Hitting 40, PB’s & Swedish Gold and Silver

During the 2014 Fly Casting World Championships held in Norway last year I stood and watched in awe as Mr Tor Gjersøe took the Gold medal in the 5# Trout distance final. To witness this multi talented 59 year old athlete “who has competed at Norwegian national level in various sports”, win this event from what was another world class field, helped cement some of the thoughts that have been in my mind for a very long time.

“Mr Tor Gjersøe, Current World Champion in 5# Trout Distance Casting”

Image used with kind permission from Mr Knut Kåsine Ekelund

There’s one thing I would like to point out to anyone who is interested in this game which all the serious competitors fully respect. “…Distance fly casting competitions outdoors can be a very cruel unforgiving sport…”

Over the years through participating in such competitions, we learn that atmospheric conditions for competitors can change within minutes and this can often lead to an outright advantage or disadvantage. We have all witnessed truly outstanding distances achieved by some of the worlds most renowned casters, who at the crucial time were operating in no wind, only to then get beat shortly after by relative huge margins to casters who had just a little wind behind them when it was their turn, this is a simple reality of this sport, we can only do the best we can in the conditions we face at the time…. Please bear that in mind if you ever decide to judge a persons performance based on result, without actually having been there at the time yourself.

I’m going back now to 2011, where I was fortunate enough to be patiently taught correct weight training techniques by my friend Dominic Connor. Upon reflection, the training he taught me was a hypertrophy style regime with a fair emphasis on the compound exercises, Squat, Bench Press and Dead lift, a good well rounded approach which was eventually making me stronger than I was. The primary purpose of this training for me was to help strengthen and protect a weakened lower back which stemmed from a culmination of work related injuries over the years.

In casting practice during stages of this new “and forever formative” weight training lifestyle, I noticed the casting results were getting better “as was my luck” compared to my previous efforts.

In one event “The CLA Open International Salt Water Competition” I had achieved an unbelievable second place position in the 2013 final, second to a £1000 winning 1st place prize by 6 inches.

In 2014 I was training at my hardest and now up to using a 10ft T44 Single hand rod which was custom made especially for me by my good friend Bass Stewart of http://www.browntroutonline.co.uk .

We humorously named this rod the “Thors Hammer” and I was now able to single handedly propel a legal 44-46 grams of floating shooting head, backwards into hard hitting tailwind conditions.. launching forwards a very long way, all during extremely long training sessions without any pain…

As much training as it took to get to the level where I could use this rod to full effect, I did learn again in actual competition the hard way, that the still conditions encountered in the south of the country during the height of the summer, might not match what normally greets me when I step outside my front door up here in Cumbria,  as a result, my well rehearsed “heavy tailwind game” using this specialist equipment never got the chance to deliver its full potential in competition, although the technique gains learned from its operation thankfully still remain.

Sadly in 2014 this highly unique casting competition was cancelled, then reinstated, but downgraded to “no prize money”, which actually lessened the will to win for the first time in 5 years.

Now in 2015 I heard that ALL casting competitions at the CLA Game fair have actually been scrapped. The Thor’s Hammer will remain as my uniquely special “heavy training rod” for winter sessions and must wait until the day the CLA hierarchy hopefully change these shocking decisions.

World Fly Casting Championship specification events

Last winter whilst looking ahead to what I perceived as “the impending doom” of turning 40 years of age in April 2015, I realised that my weight training efforts need to be structured properly towards a casting competition. Over the last four years the difficulty for me stemmed from simply not learning how to back off weight training correctly so that I was not sore whilst recovering from gym work on casting competition days, without backing off completely, which makes returning to the gym harder.

During the research period which followed, I actually learned from how power lifters train and deemed this to be the most sensible approach. It was also during this time that I had researched up coming events and set my target on competing in Sweden in the 2015 Piteå Open.

Anyone who follows the sport of Power lifting will certainly be familiar with the names Andy Bolton and Eric Lilliebridge. I instantly learned in February by purchasing Eric’s training program that you do not train for plus 100% max every week, or month for that matter… 8-13 weeks out is seemingly where it really starts to get going for these guys, with maximum weights only ever attempted on the actual “meet” day.

These guys do not leave their best performances behind in the gym 

A birthday gift from my wife Angela was to attend a pre booked Dead Lift workshop with Mr Andy Bolton on the 30th May. You cannot fail to be inspired by meeting the man who was the first ever in history to dead lift a weight totaling over 1000lbs in official competition, more so when he proposed to discuss grip strength techniques which I believed would help the casting furthermore. Andy quickly set to work on my dead lift form and then encouraged me to attempt and successfully pull two dead lift pb’s in one session. My mind was blown ……………

“We will be attending to watch Andy at this years World Dead Lift Championships in Leeds in July 11th”

SUPPORT!

My actual casting event training has continued on pretty much unbroken from the time of the last world championships. I had spent time last October looking to try and be competitive in the 15ft Spey event of which I was not confident enough to enter at the last WC.

Towards the end of last year with the drought conditions we experienced up here, I remember there was little else to do but put my time into something productive, welding up new lines and hitting them hard with the excellent Vision Tool 15ft Rod

Cumbrian skies in October 2014

During the training plans week of well earned “weights” rest, “whilst stuffing down more banquets upon banquets of food to put me right from it” the dead lifting achievements were still fresh in my mind, along with all what Andy taught us during that session, I was psychologically and physically fully charged up for the Swedish 2015 Piteå Open the following week. I went into absolutely finalizing event training in 15ft Spey, 18ft Spey, Sea Trout distance and 55g Salmon overhead distance. My 5# Trout distance casting really needs to undergo a rebuild, which was too late to start now and Trout accuracy is something I don’t really practice outside of fishing pursuits, although I have taken steps to correct that since.

The 55g Salmon overhead event was one I was getting the most enjoyment out of and I was feeling very confident about this. I thankfully had Angela with me placing marker stones along the lagoon edge, right next to where the fly was landing in the water. This was to be measured later on with a little treat I purchased for myself.. a 100m measuring Laser which was used to fire back to a datum plate located at where I was casting from… “boys and their toys!”…;)

Panoramic of one area of Hodbarrow Lagoon, a perfect location to host a WC spec casting event.

The Swedish team “of whom I have an enormous amount of respect for” is led by a very good friend of mine, Mr Stefan Siikavaara. In the absence of CLA Gamefair competitions to attend, the Piteå Open was to be the casting competition highlight of 2015, “you may be guessing by now how much this is all meaning to me”. Stefan assured me of a great competition and that is exactly what I got..!

Having an evening with some of the Swedish team at the location where the event was to be held in the morning was a great experience, we could have cast here all night at 65.2 degrees north this time of year!

As the event opened on Saturday morning I was welcomed by all the members there and sportingly wished by everyone that we all get the same conditions to cast in. During the official opening it was announced that this year the event was officially classified as the first Piteå Open “International” event. I thought this was top form on their part… Thank you all once again.!

In qualifying it went as follows

I was knocked out of qualifying for this final by 10cm “the measurement margin of which they round up or down to” by Henrick Utterstrom.

It is also worth noting that my friend Ulrik’s 43.9 metre cast was actually the very first cast delivered and measured of the competition… I will never forget Stefan turning to me with a huge smile as this happened and saying ” looks like this is gonna be tough one mate”…… “No f’n shit!!!” I replied..

I qualified in third place for the final in this event, only to then come last, a touchy shooting head event is the 27g Sea trout and it simply wasn’t my time against these guys. Respect!

Salmon distance, the one I was hoping to do well in, I missed qualifying for the final again by the 10 cm margin, albeit to my friend Ulrik this time. Well Done Ulrik lad!

We chip away at a small whiskey that night back at Stefan and Anna-Karin’s house and I’m fairly pleased that I made at least one final, whilst narrowly missing two others.

The following day we were to go to another location where we could carry out the Spey and accuracy events. Upon arrival the support team had already set up the courses that morning and we could pretty much get on with the competition right away, slick professionalism on their part, very impressive..!

The essential tackle control template.

The Spey qualification rounds were fought out in stable wind conditions and with a perfect site for the trout accuracy event.

The Hi Viz Trout accuracy court

The 15ft Spey Casting arena

I was fortunate enough on this day to make it into all three finals which came as a huge surprise to me!

Flugfisketävling Långnäs fiske spöm Svensbyfjärden Lillpiteälven

The 18ft rod Spey Casting Final

“Image taken by and used with kind permission from Gunnar Westergren of the Piteå Tidningen”

The qualification and finals results were as follows.

15ft Spey Event

18ft Spey Event.

Flugfisketävling Långnäs fiske spöm Svensbyfjärden Lillpiteälven

Ulrik & Roger, great talented guys who did not make the Spey casting day easy by any means.

“Image taken by and used with kind permission from Gunnar Westergren of the Piteå Tidningen”

I thought it fitting to wear our local Millom rugby teams shirts for this day, owed simply for that great little gym you have, It feels lucky… this year there’s been an intriguing level of success to Millom lads who train down there. The currently undefeated run by Millom RLFC this season, Midge Dixon and other players have been on tour, my friend Dean Myers’s son “Owen” is currently out on tour with the English Lionhearts, my friend Dominic and his second consecutive win in two body building shows. Joe who not only won Mr Britain but also along with Gary, made it “most enormously!” to the NABBA Body Building World Championships in Malta! Hard working lads from just a little coastal town in West Cumbria, a town which hopefully can one day host a World Championship Fly Casting event.

Hodbarrow Lagoon, Millom. A place where current official competition casting records could fall.

Going back full circle now to Mr Tor Gjersøe. Distance fly casting at world championship level is an athletic event, A full on sport, even if an unfair one at times. To undertake competition seriously you would not go far wrong in believing that having good technique alone will only get you so far. You are entering into an athletic arena and can treat it with the same level of commitment that other sports athletes do. Distance fly casting has put me into an environment which sees me work to forever improve, the assistance work is keeping me healthy and those dormant injuries well at bay.

When it’s utterly pointless to go fishing during any season, I simply go casting & in between casting, I’m training weights… This feels like I am always working towards it. I was lucky enough to catch sight of conditions in Sweden that I am familiar with from home, I took the chance, one which may never happen for me again until I reach Tors age, who knows. One thing for sure is that if the opportunity ever arises again, I know I will have done all I can to try stay on top of my game and should hopefully be ready for it.

Taking a World Championship Gold medal from a field of talented youth, no wonder Tor was smiling…!

Thank you to ALL the members of Piteå sportfiskeklubb and the rest of the Swedish team for welcoming me and putting on a great competition!

I extend huge gratitude to Anna-Karin Wiklund and Stefan Siikavaara for your very kind hospitality during my stay in Sweden.

Thank you for reading.

Lee