Did you practice with any of the new rods or prep with last years models?
Rick had all three rods from each manuf'r to play with. Couple of funny stories about his rods...
1st, when he showed up in Denver he starts talking about the Albright, and how during practise it broke - in the handle - rod blank broke and sheared the cork right in half in his hand. So he looks to his 590-4 TCR, sees the butt ends of the bottom peice are of similar diameter, and stick the TCR butt section into the Albright. Can't quite recall his hybrid name for it...
Later during the weekend, comparing his G. Loomis to Jeff Wagner's I beliveve it was, we noticed his handle was ticking. He puts so much force on the rods when casting a long line the cork was showing signs of distress, and something was starting to give. He said he hates when that happens. Yeah, me too. ;-)!!! mpp
At what elevation do deer become elk?
Well, that depends on what side of the continental divide you're on.
What's water polo?
It's like polo, but in the water.
On sea horses?
Yep I practiced with the new rods they had this year, and your right it takes a good caster 5 or 6 casts to get a rod dialed in, so it doesn't teem to really matter which rod is used usually the best casters will figure them out quickly. The rods this year were not very good for carrying a long line. The TCR was wonderful for carrying oodles of line, these rods that they are moving towards now are probably better to shoot line into the backcast due to the deflection, and slack caused by carrying a longer line with them.
The rods were the most similar than they've ever been, at least to my observation. The preferences were pretty even, though it seemed that the women tended to the Loomis and Albright. The guys seemed to pickup the TFO and Albright.
As part of the post-show analysis, I want to analyze the last few years of casting distances (especially for individual casters) to see in general where distances are headed. Sharkskin isn't the only variable, but it will be fun to take a look at those numbers and pontificate about the reasons for any differences.
Josh, can I post your YouTube links on the BOTW page? Let me know when you have additional vids posted.
New casters: I open to any discussion about getting new folks in the pool. Is the thought of casting against Rick and Steve too daunting? Would an "invitational" format for those guys be better than forcing us weekend casters to compete at that level? While the field of women casters seemed strong, it was not deep with only three or four casters qualifying in each ISE market. How do we inspire more women and youth to cast?
It would help many of us if ISE would have a sports expo in the mid west, say St. Louis, and one back East somewhere. I'm not sure how logistics work with a big event like this and it might be more difficult to move the show across country to a new venue, but you would see many new faces casting and reach a broader audiance.
Some of us here from Europe would like to attend, in fact we planned to this year but we didn't plan well enough to make it happen. That said I can think of at least four of us who are very keen to get over and compete, but that could end up being maybe twice as many, if not more. We all compete in Europe so the competition is not daunting.
However one problem with the show format is that to qualify you have to attend previous shows and it's very unlikely that we could do that, because the distances involved are so great. Maybe you could change the competition format slightly so that more than one could pass through the SLC heat?
In any case it's likely that a bunch of the best European distance casters will attend next year. I know most of the guys who compete there and we'd somehow like to find a place where we all (the Americans and Europeans) can cast together before or after the show. I know that it's winter but any ideas on this matter would be very much appreciated.
this looks an awful lot of fun. im mega competitive and love loads of pressure, must be a massive rush for you guys?!
give me 5 years, if i'd have been allowed to use my 6# i may have come top 20!! :p :p
now victor, about those extra lessons........
ab
"God's always with me;
standing beside me with his big black dick."
That would be cool to have some Europeans come out, and perhaps that "invitational" format would work. I could, in my role as ISE Fly Tournament Czar, decide who and where the casting would occur then let my minions (Ha!) make it so. It bears exploring.
For example, we could pick Denver and 12 casters (6 European and 6 American?) and make a big deal out of it. East v. West. Whatever...It could be cool.
Bruce... you are welcome to use any of the videos... i will have more of them done this evening if I can pull myself away from the basketball games. I should have more finished by tomorrow
That's certainly another possibility Bruce, I know for a fact that Daniel intends to take out Steve :kungfo:
It would be nice that saw a format where more than one visitor had a chance to get to the finals. Your competition has led to a number of 5-weight line class competitions in Europe held along similar lines. Consequently there are a number of people here who would be very competitive in the final. It would be great to bring them all together.
As I understand it you can qualify the day before by throwing 90'. This would take you into the next round where everyone competes to cast in the final. Does last years winner take part in this round as well or is he automatically in the final ?. It might be better to have four go through to a semi final which would decide the final two cast off places.
The reaction to some of Pauls antics as he tries to hook a good one up should be worth the ticket money on its own .
I am not going to commit to it just yet but I would love to be there.
Mike
it's casting Jim, but not as we know it, according to EFFA
Why not just have a qualifier at the BFCC and somewhere in europe.
Not wishing to big up Paul, but unless it is seriously more difficult indoors, from those distances if Ricks not going to hit in a comp then Paul would have a good chance of smashing it.
Last year we were upto about 5-6am on the lash after the rugby and he wet out hung and threw over 120' in the BFCC
Bart, Mike, Ben , Daniel and Lee also threw mighty impressively in the shoot out from memory.
#5 Experts; 1 Paul Arden 129' 11", 2 Bart De Zwaan 121' 4", 3 Jon Allen 117', 4 Mike Heritage 109' 1", 5 Daniel Rees 106' 4", 6 Kevin Knight 105' 11", 7 Paul Procter 104' 11", 8 Mick Bell 104' 7", 9 Lee Cummins 103', 10 Tony Bennett 101' 8", 11 Rupert McArt 99' 10", 12 Dean Bass 99' 6", 13 Ben Dixon 98' 7", 14 Lee Watts 98' 3", 15 Richard Flint 94' 7", 16 Steve Cooke 67' 11".
Lasse and others from Europe obviously can chuck the odd horizon buster as well.
Why not invite top 4 from UK and top 4 from Europe to the BOW.
BTW why can't you go to the US Paul?? :p
Why not invite top 4 from UK and top 4 from Europe to the BOW.
I thought we were all Europeans!!.
Nah, just all turn up and have a blast.
I really feel sorry that Rick gets the jitters on these occasions because I am always mildly disappointed that no one hits the really big one that the event deserves. Obviously not having an out and out distance rod to use makes a big difference as well.
Mike
it's casting Jim, but not as we know it, according to EFFA
