The BFCC made its first and very successful visit to Scotland. YES, it was wet all day long and YES, a gusty southwest wind caused a few casting problems, but did it dampen the enthusiasm of twenty hardy casters – NO! It was good to see new friends joining in all the tuition and fun competitions for the first time, with B100 very popular. The results in ft. and ins. were:

#5 F – Hamish Young 110.09, William McGuire 109.06, Tomas Bacsai 108.10, Scott Loudon 107.01, Ben Dixon 104.10, James Hek (jnr) 104.07, Mike Heritage 103.11, James Evans 102.02, Brian McGlashan 102.04, Mick Bell 101.05, Malcomb Prescott 100.11, Craig Brown 97.02, John Reynolds 96.05, Billy Salvona 90.02, Alberto Laidlaw 86.05, Tracy Thomas 78.06, Brian Pritchard 77.07, Angus McLeod 77.04, Alex Cruickshank 73.03, Mike Barrio 66.03, Ally Bremner 60.01.

#7F – John Reynolds 123.00, James Evans 111.06, James Hek (jnr) 102.02, Ben Dixon 100.10, William McGuire 97.09, Mick Bell 94.04, Hamish Young 93.06, Mike Heritage 92.06, Malcomb Prescott 86.01, Scott Loudon 84.07, Tomas Bacsai 84.06, Brian McGlashan 82.09, Craig Brown 81.00, Billy Salvona 77.08, Tracy Thomas 72.03, Mike Barrio 65.08, Alberto Laidlaw 65.06, Brian Pritchard 62.04, Alex Cruickshank 59.00, Angus McCleod 52.11, Ally Bremner 47.08.

B100 #5 + #7 – Hamish Young 201.03, Malcomb Prescott 187.09 Brian McGlashan 185.01, Craig Brown 187.02, Billie Salvona 167.01 Tracy Thomas 150.09, Brian Pritchard 142.11, Alex Cruickshank 132.03, Angus McCleod 138.03, Mike Barrio 131.11, Malcomb Campbell109.04, Ally Bremner 107.09.

#9F – John Reynolds 138.00, Wiliam McGuire 138.00, Mike Heritage 137.05, Mick Bell 137.03, Hamish Young 127.03, James Evans 127.00, Scott Loudon 126.09, Craig Brown 126.02, Brian McGlashan 122.00, Ben Dixon 121.11 James Hek (jnr) 121.01, Tomas Bacsai 113.03, Malcomb Prescott 106.06, Mike Barrio 105.05, Brian Pritchard 105.01, Alberto Laidlaw 104.00, Tracy Thomas 99.07, Billie Salvona 92.01, Alex Cruickshank 94.04, Malcomb Campbell 92.01.

T38 – Mick Bell 189.01, John Reynolds 159.11, James Evans 147.11, James Hek (jnr) 143.09, Ben Dixon 142.00, William McGuire 140.08, Hamish Young 136.04, Scott Loudon 134.05, Malcomb Prescott 106.00.

T120 – Mike Marshall 212.00, Malcomb Presott 189.05, Mick Bell 187.01, Ben Dixon 186.10, Scott Loudon 186.06, Brian Pritchard 168.11, James Evans 157.00, Ally Bremner 122.07.

Congratulations are also due to James Hek for setting a Junior 17,  T38 Record of 143.09, also to Mike Barrio and Hamish Young for achieving 35yd Badges.

 Ah, technology is a wonderful thing. I missed a couple of important things in my report so you will have to read it all again to see what they were!

Welcome to Scotland was the sign I spotted through eyes slitted against the wind and rain as the remnants of hurricane Katrina started to make it’s presence felt. Great weather for fly casting. Not.

They breed them hardy north of the border. Hardly anyone who had pre booked the day failed to turn up and we a had a few who just turned up just for the craic. Thank you all for coming. On a personal note it was great catching up with old friends I usually only get to see once a year. I use the term friends loosely because they are mainly trying beat me and as I look down the result sheet I see most of them did so they went home happy. Make the most of it boys, it won’t happen again!

The BFCC had been invited by the Alberto Laidlaw and the Glasgow Casting Club to hold an event at the Lochinch Police Club in the Pollock Country Park in the middle of Glasgow. The facilities were great and it was certainly nice to have somewhere warm and dry where we could have a coffee and sandwich. The lounge was on the first floor with a huge window so that we could look down on the casting area, not that we had much time for it because we had twenty three casters who competed and with five events to get through we needed all the time we had.

The weather meant we were not going to see any really big casts but there were some very impressive ones none-the-less. Two stand out. Hamish Young casting in the B100 beat every one (including us so called elites) in the five weight with a fantastic 110′ 9”. Hamish, you are now officially Elite. Hamish also won the B100 class outright. He was run close in the five weight by William Mcguire and Tamas Bascali. The other one was canny old Mike Marshall who only cast in the T120 and put one out with his usual aplomb to 212′, streets ahead of anyone else.

The seven weight contest was really strange, some of us cast it less than the five. However John Reynolds did show us how it should be done with a cast of 123′ and James Evans had a nice 111’6”. Most of the rest of us didn’t even break the 100′ barrier. Very odd.

Things started to improve when we got the nine weights going, several of us got over 130′. However there was a dead heat for first place (which is an unusual event) with our own John Reynolds and Scotlands William Mcguire hitting a very respectable 138′ which tied for first place.

Mick Bell turned up trumps with 189′ 1” in the T38. James Hek is someone to watch for the future as he cast a new J17 record of 143′ 9”. That is a mighty cast for a fifteen year old, well done.

Also to be congratulated for achieving their 35yrd badges are Hamish Young and Mike Barrio, again, well done guys.

There was some potentially outstanding talent on display. It was such a pity that the weather didn’t allow them to shine.

I have a few thank yous that deserve a mention in dispatches, Alberto Laidlaw for the venue and the organisation. Mike Marshall for his tireless efforts in getting us all up there and driving up with all the BFCC paraphernalia. Tracy Thomas for keeping the score and us in order. John Reynolds for showing us some decent casting and, despite a bad hip, staying out in whatever the weather could throw at us to mark the distances. Will Shaw for his efforts in the field. Ally Bremner ditto, and not being a bloke ( which took me by surprise, I thought Ally was a mans name, especially in Scotland) and Roger Miles for keeping up our instructing arm.

I know I have missed names, I’m sorry, so let me just thank everyone who turned up on a not very nice day and made it a superb day.

The grapevine has it that the venue has already been re-booked for next year.

Look out for a write up in FF&FT some time soon by their roving reporter and ace caster Ben Dixon, who also had the camera out, so we might get some photos as well.

From a finally dried out

Mike H

2011 has become a very good vintage where our casting coaches are concerned, since there are two more examination successes maturing from the recent Federation of Fly Fishers Meeting in Essex, to report.

Mark Surtees, who was an FFF Certified Casting Instructor – CCI, was promoted to Masters CCI and Steve Yeomans achieved his CCI. These qualifications require great dedication to aquire, so Mark and Steve deserve our congratulations and gratitude since their efforts will, eventually, benefit The BFCC Membership. Many thanks to you both for further raising our standards.