TOURNAMENT CASTING,SWINGING YOUR LEAD

All over dublin, in the small hours of Sunday mornings, strange groups of men can be seen wandering around in fields with bits of string and metal stakes. Is this some wierd Pagan ritual or maybe the weekly meeting of the young farmers field measuring club? No this is tournament casting.

A Definition

Tournament Casting is the sport of casting lead weights as far possible, on a measured court over grass. One of the most difficult aspects of this pastime is the 'trying to be polite to an inquisitive passer by' trick. The general public find it fascinating, nay, hilarious to see twenty or more grown adults 'fishing' in a grassy meadow. 'What are you after - Flying Fish?', 'Caught any yet?' and 'Here mate, you just had a bite!' are just three of my favorite 'Jovial rambler with humour' jokes. Within the casting circle we have developed our own punchlines, but have not needed to resort to them as of yet.

Equipment
For a start, you will need a rod. No ordinary rod though, it needs to be a beachcaster or surfcaster. Not that these rods can sucessfully cast beaches or surf (unless some extremely bad angling takes place), these are the names used to describe poles that are designed specifically for long distance casting.

For maximum distance, some kind of reel is recommended, multipliers being the prefered option although fixed spool reels are often used. As with any popular sport which has been spotted by large corporations, there are many varied and expensive reels on the market. Unfortunately the distance one can cast is not determined by how much one's equipment cost, if this was the case then the top four slots at the championships would be filled by Barristers, Doctors, Airline Pilots and Plumbers.

In order to prove which lead belongs to which person after a round of casting some form of line is required to firmly attach it to the caster. Monofilament with a diameter of no less than 0.35mm is the accepted standard, bailer twine and orange hand-line string are poor substitutes. On the subject of fishing cable, a shockleader must be used to connect the mainline to the lead, again, monofilament of 0.80mm diameter should be used. A handy formula for calculating the breaking strain of shock leader is to use 10lbs per oz of lead - for a 5oz lead use 50lb breaking strain leader. Washing lines and other strong looking cables are not supplied with breaking strain details and should not be used - to do so is regarded as bad angling.

First Steps
Distance casting is a funny old game, a bit like swear scrabble but usually with more obscenities. There is not a more demoralising time in any surf caster's career than the realisation after the first cast at their very first tournament, that 140 yards is a lot further than it looks.

After suffering this rude awakening, the novice caster unfailingly decides that a lot more oompf is needed for their second cast and proceeds to substitute smooth progressive technique with a combination of running, shouting and general brutality. It is at this point that they discover that 120 yards is not as far as 140 yards. The learning curve becomes a cliff.

Technique
More is less - More or less. The first impression of the well executed pendulum cast is that it looks so effortless, this is indeed the case. The second impression of the well executed pendulum cast is that it looks so easy, this is not the case in the slightest. The novices first attempt at pendulum casting usually ends up one of two ways:

•Way 1 : With a broken arm.
•Way 2 : With the lead buried four feet underground at a similar distance in front of the caster.
From here the style develops. Usually the next stage is the Hawaii five - o, this is where the caster is so busy concentrating on looking the part that he or she forgets to let go of the line. Eventually the line decides to let go of the angler and the end result is a lead screaming away inches above the ground and in a very leftwardly direction, this is commonly known as Low and Left.

The next progression is to try to cast with a bit more emphasis on the line releasing finger, this means that the build up of the cast is all but forgotten about until the lead streaks off into the sky on a right hand path just off the vertical. There is a moment of magic here as the caster watches the lead rapidly gain hundreds of feet in a fraction of a second only to be reminded of their bad technique at the last minute as they follow through to smite themselves a mighty thwap in the right ear with their right fist. It is of course at this time that the line snaps with a satisfying crack and the lead disappears expensively but gracefully into the distance.

That pretty much sums it up very good!

There is not a more demoralising time in any surf caster's career than the realisation after the first cast at their very first tournament, that 140 yards is a lot further than it looks.

Amen to that

An olde but a goodie

Hilarious

I really enjoyed that.
Well done lads on your results at Steyning, I cast ther a few times years ago (I lived in Eastbourne at the time)but it was really small time then just a few local guys.

Really good read..Never tried it but im thinking it cant be that hard rite! Although then again Im good at everything until i try it lol...

hahah nice one! very entertaining altogether i dont know anything about tournament casting but most of what was said was way too familiar anyway

Once upon a time long long time ago when i was involved with the casting, i was out practising my swing on the local football pitch which backed onto a housing estate, after hours of miscasts crack off's burnt thumbs, bird nests, smoking hole's, stuffed chimney's . I decided i'll have the last cast and i opened the reel up and let her rip off she went like a demented parrot and landed somewhere????
On reeling in i said to myself this looks good until i reached a tree which the line was around i followed the line around the tree and it went over a wall which led to a street full of house's and lovely gardens, over the 10ft wall i got and followed the line down the street and into a garden.
Now you try to explain to an old lady what your doing in her front garden digging a weight out thats about a foot down with a 13ft fishing rod in your hand in waders about 5 miles from the nearest beach. She gave me an earful.
Some people have no sense of humour

great story

i remember one backcaster of the sandymount venue having a crackoff go very wrong..

through a bedroom window and into the interior wall

don't know the exact details but be a story worth chasing up..

I'd say there was a fish pond in that garden Paul! You knew they were there! Thankfully I havn't had any near misses, probably not hitting them hard enough!

great story

i remember one backcaster of the sandymount venue having a crackoff go very wrong..

through a bedroom window and into the interior wall

don't know the exact details but be a story worth chasing up..

Yes i was there that day, The caster who shall remain anonymous and was nicknamed the barber had a fetish with backcasting and not very straight.
However we had set out the court a little bit too close to the wall along sandymount which the road ran along, in our enthusiasm to get started.A couple of casts went out no problem when the barber stepped to the hockey and let rip with his now famous backcast " anyone see where that one went he shouted" that fell on deaf ears and hands thrown to the side in a gesture of don't know, however not to worry we carried on for another hour until two big mutton heads(garda) came down the beach with a 5oz lead with a bright orange shock leader still attached " who owns this missile " one of them said, there was silence as it started to dawn on everyone that this was serious.
There was no takers for the lead so the casting officer on the day approached the garda and he then described what had happened.
The lead went across the sandymount road which was the main artery to the city missing cars and buses went through a porch double glazed door through a antique panelled glassed door went down the hall into the kitchen and embedded it's self in a kitchen press beside where a old lady was making a cup of tea!!!! she thought she was under attack and dived for cover " can you picture the scene "
There were no injury's thank god except pride and financial loss. There is a lesson to be learned from this always keep away from buildings and people out walking when practising your cast "leads can kill"

A lucky escape indeed, remember safety has to come 1st!!
And i advise anyone thats out doing a bit of casting practice to always air on the side of caution, its just not worth it.
Find a suitable space thats large enough and remember crackoffs can travel very large distances so never cast twards houses, roads, etc,,,, safe knots are paramount and as always shockleaders should be a "MINIMUM" of 10lb per oz of lead being cast with a "MINIMUM" of 10 turns on the reel when ready to cast and never take chances when there are alot of people around.

thanks for giving us first hand the details of that story paul, is incrediable nobody was hurt given the passage of the lead!

great one though and all so comical, it could have easily been anything but..

i had the trailing line of a crackoff burn across my ear a few years ago in kilcoole from a lad fishing without a shockleader and heard the whistle of the lead a few inches from my head preceding it

he was only a kid and had'nt a clue so rather than scare the daylights out of him i sat him down and gave him a few basic lessons on safety while casting

he had been using rotten line of originally around 12lb test, but which i was able to snap which a good tug with my hands, a three-way swivel tied on top and botton by way of trace and the lead tied on directly at the end with no link!!

he had been using rotten line of originally around 12lb test, but which i was able to snap which a good tug with my hands, a three-way swivel tied on top and botton by way of trace and the lead tied on directly at the end with no link!![/quote]
that was paddy

Shane h needs to take some safety lessons

Shane h needs to take some safety lessons

Shane h needs to take some safety lessons

Come on Dennis spill the beans, what did he do?

he had been using rotten line of originally around 12lb test, but which i was able to snap which a good tug with my hands, a three-way swivel tied on top and botton by way of trace and the lead tied on directly at the end with no link!!

that was paddy [/quote]


Cracko you mean!!