The BFCC had tried to arrange a meeting in NW England without success, so it was with a certain amount of anxiety that NE Wales was planned, however, I need not have worried and Wrexham turned out to be a great success. As you will see from Alex’s photographs, to be published soon by Mike, even at 10am we had a good group present, which was later to expand as more as people arrived, having driven long distances. In fact, looking at the bookings they came from Lancashire, Norfolk, London, Hampshire, the Midlands, South Wales as well as more locally, which demonstrated much dedication to the cause of good casting.

It was also a great pleasure to welcome, in person, eleven new Members to the Club, who were as keen as mustard to learn new skills. They were not disappointed and took full advantage of their right to free tuition provided by the BFCC coaches, which took the form of short sessions throughout the day.

The day started with a brief demonstration by yours truly, particularly emphasising casting style, backcasting and minimal effort, while achieving a good distance. We then broke up into small groups with each of four coaches, where tuition aimed at individual requirements took place, and it was interesting to see the mixing of near beginners with comparative experts. Suffice to say that it worked brilliantly and everyone improved dramatically – the Welsh air perhaps? Following this there were further short sessions throughout the day.

We then went into ‘have a go for gold’ badge mode and several casters had improved sufficiently to achieve the following: 25 yards – John Lomas, Edward Pugh. 30 yards – Dudley Savva, Andrew Parker, Peter Taylor, Mike Helliwell, Clint Lloyd and Mike Roden. Well done one and all – it is not easy, but the most impressive thing was the number of casters vowing to practise for their next badge.

Then followed the somewhat abbreviated casting competitions due to the amount of tuition achieved and the results were:

#5F – James Evans 114′ 4″, Mike Heritage 111′, John Reynolds 108′ 10″, Alex Titov 106′ 7″, Jonathan Davies 104′, Lee Watts 101′ 9″, Andrew Bagshaw 96′, Mike Roden 93′, Louis Noble 91′ 3″, John Forbes 90′ 11″, Tracy Thomas 82′ 2″, Tony Bennett 80′, Ken Jones 76′ 9″.

#7F – John Reynolds 133′, James Evans 123′ 10″, Roger Miles 118′, Mike Heritage 113′ 2″, Lee Watts 112′, Tony Bennett 109′ 9″, Andrew Bagshaw 106′ 7″, Mike Helliwell 99′ 8″, Jonathan Davies 97′ 6″, John Forbes 87′ 6″, Ken Jones 84′ 8″,Tracy Thomas 83′ 8″.

T38 – Andrew Bagshaw 166′ 4″, John Reynolds 156′ 4″, Roger Miles 150′ 5″, James Evans 143′ 7″, Paul Brown 143′ 2″, Mike Heritage 140′ 3″, Tony Bennett 112′ 10″, Mike Helliwell 107′.

Well done everyone, having struggled with a very light and variable, generally southerly breeze. Special mention must be made of James Evans for winning the #5F, Roger Miles for a medal position in #7F and Andrew Bagshaw for his first in T38.

To close it must be said that our hosts Marlene and Roger Holloman, of Wrexham Rugby Club added greatly to the enjoyment of the day with first class facilities, drinks and sandwiches. Also, Mike Griffiths helped greatly with timing and recording. Thank you so much!

Well, what can I say about the BFCC and the Sportfish Reading Open Show?
Jan (my beautiful and long suffering girlfriend) and myself turned up on a grey Saturday morning at 8.30 a.m. with a slight drizzle in the air.

We went into the giant marquee,  to be greeted by the boss (Michael Marshall) with a big grin on his face.
That lifted my spirits straightaway, as with all our other  instructors away on other commitments, or far too ill to take part, I was a bit nervous, as to how we would cope.

Sure I can get the clients to have a lesson, but Mike who was our only instructor for the day is not a man in his early thirties, so I would have to pace things out. I was about  to be proved wrong.

It was very slow to start with but by 11 a.m. when people realised that it was going to be a dull weekend, weather-wise, they probably thought “stuff  this I am not going to let a bit of rain beat us”, the whole place started to buzz.

Mike Marshall took up his starting position, made up his trusty rod with the same care that an old battle weary warrior would do with his weapon of choice and then shouted out to me “send them out Rog”.

It was then that the British Fly Casting Club swung into action. I have done this a few times and it was with the ease of familiarity that myself and Jan started to take our eager clients out to meet Mike.

I was staggered that by 4.p.m. when things eased off,  he was not only still standing, but turned and said to me “is that all you got” with that same big grin on his face that he had from 8.30 a.m.
Mike had not had a single minute’s break

Sunday was virtually the same as Saturday, but with the arrival  of Alex Titov, another of our instructors it meant that we cranked things up a gear, which is just as well, because there were three times as many people to get through.

Truly an astonishing weekend.

I cannot leave this report without warm thanks to the following:

Firstly to my girlfriend Jan for the smiles to our clients, endless  cups of tea and also selling some of the books.

Matt Hayes for letting me drag him over for a picture session. Thanks Matty.

Gary Coxon of Sage. Thanks for the pics Gary (from your favourite West Indian)

Jerry Siem of Sage. I tried to get the girls (Jan and Tracy) to wriggle against him during the pics, but I did not get a free Sage Rod. What a nice guy.

Simon Gawesworth, who stopped his book signing session to be photographed on our stand, and also stayed for a cup of tea and a chat. Quite a unique person.

Alex Titov, has recently qualified AAPGAI, what a feat. He has only just returned from teaching in Russia. Over there you have to be extremely  good as they will still send you to Siberia, or worse, make you recite all the words from the film Taras Bulba.
Congratulations  Alex.

BFCC Members  James Evans and his lady Tracy Thomas for being there and helping out. Thanks Tracy and James.

Gilly Bate, a friend of Mike Heritage. Thanks for stopping by Gilly and making me laugh. By the way Gilly, the BFCC has its eye on you for the future.

Thanks to Richard Tallents of Masterline-Cortland for his donation of a Flyline to the BFCC.

Thank you to new members:
Mark Kirkhouse
Sally Taylor
Mick Copeman
Alan  Corker

A very  big thanks to all our new clients, you are the real stars of the show, we hope to see you at other “friendly” get togethers at the BFCC.
Sometimes the guys say to me “what is your secret to getting people to stop and talk to you”.
The answer is there is no secret. Fly Fishers, along with most anglers are kind, friendly, patient and very approachable, that is why they are the stars of the show, it makes what I do a real pleasure.

I will close now by saying that none of this would have been possible without our man on the inside, Jonathan Tomlinson, who worked like a beaver  to make it all happen

Thank you very much Jono.

Roger Miles

I am really sorry I missed this event. It coincided with a long standing comittment.

I have not had official word from ‘the horses mouth’ but Mike has just posted a general email and I think it is well worth putting up here.

I can only say that I am staggered that Mike survived to tell the tale and I am glad Alex was was able to help out on the Sunday or we may have been looking for a new chairman.

I think this proves conclusively that the BFCC are heading in the right direction and just a bit of tweaking to get the split between instructing and competing right and we will have a winning formula.

Right, over to Mr Marshall.

 Mike Heritage

Hello BFCC Casters,
 
In spite of overcast skies and drizzle with a nagging, cold northeasterly, the event was well attended by anglers keen to see an extensive show which was very well put together by our hosts. Apart from the usual tackle stands there were casting demonstrations, tackle testing, float tubing on the lake and, even, a cooking demonstration for the trout caught.
 
From a BFCC perspective we have never been so busy with tuition and our small team, at times, only just coped, but we did! Roger did his usual welcoming performance to get people involved, assisted by Jan who added glamour to the proceedings and Alex, newly returned from teaching in Russia, taught on Sunday. As a club we owe them a lot for their efforts and the funds raised, which will be very useful in future.
 
Of personal interest was, really for the first time, there were repeat visitors who had been to previous BFCC Meetings and also brought friends this time, which shows we must be doing something right! As an example, one client from July last, had improved so much that I just wish we had the space to do ‘the have a go for gold badges’ – he would have managed 30yds for certain, whereas last year he was in the very low twenties. It just goes to show what a little encouragement and practise will do. Anyway, all is not lost as he could not be kept away from this July’s Meeting.
 
Please have a look at Roger’s pictures of well known demonstrators on our stand. Mike, also returned from a trip north of the border, will post these on the website as soon as possible.
 
Following our exploits at Reading I am sure you would like to join me in welcoming four new Members to the Club. They are: Sally Taylor; Mark Kirkhouse; Mick Copeman; Alan Corker.
Their casting sessions were very rewarding because good progress was made, and with more to be expected. To this end it is my sincere hope that they will be able to come to the July Meeting when, hopefully, things will be less frenetic so they will have time to chat and so find out yet more about casting.

 
Our next meeting is at Wrexham on Sunday June 13 at 10am, so please let me know if you can make it. I will be very grateful if you can pass the word around as The BFCC is trying
very hard to spread its geographical range and this is published in Trout Fisherman Magazine.
 
Sincerely,
 
Mike Marshall

Roger Miles posted this as a comment to my piece about Newark. I think it’s too good to waste there. So here it is.

Everyone did a great job.

John Reynolds showed what ‘True Grit’ was, turning up and checking us out for safety etc.. and continued instructing even though he was not his usual 110%. Thanks big fella.

Mike Heritage worked all the time teaching and still had a joke for everyone. Now that he doesn’t eat breakfast anymore he turns up even earlier, putting us all to shame.

Jono managed to thrill all the crowd with his one man shows and still found time to help us out with teaching (oh! and beat Mike Heritage in the shootouts LOL). I have known some of the great demonstrators at shows over the years, and I will predict here and now that Jonathan Tomlinson is going to be amongst the best of them.

Alex flew all three flags. Russian British and Polish, what a guy, thanks Alex.you are the ??????? (for you english speaking only that is Russian for Man). Alex did not even get time to buy a coffee, as he was busy teaching.

Mike Marshall did what he does best, make sure it all runs smoothly and was, as usual, the last man standing.

A special welcome to Mark Surtees, he stayed on the field 100% in all weather and taught effortlessly to the newcomers – really put them at ease. What a find Mark is for the BFCC, I hope he joins us full time.

Lastly but not least, I must thank Dr. Vernon Wood for his help on the stand. Vernon was professional, witty and had a very gentle way of persuading potential clients to try us out. More than once or twice the ladies stopped and listened to his charming voice. The only trouble was that he then gave them to MM for lessons, as Jono said earlier. Oh! and he got his 30 yard badge, congratulations you old dog.

What a relief to be casting again. How fantastic is to spend two days doing something you have only been dreaming about for the last four or five months. What a joy it is to work with some truly outstanding guys for two whole days. As you may gather Newark 2010 was another resounding success for the BFCC.

 We are limited to casting in two directions. The direction was ok for right handers but, especially on Saturday, it was a bit of a pain for left handers. Luckily there is plenty of room to cast outside our designated competition area so tuition for left handers wasn’t a problem. Lefty’s casting for their distance badges may have struggled a bit though, sorry about that.

 Nasty cold and biting east wind most of the day on Saturday so the casting comp was virtually across the wind. Although not conducive to huge casts some of the distances were still pretty impressive. Well done Tomo who won both the five and seven events ( said through gritted teeth because I was second in both events!).

 Roger and Dr Vernon Wood provided a steady stream of people to instruct interspersed with the occasional cup of coffee (thank you Roger) to make sure none of the instructors actually suffered acute hypothermia and frost bite.

 This year we had more instructors on the field and it gave us the chance to have the odd break, which was very welcome.

 Now for the difficult bit. All the instructors did a fantastic job but most of us have done this sort of thing for a while now, so we know what to expect. Mark Surtees is a new member and came along for the first time. Mark would be the first to admit he is not a distance freak like most of the rest of us, however he proved to be an outstanding instructor, especially with beginners and improvers. He certainly dug me out of more than one hole. I’m the first to admit I struggle with absolute beginners but he had them casting a nice loop in the allotted time.

 John Reynolds got off his sick bed to be with us and Alex Titov was in shorts and tee shirt because he said it was so warm after Siberia (not really, he was shivering like the rest of us).

 Tomo helped out between other commitments and Mike Marshall only taught pretty women, how much he paid Roger to arrange this I have no idea.

Very well done to all those who achieved their distance badges and a special mention to Chris Walker who tried to wear me out. I expect you to be near the 35yrd mark next year Chris, you don’t want Bigfoot or Richard to beat you.

 Casting again, wonderful

 Mike H

The year started a bit traumatically with the loss of the old web site and ended spendidly with the creation of a new web site and a buoyant membership.

 The first part of 2009 was taken up with having to re constitute the club because of insurance and banking issues. This may sound easy enough but it proved quite a headache for Mike Marshall who had to grapple with all sorts of unforseen problems, so hats off to Mike, without all his tireless efforts we wouldn’t be where we are, or even here at all.

 We also had to re write all the rules, create a health and safety assesment, design the new web site, and, at the same time, prepare for our first public event ( I say ‘we’  but once again Mike was the driving force).

 Our first event of the year was The Spring  Fly Show at Newark. Because it was our first public event we did not know how it was going to turn out. We needn’t have worried. The event organisers did us proud, not only providing us with a nice area in the main hall but they also provided us (unexpectedly) with a very nice marquee right next to the casting area. We had our club competition on Saturday morning and then several of us spent the rest of the day and the whole of Sunday giving casting lessons. Very satisfying but totally knackering. It was the first time that I, and I suspect most of the others, except Mike, had done such concentrated instructing.

 Apart from that Newark was also a financial success and virtually paid for all the clubs expenses, including the web site creation, for the year. It was also exciting to see the level of interest in distance casting  that was generated.

 We have been invited back for 2010 so see you there.

 The all new singing and dancing web site was finally up and running in April and received universal acclaim, well, we liked it anyway, and so, apparently, do you. We have had over 15500 hits to date and on one day we had a staggering 499 hits. Amazing!

 We next held a normal club event at our usual venue, Huntingdon Race course, the first event I have missed for years so I have to rely on Mike’s assessment which was:

  ”Sunday was an almost perfect day – for holiday makers, but not for casting! We experienced almost continuous sunshine, it was humid in the morning and less so later-on, but the worst part was an occasional puff of breeze from the north east or east, followed by completely ‘dead air’. The net result was that it was almost impossible to turn the line and leader over. Tough is hardly an adequate description and distances suffered, however, those present all seemed to enjoy their day.”

 Next came, thanks to an invitation from Jonathan Tomlinson,  another public day at Sportfish near Reading. This turned into another hugely successful day which you can read about in my account at the time in the new ‘News and Articles’ section.

 The final event was our annual Brentwood meeting. This is the venue where records often get smashed and competition is often at it’s fiercest (but still friendly) because Paul Arden is in town and he sometimes brings some international long hitters with him. If you want to see flycasting at it’s best then put this event in your diary. The 2009 event also saw some time specifically put aside for distance instruction and quite a few turned up to take advantage and some of them were brave enough to have a go competitively with some surprising results.

 This has been a fantastic year for the BFCC. After a traumatic start we have emerged stronger and healthier than we have ever been. Membership is on the up and the future for the club looks  brighter than I have ever known it.

 There are a few names that deserve mention for the work they have done over the last year;

 John Reynolds, Roger Miles, Alex Titov, Jonathan Tomlinson, Terry Jenner and last, but not least, the tireless Mike Marshall. No doubt I have missed a name or two but thank you all for making this the best year yet for the BFCC.

 Mike Heritage

 A question that pops up from time to time – and it’s an interesting one – is what has competition distance casting done for my flyfishing? My immediate answer is speed. It’s the difference between trying to deliver a shuttle cock and delivering a missile. There is no feeling on Earth like walking a river armed with a rocket-launching cast. And I truly mean that.

Sure you’ve still got to stalk, wear camo, read water, tie flies, figure it all out, fall in now and again – just like you always did, but now you never need worry about the cast, and often it’s all over before you’re even aware it’s happening; no thinking, no hesitating, just an immediate delivery. That feeling is amazing.

It’s not why I fish; I fish to sequence. Catch one fish, duplicate the method and catch them all. A friend of mine gave a demo recently where he said he fished to relax, and that he needed to save his energy when casting, because it could be a long day ahead – or something like that. OK, that’s fine, but for me I fish for thrills and spills, I don’t care how fast or slowly you cast, the 20 or 30 Km of boulder-hopping and heavy river crossing is going to sap your energy far more than any amount of casting ever can!

So while speed is the main thing, it gives other benefits as well. I suppose the most obvious is that distance casting makes you think about every single component of your Stroke. You can’t throw a long way using poor technique – it doesn’t matter how strong you are! Technique first, applied strength later. Good technique for distance means that your basic cast must be effective – a drill I’ve been using the past few years for tuning distance (don’t tell Mike) is accuracy.

Casting into a head wind is rarely a problem – apart from in New Zealand; just throw the line at a hundred and fifty miles per hour! No need for a tight loop, contrary to popular opinion, just throw as fast and as straight as you can. And as for distance, if you can cast through the 120s with trout tackle, then you can take a realistic shot at 100 feet without serious complications.

So that’s certainly one side of things, which you probably figured out anyway. But the other side of things is that it’s given me a great number of friends that I would probably never have met.

If you’re in the UK, here’s a link to my friends at the British Fly Casting Club.

Cheers,

The casting may not have been the furthest but apart from that we had another hugely successful day at Brentwood to finish our season off. It’s a shame there wasn’t a slightly more consistent breeze, it veered 180 degrees at times, but who am I to complain, it was always on my back when I cast.

 We had a draw for our casting slots and it worked very well, the luck of the draw meant that a couple of members who used alcohol to calm the nerves the night before had a little time to reflect that perhaps it wasn’t the best plan they had ever had. I stuck to Coke and, as you see, it paid off handsomely.

 Another innovation was the introduction of members coming along specifically for instruction. Most, if not all, made significant progress through the day and many qualified for one of the distance badges. The only downside of this was that poor Mike Marshall spent all day instructing, but judging by the comments I overheard it was well appreciated. He even took the time to sort out some specific casting problems caused by a hand injury that has been plaguing one of our new members for ages.

 We have a new lady member who could soon find herself in our record books. Tracy Thomas cast beautiful loops with a very simple and effective technique to qualify for her 30yrd badge, and our youngest member, Nicholas Surtees, is well on the way with a stonking 42’+. Not bad for seven years old is it?

 I will add some new photos to the Gallery when I get them, thanks to Terry Jenner. It all depends on the Post Office though.

 So, that’s it for this year, and what a year it has been. We are in a very healthy position, we have a lot of new members and there a buzz I haven’t seen since I joined. Plans are already underway for next year.

 One of us will do a review of the BFCC year later but in the meanwhile if you feel you have something to contribute by way of an article or want to make any comment then please do.

 Oh, one last thing. I have heard nothing but praise for the new web site so a big thank you to Mike Marshall who was inspirational in getting it off the ground.

 See you all next year.

 Mike Heritage

This is just a reminder that the final meeting of the year is coming up soon.

 Brentwood is traditionally out busiest meeting of the year, but not this year. Newark and Reading were both huge successes for the club and we were all extremely busy competing and instructing so just competing will make a nice change.

 For those of you that have been playing around with the idea of coming along to a BFCC event then this is the one for you. Most BFCC members will be there so it is your chance to see some fantastic distance casting, pick some brains and get a bit of one to one tuition, if you feel the need. You can also cast many of the rods that are either the clubs or the ones some of us bring along to cast with, just put them back where you found them is all we ask. If you bring something exotic along please be prepared to lose it for an hour or two while some of us thrash the life out of it!

 I think I am right in saying that club records have been broken at the last two Brentwood meetings so this might just be your chance to see one of the longest casts the world has ever seen. I know at least a couple of members are capable of doing it, if the conditions are favorable.

 See you there

 Mike Heritage

Well, that went very well didn’t it. Nice day, nice people.

I don’t know about you but I was a bit apprehensive. I knew Jonathan Tomlinson from Sportfish was doing his bit and we (the BFCC) were trying to do our bit but you never know how it is going to turn out until the day do you? Actually, from my point of view, I didn’t really have a clue how it was going on the day because I seemed to be busy from the moment I arrived. Now, either Roger has got it in for me and sent all the students to me or we were all extremely busy, I’m pretty sure it was the latter because whenever I glanced around I saw all the other instructing members were fully occupied as well.

 I really don’t want to single anyone out, we all did our bit, but, Roger the Dodger does deserve some recognition for all the work he does in getting the punters to have a go. I suspect a lot of people turned up with the intention of just having a look to see what the BFCC is all about. Perhaps they were a bit reticent about casting in public. That just doesn’t wash with Roger, if you are there you are there to be persuaded to part with your fiver and get out there and have a go. Judging by the constant stream of students not many escaped his persuasive charm.

 Now, the beauty of this new website is that you, the viewing public, can leave a comment, and, provided you are not trying to sell Viagra, I will approve them and they will be published. We welcome comments. We need to get some feedback so that we can improve, or take into consideration any concerns you may have.

 While I am here I will tell you I have been given the dubious honour of looking after the Galleries. As you will probably notice I am not doing a particularly good job of it at the moment but I am working on it. If you have taken some photo’s at our events then I would be pleased to have them, either email them to me at heritageathome@btinternet.com  or pop them on a disc and sent them to me at 24 Albemarle Rd, Willesborough, Ashford, Kent TN240HL.

 I have also asked members to write the occassional article for us, you know who you are! Get writing. 

 I look forward to seeing you all at Brentwood in October,

 Mike Heritage