Passed Master

There I was thinking I didn’t have much to write about and then I realised I did. So here it is.

I was at Eyebrook last Saturday as part of the BFCC instructing team. I have never been there before so it was a new venue to me. If you have never been there I suggest you find a date in your fishing diary and head off. There is a nice clubhouse and a very well stocked tackle shop. Everyone was friendly and despite not having a very good area to teach in we managed to help quite a few people, including several youngsters which are always a pleasure to see and teach. The bonus was seeing one of our more senior members, Dr Vernon Wood, achieve his 35 yrd badge with a cast of 37 yds.

I drove from Eyebrook to Coggleshall for an over-nighter with Paul and some friends and got there in time for some casting. They were obviously worried that I was in such good form that they decided to knobble me, ie, I drank too much at the pub when we went to dinner.  Add to that a blazing camp fire, more booze and very late night and you can see why I wasn’t really in a fit state for the shootout on Sunday. Plus I’m out of practice, but we won’t mention that bit. Lee Cummings brought a shooting head outfit that makes the T38 look and feel lightweight, I barely had the strength to aerialise the line let alone cast the bloody thing. We had a glimpse of the old Paul Arden. Not appearing untill lunch time looking like he had slept in a hedge, which he may well have done for all I know. While I waited for Paul to appear I had set up my normal casting practice area which consists of hoops and cones which I target shoot and over power, under power curve cast and mend  around. I have used this set up for quite a while and thought I had tried every variation of cast that could be thought of only to discover I had barely scratched the surface as Steve Kemp, Lee Cummings and Bernd Ziesche had a go and snapped, rolled and speyed their way around the course. Mind you I was in no state for lateral thinking or any other kind for that matter (just to keep reminding you). Pete Vicar, who has been a board member longer than me, was over from Germany where he lives. It was his first time at one of Pauls weekends and I don’t think he had ever been in the middle of a bunch of casting geeks before and was having trouble getting his head around it, although, the glazed look may have had something to do with him having drunk even more than me the night before.

I did not even get close in the shootout, Paul did his usual trick of hooking one up when it mattered, Lee also beat me in every event, that’s a first, Bernd is a better distance caster than I knew and was putting on the pressure, Trev and Lee are no slouches either so there wasnt any hiding place. Steve Yeoman was also there. Paul and Bernd had tested him for his CCI the day before and had passed him (well done ) but he isn’t a distance caster yet. Give him time.

On the subject of passing. My good friend Mark Surtees took his FFF Masters in Sweden last weekend and passed. Thank God for that. Perhaps we can get back to chilled out Mark instead of uptight Mark. Really well deserved mate.