My Diary UKSF Clubman's 

 September 2001

Had a great time in the UK and whilst I was over I had the opportunity to go to the UKSF Clubman's event at Hunting Racecourse.  The field they use for casting is perfect. Nice cut grass with plenty of room. The organization got the casters through quickly. The measuring was very quick as the field is marked every few meters with cross lines that they measure to your sinker from. Another thing they do to speed up the event is to all walk out as they wind in.  The casting in the UK is some of the best you can see.  They work very hard on get the cast technically perfect. All the casters were more than willing to share information.  Here are a couple of pictures that I managed to get whilst I was not casting. 

Here is a very nifty conversion for the Ultra Mag. Mike Benfield manufactured this and it also fits very neatly into any 6500 ABU that has has the bullet retainer for the spindle.  The last picture is of Mike. Note the mags are set like this as it is set for 125 gram. 

Mag14.jpg (73775 bytes) Mike15.jpg (60799 bytes) mag21.jpg (63955 bytes) Mag22.jpg (66453 bytes) Mag23.jpg (72325 bytes)  Mike25.jpg (66687 bytes) 

Deadly Dennis,  is one of the casters that will be coming to the states, the hairiest caster on earth. Dennis beat me in the UK and he is my target for the worlds.  

Den43.jpg (63364 bytes)  

A little poem about Dennis:

 Its only the hair on a gooseberry that stops it from being a grape.  It only the shirt on Dennis that stops him from being an ape. 

Hear are a couple of shots of casters.

Caster29.jpg (50981 bytes) Caster30.jpg (47330 bytes)

Below is some shots of grumpy Glen. He had the line trap in has hand half way through a great cast, then proceeded to do this dance. Which included rod tossing. Glen was very helpful in giving me pointers and working with me on my cast.  

Glen33.jpg (55669 bytes) Glen34.jpg (56793 bytes) Glen37.jpg (53037 bytes) Glen40.jpg (55817 bytes)

This is Mark who is also coming to the USA for the worlds and is a great cook. See even they get blow ups. 

Mark26.jpg (84959 bytes) Mark27.jpg (71304 bytes) Mark28.jpg (66780 bytes)

One of the best tips I got was bringing my grip closer together. I could not put this into practise at the tournament but it seems to work great in practice.

Just to prove they do fish in England a couple digging for bait on the banks of the river Orwell. (Lug Worms.)

lug44.jpg (81070 bytes) 

Now in Texas they say that everything is bigger, well here is a picture of an English crab that I had for lunch.

Crab13.jpg (82986 bytes)

Regards Nickaway