The reasoning was that we had to be the best casters we could be, we had learn all about casting dynamics and have a total understanding of the various techniques and mechanics as well.
Essentially, we felt that to develop great fly rods meant not just understanding fly rods & components but also being able to cast fly rods properly: To cast them so as to be able to assess them more thoroughly and accurately. To work out how to get peak performance from each blank...
My personal casting journey gravitated towards comp casting in distance events. I was lucky enough to have great sessions with John Waters and some very good CCI's from NSFFC helped me along my journey as well.
With improved technique came a greater understanding of how rods could be developed to compliment the technique: To extract every available ounce of power & energy from the rod and achieve maximum performance.
From there, Tony and I developed our "Comp Spec" rods. These rods are used for the 5wt, 7wt and 9wt distance events. Each caster has only 3 minutes to blast as many casts down a casting range with only the best cast counting.
The Comp Spec rods are compliant with the rules of the competition and boundaries of blank construction. We chose the CTS Affinity X blanks as our high performance platform. As it turns out, a very good choice. Our 5wt has been described by John Waters as "an international event winning rod".
To give you an idea of just powerful these 5wt Comp Spec rods that we build are, John has blasted a cast of just over 135' with one!
Today I cast with many other casters in my second year of competition and only my third actual event (I missed a couple last year due to other commitments).
Conditions were anything but favorable. Heavy, cold, still air and constant drizzle making for a very wet event.
I cast our 5wt 9' Comp Spec (SA MED line) 105' 1" to come in 3rd behind John Waters and Matthew Howell (CCI MCI)
In the 7wt event, I cast our 10' 7wt Comp Spec (SA MED line) 106' 9" - many casters commented very positively on this rod. I came in second place behind Matthew.
The surprise result for me was in the 9wt event. We have a 10' 9wt Comp Spec that was unavailable today so I chose to cast our 9' SWoFF Spec: Our saltwater build. Whilst we have many 9wt lines, the only line I could get for today (I'd totally forgot about the line until the last moment!) was an old beat up test line we use for hard surface test casting. I still came in third with a distance of 108' 2" behind John Kruska and Matthew. I was very pleased with that! John incidently was a worthy winner, blasting a huge cast to win the 9wt event.
So overall, a pleasing day of PB's. Thanks to all the competitors for making it a great day regardless of the horrible weather that reflected the ordinary distances achieved. There was a definite wall in those heavy air conditions!
And thanks CTS, for making great blanks that make so-so casterbators like me look good!
And thanks CTS, for making great blanks that make so-so casterbators like me look good!
T.J.
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