on rod and anchor loading. Judging by his face afterwards and his immediate requirement for beer, I'm guessing he enjoyed the debate!
The next day (Sunday) was the first BFCC meeting of the year in Dodleston. For some reason the turn-out for instruction was very low, so there were more instructors than learners. We can't quite figure out what is going on with regards to attendance at BFCC events lately. At venues where there used to be maybe 10 or so people wanting instruction, we're now getting very few attendees. I don't believe this is because everyone in the area are now a great fly casters who don't need any more help, there must be other reasons.
As far as the casting competitions went, there was a small but very competitive turnout. The wind was a little variable, so some events were cast in still, heavy conditions, whilst others had a really helpful wind. This contributed to both Tracy and myself casting the ST27 further than the T38, so I'm not sure if Tracy has locked in the improvements, that I noted in last week's FP, or not. I marked Nick in his #5 weight session and was fairly certain that his 134ft effort would win. As such, I was pretty pleased to stick one past him at 137ft – by far my longest cast of the year, including my practice sessions. Tracy also did well, breaking the women's record with a cast of 124ft. Nick got revenge in the #7 trout distance where he beat me by a clear 6ft, that said his cast wasn't long enough to win – this was taken by Howard who is one of the BFCC's most improved casters, showing exactly what turning up regularly for tuition can do for your casting.
This weekend Tracy and I are meeting up with Chris and Nick again for the Northern Country Sports Show at the Great Yorkshire show ground. Nick and Chris will be giving casting instruction, Tracy will be running some sort of competition (to be determined) and I'll be drinking red wine whilst wearing safety socks.
Hope you're having a great week,
James.