Southern Cross Fly Casting Challenge

[John Waters]

13 people attended Southern Fly Fishers Club Melbourne, Australia for the 2019 event. Results were

Trout Accuracy

John Waters 77 points
Bruce Ratcliffe 68 points
Corey Heath 63 points

Trout Distance

J Waters 38.2 m, 38.43 m, 38.87 m
B Ratcliffe 34.4 m, 32.75 m, 33.30 m
C Heath 31.26 m, 30.90 m, 31.80 m

Sea Trout

J Waters 42.80 m, 43.70 m
C Heath 33.30 m, 43.40 m
B Ratcliffe 43.3 m, 40.08 m

Master Callum Phelan is casting the Trout Accuracy, and benefiting from some support from mum, Tracey Phelan, Australia’s best female caster. Looking forward to seeing Callum cast in the 2020 casting season and beyond.

And here is Tracey hitting the long target in Trout Accuracy



John

Sent from my iPad

[John Waters]

Sorry about the orientation of the second pic. It was in Australia.

John

[sms]

13 people attended Southern Fly Fishers Club Melbourne, Australia for the 2019 event. Results were

Trout Accuracy

John Waters 77 points
Bruce Ratcliffe 68 points
Corey Heath 63 points

Trout Distance

J Waters 38.2 m, 38.43 m, 38.87 m
B Ratcliffe 34.4 m, 32.75 m, 33.30 m
C Heath 31.26 m, 30.90 m, 31.80 m

Sea Trout

J Waters 42.80 m, 43.70 m
C Heath 33.30 m, 43.40 m
B Ratcliffe 43.3 m, 40.08 m

Great results. One thing thou, in TA counting down possible results from perfect 80 are 78, 76, 75, 74 and so forth.

[Paul Arden]

77 is huge!! Although also impossible

Great results John!

Cheers, Paul

[bartdezwaan]

Awesome casting John!
Close to a perfect accuracy score.
I can only dream to come close to that.

Cheers, Bart

[Michal Duzynski]

Nice one John, very nice. I wish I was there.

- was it just 3 of you casting?
- did you have any tail wind this year?
- did you use your style, or did you went with 170?

Cheerse
Mike

[John Waters]

The accuracy scores are not the fair dinkum sc scores. I am not sure how they did it. Each caster started with 80 and every cast that landed in the outer ring or missed the outer ring had a relative minus outcome. I can only relate to my score. I had three casts of the 16 not land in the centre hoop but land in the outer hoop, so that would have been 74 under the World Championship scoring system. Apparently that will run a few more of these type of casting events here now and they may change from the Oz system to the ICSF accuracy system now they have had a a few interested. The distance events were on grass and they score the result using the average of the three longest casts. No averages yesterday and only the two longest casts were recorded in the 27 gram because it was getting too close to knock off time. As I said, it is Australia after all.

My congratulations to those who organised the day particularly those who scored and measured but did not cast. The best result by far on the day IMO was my mate Phil Smith in the Sea Trout. A great cast. Given the conditions, Bruce Ratcliffe also had a great ST result. Corey Heath
did very well casting for the second time only with the light gear, as did Callum and Tracey
I have been told there is some interest by a few for next year, I wish them all the best with their endeavours and look forward to seeing their results in 2020.

John

[John Waters]

Hi Mike,

Sorry you could not come down but I believe Bruce is going to have a few more such events this year and next. I am sure he will set up some dates and let you know. From my head count there were 10 competitors and 3 interested in helping and seeing what was done. Conditions were no wind or light wind. In the distance events, particularly the sea trout the leader and end of the fly line collapsed in a heap, like hitting a brick wall. As to hear most used 7, 8 or 9 weight fishing rods. Bruce used a CTS for the ST with a 9 weight WF cut to 27 grams, Phil used a 9 weight rod and a 9 weight line cut to 27 grams. Both lines were between 15 and 16 metres on length. I used my 38 gram ICSF distance rod with a 21 metre Shooting head line at 27 grams for the Sea Trout and my 38 gram ICSF accuracy rod for the Trout Distance. The ICSF accuracy rod is a tad softer than the distance rod as it is designed to only cast a 38 gram (17 weight???) at the longest target of 13 metres. Both rods are too stiff but have great actions for casting and if I continue I will look at softer rods. If there is any wind the backcast is a challenge. Tje

[John Waters]

Sorry Mike, to continue my answer.

The ST line was an experiment and it was very smooth in no wind. As to technique I still use a short casting arc and drift to the correct throwing start position with a horizontal rod for the ST. For the 5 weight my arc is wider but I do not carry 90 feet. I measure my carry and carry only 84 feet in the calm. I don't get a lot of bend on my rods so that may improve with a 9 weight or similar rod, but at my age that is clutching at straws methinks.

Good luck with your casting,

John

[Michal Duzynski]

Thank you John, awesome.