ICSF WC Flycasting Sweden 2024

[Paul Arden]

Hi Andy,

Yep. We all have a ceiling where it’s going to be too expensive. That’s going to depend on how much money we have available and how much it defines who we are. Some are happy with these current costs, particularly if they are on a sponsored team or live in a country with a strong currency.

Personally I would love to see it become a large event, attracting sponsorship both nationally and internationally, where athletes work hard to make the team. I know I’m not alone it that. Bernt and I discussed this when I interviewed him on Sexyloops YouTube. I’m sure many of us are willing to assist. It’s not like we have just been going for the ride. These events exist because 20 years ago we got very excited about them in Europe and created the interest in the first place.

The idea of passing on all the costs to competitors obviously doesn’t work because many are falling by the wayside. The same guys who train 14-28hrs/week leading up to the competition. So it’s obviously important to them.

I mean Bart is not going. Bart has been taking fly fishing casting sport to the Netherlands, training a team, and is one of the very best 5WT casters in the world. Just one example.

Anyway… The fishing still goes on. And hopefully we still have a lot of life to live and fish ahead of us. Hopefully we can make flycasting sport the showcase event if deserves to be.

Cheers, Paul

[Paul Arden]

The question is why do we meet in the first place?

I can’t answer that question for everyone and probably not for anyone else apart from myself. There are different events. And not everyone who goes can win even one of them.

I’m not going to win accuracy for example, not unless the Americans don’t go. And even then I’m borderline entry into the league below that. Maybe with a bit of Palinka I might pull it out of my hat (and with a lot of Palinka for everyone else!). But I’m not really a contender because there is still a league above me. But I give it a go when there because it’s fun.

Sea trout distance? Forget it. I’m not even in the league below the upper league. Salmon distance? I just borrow whatever is around (usually from the Swedes) and tie knots at both ends of the line.

Speys? While I’m a pretty exciting single handed Spey caster, especially for bats, I don’t really know how to work the DHD and actually don’t care! Vast respect for those who do. I think it’s amazing and one day I’ll learn it too.

So I go solely for the 5WT distance — like many others. I go there to test my technique against the very best in the world, who are all still improving. Steve, Dmitri, Bart, Mikael, Michal, Bernt, Tor and the others. That top league I am actually in. It’s the one event I could win and it’s very frustrating to me that I haven’t done so.

At my very best, I currently don’t know; Bernt is out there right now, I recognise that and it also inspires me. I want to be at my very best and I want everyone else to be at their very best too. That would be the ideal 5WT competition.

That’s the competition I want to be a part of. And yes I would like to stick it a little bit past Bernt, and everyone else. But it’s also ok if someone (even Bernt) sticks it a little bit past me.too, because that’s how we all get better.

But in the grand scheme of things, I still think it would be better if I stick it past them (2 or preferably even only 1 inches in front would be perfect. Not this half metre random BS that’s currently being measured!).

I’ve been beaten many times in the past, quite comprehensively in fact, and have learned completely new strokes as a consequence of this eventful process. The 170 is popular in European FC sport because the Great Rick Hartman put it past me and I wanted to learn how the barstool did that. Learning the 170 turned out to be the very best thing I’ve done in flycasting.

And that’s been the same process no doubt that every other 170 caster has been through too I know Bart and Lasse have certainly gone through it because I was there!! That’s what it’s all about for me.

Cheers!
Paul