This is just to let you all know that the BFCC will be at the Kent Game Fair, Detling, Nr Maidstone, Kent on the 24th and 25th March. We will be offering fly casting instruction and casual chats, no competing this time. I will also be standing in for Charles Jardine and doing the fly casting demos, indoors and out.

If you are there pop over for a chat and if we look cold and/or wet my coffee has two sugers.

Mike H

It is with much sadness that I have to record the recent passing of long standing Member, Albert Horne from West Sussex, after a short illness. Due to difficulties with travel he has not attended Meetings recently, however, he will not be forgtten as he is the one with the walking stick in the pictures on the website home page. 

Albert was a great example of casting keeping us going, since he reached the age of 89 years and was fishing up to 2010 and fly tying until 2011 – a great angling ‘innings’. In fact he learned his craft from the famous Lionel Sweet at the age of 7 and, later, greatly enjoyed teaching many anglers as a member of  many fishing-related organisations. From personal experience I know just how keen he was about casting and his knowledge was deep – he will be missed in angling and casting circles.

Albert is survived by daughters Jackie and Elaine and our thoughts reach out to them.

How’s this for a demonstration of dedication to a task, which is above and beyond the call of duty? Whilst on holiday in America with Jan, Roger Miles took time out to take a searching four hour examination set by The Federation of Fly Fishers, which he successfully passed. As a result Roger was promoted from Certified Casting Instructor to Masters Casting Instructor, an achievement which deserves much acclaim from everyone connected to The BFCC. However, Jan’s support must also be given full recognition.

When teaching with his usual enthusiasm in future, I know the BFCC Membership and our visitors will benefit from this success, so thank you in anticipation and well done Roger!

The BFCC 50gm salmon line for our 15ft rod, through  good honest use, had become distinctly ‘tatty’ – but no longer! This came up recently in correspondence with my friend Simon Gawesworth of Rio, who has very kindly donated two Rio 550gr Leviathan shooting heads for me to make a replacement. This extremely generous act will assist future BFCC beginners and improvers, in the lighter double handed salmon class, to make further progress. So, on their behalf, many thanks Simon!!

Hooray, it stopped raining. We had a run of luck with the weather that ran for years. This year our luck changed and we have frozen, been blasted by the remnants of hurricanes, been rained on and had to deal with flying shelters. Were we down hearted? No. We are the BFCC and we always end the day with a smile, even if it is through gritted teeth.

Shenfield has it’s limitations, like a newly sown wicket where we would have liked to cast but the opportunities the pavilion provided more than made up for it. Jan and Jenny providing tea, coffee, a sandwich and a smile was a really nice touch. Thanks girls your efforts were really appreciated.

The gusty sou westerly made deciding which way to set the casting area up a bit of a problem but we got it right at the second attempt. The computer computed a random casting order and everyone swung into action.

Matt Tonkin made the six hour drive up from Devon and walked off with the five weight with a great cast of 121′ 10” 

James Evans had his revenge in the seven weight with a nice 127′ 10”

I was called 122′ in the nine which left me baffled as I had got the whole of the Snowbee XS out of the rod. It was then I discovered that Mike Marshall had not cut 15′ off of two tapes (so that the shooting line on the T38 and T 120 didn’t tangle in it) he had only done it on one and we were reading 15′ short on the nine weight lane! Don’t panic, we have added the missing 15′  to all the nine weights and also to Alex Titov who cast the seven from that lane. Anyway, add the 15′ to the 122′ and we have 137′ 6”. My turn to win something. Tracy Thomas added another Laurel to an already successful year by claiming the women’s 9 weight record with 105′ 10”

Alan Bath had the highest aggregate score (5 + 7) in the B100 of 203′ having hit a fantastic 110′ with his seven. You are getting close to elite Alan, stop practicing.

Before the real tournament gear was thrown Mike Marshall gave a master class because some had never cast them before. God knows what he told them (I was the other end of the field waiting to mark the casts) but when they did start I was having to extend the tapes to get the measurements! In the T38 John Reynolds just fell short of 200′ he is desperate to reach with a winning cast of 192′ 7” . Matt Tonkins first ever cast with the T38 was a massive 185′ 8” and Andrew Bagshaw a very creditable 166′ 5”.

Matt then threw an astonishing 213′  having never cast the T120 before. What distances he could cast if he knew what he was doing is frightening to consider.

We then all moved up to the accuracy area to finish the day with a laugh. The styles varied from hit ’em fast and hard to a more concidered approach to some very idiosyncratic styles. John Reynolds machine gun tactics won the day.

The overall championship was tied between James Evans and Matt Tonkin. Well done guys.

Congratulations to Alan Bath for getting his 35 yrd badge, Wendy Bath for her 25 yrd badge, John Graham for his 30yrd badge and Matt Tonkin for his 55 yrd badge and a very rare and well deserved 70 yrd badge. Turned into an expensive day eh Matt?

Many thanks to Roger Miles, Mark Surtees and Mike Marshall for their continuous all day instructing. Thanks to Tracy and Hannah for keeping the score. Thanks to Wendy for taking everyone’s money so graciously And a big thank you to every one who helped.

We now have someone who understands how to upload pics to the gallery ( David Fisher) and they should be up soon.

See you all next year,

Mike Heritage

 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.

In spite of the forecast for heavy showers, we really were very lucky with the weather with quite long bright spells, a blustery SW breeze and the odd very short shower. However, although the forecast did have an effect on the numbers attending, there was enough interest in our casting tuition to keep the coaches, Mike, Roger and myself quite busy. Wendy and Alan did their usual fine job at the booking table and sufficient funds were raised for the Club’s funds to make it all worthwhile and, also, to make a donation to the English Disabled Fly Fishers for whom the event was run.

It was also good to be able to welcome Members, David Fisher and Vernon Wood for tuition, with Vernon very successful on the Badge front – please see results.

We have been invited again for 2012, so please watch the Calendar.

Many congratulations are due to Tracy for winning the UK Ladies Trout Distance Championship at the CLA Gamefair last weekend. This was achieved through a heats and final system which required a very cool head and consistent performance throughout, in front of a very large audience. However, Tracy’s recent performances in the BFCC B100 events have given us a clue to her potential, which has now been realised in such a high profile competition. Please keep up the good work – the BFCC is proud of you!

I believe that part of the success of Wrexam is it’s facilities. We were all grateful for somewhere to get out of the rain for a while, have a coffee and a sandwich and make use of the tiolets. Although Brentwood is a lovely area with plenty of space it does lack these facilities. If we need a drink it can take half an hour to get there (and then find the Cafe closed) and back.

About three years ago we held our first ‘open day’ event at the nearby Shenfield Cricket Club and they were kind enough to open the pavilion for our use. We have therefore decided to move our flagship event to Shenfield and the pavilion will again be open for our use. We will be able to provide tea, coffee and sandwiches. We will just charge enough to cover the costs. We do need a volunteer or two to help with this so if you know anyone who is willing to make tea and cut a few sandwiches for a few hours please let Mike Marshall know.

We will need to be a bit stricter with regard to safety.  Shenfield is used by the locals for dog walking etc so we neither want to upset them or cause any accidents so please be aware of where your back casts are going.

We will be casting all of our disciplines, including accuracy, and we will again be creating a club champion only this time it won’t involve John Reynolds and I on our knees, in the rain, trying to figure out who had won, provided the laptop doesn’t run out of battery at the vital moment.

Yes, there will be tuition for those that want it but this event is mainly about the competition, so bring it on. Mine is white with two sugers please.

Mike H