Casting Clubs and Bait Casting

[Terry Battisti]

I've been enthralled with Paul's post on the 204-foot cast and it spurred me to start this post. I grew up close to Long Beach, CA and beloned to the Long Beach Casting Club from 1974 through 1993. I learned to tie flys there and learned to cast a fly rod there in the early years. In 1988, I went back after being idle in fly fishing for a long time. I wanted to brush up on my fly casting.

In the clubhouse, before it burned down, there were 100s of photographs from all decades of the club, many of them of casters using baitcasting equipment. One night I was in the clubhouse looking at the pics and started talking to one of the members about baitcasting and why they didn't do it anymore at the club. He said more people were interested in fly casting and the "new" Spey Casting technique. I asked if I could bring my baitcasting gear the next week (Tuesday evenings was free cast night) and he said sure.

I brought my gear the next week and had a lot of fun. By that time my accuracy with a casting rod was better than it has ever been and my distance was pretty good too. What started as a fun thing for me ended up becoming a weekly thing with many of the members bringing their gear to baitcast.

I left in 1993 to go to graduate school in Idaho and from what I know, the baitcasting at the LBCC stopped. This is pretty much what has happened throughout all the casting clubs in the U.S. from my understanding.

My question is, why did baitcasting tournaments essentially go the way of the Dodo bird? Yes, bass tournaments took over the scene in the late 1960s but that can't be the complete reason. All these casting clubs still exist.....why don't they offer baitcasting anymore?

I would love to see baitcasting competitions reintroduced into the casting scene. So much can be done with a casting rod. Not just distance and accuracy with standard casting. What are your thoughts on this? What am I missing here?

[castmaster54]

The Midwest A C A clubs still have plug casting events. The Cincinnati Open was held on June 22,2024.
The order of events were:
Dry Fly Accuracy
Trout Fly Accuracy
Bass Bug Accuracy

1/4 oz Plug Accuracy (fixed spool)
3/8 oz Plug Accuracy (fixed or revolving spool)
5/8 oz Plug Accuracy (revolving spool)

Fixed spool = Spinning reel
Revolving spool = bait casting reel

It was a great time!
George McCabe

[bassmagnum]

Terry, nice story, brings back memories. I remember that place as well. I think the loss of some of all the clubs, casting and fishing is due to attrition of the older generation, lack of interest in the younger generation which I hold the California government responsible for and You Tube. You Tube is a big culprit because people can now go there to "learn" instead of joining a club where they will get hands on training and information and truly learn the fine arts of casting and fishing. Not going into the California issue because it really riles me by what they're bought and paid for so-called scientists has presented as "science" {"There has to be another reason that the rockfish aren't showing up in your Daily DFG Log other than you're not fishing for them"} I better stop here before this becomes a multipage rant
Ross

[Paul Roberts]

The "New" Pittsburgh Casting Club recently shuttered. With one sad response to the post.

[kyreels]

Terry and others,

I have closely followed the tournament casting scene and have participated in a limited fashion, mostly in the antique casting club events. I have attended two National ACA tournaments as a spectator. There are/were a number of ORCA members that were luminaries in the ACA at the National level, including BJ Farley, David Roberts, George McCabe, Billy Peters, and really many others. When David Roberts stepped down as president due to health reasons at the time, he informed me that the ACA organization was now dominated by the West Coast, and they determined to concentrate on the Fly events, as you have been informed by your local club.

The issue with bait casting (both accuracy and distance) has always been that the equipment used to win the tournaments is not what you can typically acquire to fish with. It is still dominated by older vintage reels and rods. It's getting tougher to find the line suitable for those reels and casting, although there is a movement to the newer lines. The international organization has probably done a better job than the USA in moving to modern equipment and rules and games to support the modern equipment. See the ICSF website for more information on a vibrant and modern bait and spin casting club.

To some extent, I think it just is that new leadership is needed with the people that can mentor and encourage the youth to cast, but I don't think you can do that by sticking to the old equipment and games anymore. While I personally love the vintage tackle and games, it is just not a viable way forward for larger participation. I personally don't think we can blame the internet or other sports for the demise, since archery and other sports continue to be vibrant. We just need a better model like the ICSF. At one point, it seemed that Bassmasters and the tournament fishing folks might take that on, but they have other agendas that are higher priority.

I acknowledge that there are still local ACA affiliated clubs in Ohio and Kentucky and other eastern states that continue the games, but they admit they are dying. This has been the case since the 1960's.

[Paul Roberts]

I did wonder why the old DD reels still dominated the casting events. What is a bit surprising to me is that no one -I guess the ACA- ushered in new tackle as it developed over... the decades now. I was aware of the European casting clubs and their use of modern equipment. I just assumed that that was occurring here too.

[colby sorrells]

Some of those casting at modern casting events use modern tackle. I know Pam Peters likes her Shimanos. Many of the accuracy casters still use reels like the Langley Plugcast (or the Shakespeare 1973) for the accuracy events.

The unlimited casting event is not held at many tournaments. This is where the super modified, hot rod, tackle is used. Reels with very small spools and line smaller than a human hair. The rods are stiff as a broom handle whether they are fiberglass or bamboo.

There are video's on the ACA website showing casters during the events.

Matt Wickham's upcoming book on tournament casting equipment will have excellent discussions about all of this. It is a fun part of our angling history and some of the things the tournament casters did certainly help with casts used while fishing.
If distance is important you can no doubt increase your distance. Almost any reel could be used for the accuracy events and what is really required is practice, practice, practice.

Many of the things learned during the casting events found their way to the tackle sold at the local sporting good store.

I remember Bill Peters telling about being at a modern fishing show and the Shimano rep was making a big deal about Shimano had invented the "New" perforated spool. He was very excited. Bill went over to his table, picked up a 50 + year old Langley and showed it to the Shimano rep. AND Langley didn't invent the idea either! (Mr. Vernon)

ORCA has an excellent representation of folks with casting tournament knowledge. They are willing to discuss any questions about casting you might have. And we have those like Bill Sonnett that regularly use older tackle to fish with today.

Get what tackle you like and fish or cast with it. Practice, Practice, Practice.
Keepin' It Fun!

Colby

[Paul Roberts]

Not surprising that quantifying my efforts has made me look much more critically at the nitty gritty details of casting. Part of this involves no small amount of experimentation and tweaking of setup parameters. When I get a reel set up right it almost casts itself. If one wished to be competitive in this realm, I can se a lot of practice would be required, esp in accuracy events. Competition is not my calling, but there are a number of different casts one could use to good effect when fishing. And It’s fun seeing what I can do with these beautiful old reels.