Championships
The Championships are for professionals and talented amateur fishermen. The finals are held in front of the grandstand overlooking the demonstraton platform.
The CLA International Open Spey Casting Championship
Heats running all three days with the final in front of the grandstand on Sunday afternoon. This event which has been running for 8 years attracts fierce competition with contestants travelling from all around the world to participate. The record was broken by Scott McKenzie, at Belvoir Castle in 2005 who cast a whopping 68 yards, and went on to win the final for the third time. There is a prize for the winning cast and a trophy for the winning rod manufacturers. Gordan Armstrong having cast 65m in the heats, the 2009 championship was won by Tommy Aarkvisca casting 61 meters.
Entries are made on the day. Rules and regulations are listed at the end of this page.
The CLA International Open Saltwater Fly Casting Championship
Sponsored By Go Fishing Worldwide and the Bahamas Tourist Office UK
Heats will be held on the Friday and Saturday with the final in front of the Grandstand on Saturday afternoon. Following a cast of between Carl Hutchinson and Ruari Costello, the 2009 championship was won by Ruari Costello with a cast of 40.5m
Entries are made on the day. Rules and regulations are listed at the end of this page.
Friday
The following events will have heats running on Friday with the final in front of the Grandstand on Friday afternoon. Entries are made on the day. Prizes will be posted on this site in due course :-
- Hardy UK Youth Open Salmon Distance Championship
- Greys UK Youth Open Trout Distance Championship
- UK Ladies Salmon Distance Championship
Saturday
The following events will have heats running on Saturday with the final in front of the Grandstand on Saturday afternoon. Entries are made on the day. Heats for the CLA International Open Saltwater Fly Casting Championship will also run throughout the day on Friday.
- UK Men's Salmon Distance Championship
- UK Men's Trout Distance Championship
- The CLA International Open Saltwater Fly Casting Championship
Sunday
The following events will have heats running on Sunday with the final in front of the Grandstand on Sunday afternoon. Entries are made on the day. Heats for the CLA International Open Spey Casting Championship will also run throughout the day on Friday and Saturday. Prizes will be posted on this site in due course :-
- Sonik Sports UK Ladies Trout Distance Championship
- The CLA International Open Spey Casting Championship
Competitions
The following are daily competitions open to anyone who would enjoy participating but in particular the 'leisure' angler. The daily competition winners will all be given Vouchers. Entries can be registered on the day but if you would like to register an early interest please email hq@salmon-trout.org
- Open Trout Accuracy
- Youth Trout Distance
- Youth Salmon Distance
- Ladies Trout Distance
- Ladies Salmon Distance
- Mens Trout Distance
- Mens Salmon Distance
Daily competition prizes provided by Hardy and Greys
THE CLA GAME FAIR INTERNATIONAL Open spey CASTING CHAMPIONSHIP
RULES OF COMPETITION
Please note rules for the following championships may change slightly and should be checked on nearer the time.
1. The championship is open to all comers regardless of gender, amateur or professional. Competitors need not be resident in the UK.
2. First prize will be awarded to the competitor who is judged to have cast the greatest distance using an approved Spey Cast.*
3. There will be a prize awarded to the principal manufacturer who has designed and built the rod used by the winner.
4. Competitors may compete with any rod, reel and line provided they fall within the following specifications:
• The rod must be no greater than 18ft in length.
• The reel must be of the normal revolving spool fly reel design
• The casting line, or casting head, in the case of weight forward profile lines, may be of any length but must not exceed an overall diameter of 2.5 mm at any point and must be of a density that classifies it as a floater, in the opinion of the judges. The line must float.
• The running line or backing may be made of any material strength or density.
• There must be a leader/cast of at least 6ft in length attached to the front end of the line and to this must be attached a brightly coloured wool or wool substitute tag, without weight, in place of a fly.
5. Each competitor will be given four minutes casting time. Approved casts will only be judged during the competition time and competitors must reposition the line to outside the marker rope before their initial and subsequent casts within this time period. The distance will be judged as the landing point of the tag on the outside of the Target rope on the completion of each cast.
6. Should the same distance be cast by two or more of the top competitors during the Finals of the event, then these competitors will take part in a cast off until a clear winner can be found. Competitors must use the same rod, reel and line in the cast off as has been used in the earlier stage of the Final.
7. Failure to abide by any of the above rules and guidelines could result in the disqualification of a competitor.
An approved Spey Cast will be deemed as:
• Any form of Roll or Spey Cast which incorporates an angle change of a least thirty degrees as defined with marker ropes laid out at the competition.
• A cast during which some part of the casting line or leader alights on the water no further than two rod lengths away from the competitor, to forma an “anchor and D loop” in the accepted casting sense.
The decision of the judges is final
THE CLA GAME FAIR INTERNATIONAL SALTWATER FLY CASTING CHAMPIONSHIP
RULES OF COMPETITION
1. The championship is open to all comers regardless of gender, amateur or professional. Competitors need not be resident in the UK.
2. First prize will be awarded to the competitor who is judged to have cast the greatest distance using an approved Cast.
3. There will be a prize awarded to the principal manufacturer who has designed and built the rod used by the winner.
4. Competitors may compete with any rod, reel and line provided they fall within the following specifications:
• The rod must be single-handed and no greater than 12ft in length.
• The reel must be of the normal revolving spool fly reel design
• The casting line, or casting head, in the case of weight forward profile lines, may be of any length but must not exceed an overall diameter of 2.5 mm at any point and must be of a density that classifies it as a floater, in the opinion of the judges. The line must float.
• The running line or backing may be made of any material strength or density, provided it satisfies the judges that it is of a type normally used in saltwater fly-fishing. Running line will not be deemed legal if it is considered obviously too weak to hold, for instance, a running bonefish.
• A Line Tray must be worn by each competitor, and at no time must the running line be allowed to touch the ground between either competitive or false casts.
• There must be a leader/cast of at least 6ft in length attached to the front end of the line and to this must be attached a brightly coloured wool or wool substitute tag, without weight, in place of a fly.
5. Each competitor will be given one minute warm up and practice time immediately followed by two minutes competition casting time. Approved casts will only be judged during the competition time and competitors must include at least one false cast between each competition cast. The distance will be judged as the landing point of the tag at the completion of each cast.
6. Should the same distance be cast by two or more of the top competitors during the Finals of the event, then these competitors will take part in a cast off until a clear winner can be found. Competitors must use the same rod, reel and line in the cast off as has been used in the earlier stage of the Final.
7. Failure to abide by any of the above rules and guidelines could result in the disqualification of a competitor.
The decision of the judges is final
The Salmon & Trout Association who provide the judges for all the distance competitions at The Game Fair are delighted to be working with Storm Geomatics Ltd to provide the most accurate measurement for the championships at this year's distance fly casting competitions. They will be measured with pinpoint accuracy by the specialist river surveyors at Storm Geomatics Ltd. Surveyors will use Leica Geosystems state of the art optical technology with onboard computer software to remotely record the position of each cast made. Technology then crunches the numbers to calculate the length of the cast made and broadcasts it on a digital scoreboard – all within seconds of the fly hitting the water! The system has been modified from a Leica application program for remotely measuring the elevation of bridges – in effect Storm have exchanged the face of the bridge with the water surface and can sight any point in the legal casting area to return a position. This system will make the championships more exciting as the caster and spectators get accurate information in real-time.
