[Willie Gunn]

Musto 2004.
Day 1 Scot McKenzie is awesome and leads qualifing with a massive 58yds, Second is James Chalmers 51 Third Steve Choate 50 4th Andrew Toft also 50 Michael McDaid 48 Gary Scott and Way Yin 45. It looks as if 50 yds is needed to qualify, I’m well off the pace with a mere 40.

The lines seem to be either Carron or XLT, and the rods B&W Carron Loomis and Scott.

Musto are really happy to be sponsoring this event again.
Sorry for the brevity but I’m on a lap top mobile phone combination which has the speed of a lame snail

 

[Gardener]

Is Ian Gordon there, and has he cast yet? How about the Irish boys?

 

[juro]

Very exciting! Keep us posted.

 

[Willie Gunn]

Day 2
Wind worse ...on the nose.
1st Scott McKenzie 58 yds
2nd James Chalmbers
Andrrew Toft
Mr Armstrong 51 yds
5th Steve Choate 50yds
6th = Ian Gordon 48yds
Michael McDaid 48yds
Only the top 6 qualify for tomorrow Win Yey is sweating on 47.5 yds he needs the wind to drop tomorrow or he is out.
Ian Gordon likes the new 17.8 CND "THE BEAST" matched with the the new Partridge Spey line a good combination of "fishing tackle" bearing in mind Ian only received the rod last week.

 

[fredaevans]

Go Way Yin!!

Would be a bummer if the fellow who was # three the past two years in a row (and lent the winner the fly line to do it) got knocked out of the compition.

 

[stephen holden]

musto 2004 thanks willie gunn

willie gunn,thanks for going to the trouble of posting the info on the musto spey casting competition,I am not well enough to make it to this years event due to ongoing treatmet for cancer,so it s great to be able to read about how the competition is developing- good look to all the guys competing I hope the wind drops a bit tommorow

 

[North Island]

Brilliant play by play

To me you sound just like Jackie Stewart (sp) typing.

All kidding aside Thanks N I

 

[Willie Gunn]

Results

Today was really exciting with Ian Gordan & Mike McDaid having to have a sudden death shoot out for the last qualifying place, with Big Ian just winning by 1yard.

First Scott McKenzie 59yds new world record
2nd Andrew 54 yds
3rd = Steve Choate & Ian Gordan 53
5th Gortdan Armstrong 52
6th James Chalmers 50
The wind did not help the early casters but this is the luck of the competetion.

Scott was using his B&W Norway and an XLT line. More info when I get home

 

[andre]

WG,

Can you get a MPEG, AVI,.... of a couple of the casts?

Cool stuff keep it coming, BTW, did you get the Cascapedia?


andre

 

[juro]

Andre - great idea! I'd love to see the power and grace that is getting these champion distances. Anyone have a video camera out there?

 

[Willie Gunn]

Home again home again, if you boys think I'm downloading images from a dodgy mobile phone link on my lap top in the middle of a field, please think again.....

Tackle news,
Scott was using the XLT and B&W Norway 18 ft or 17 11" for the pedantic.
Andrew James and Gordon were all using Carron lines of a 105' head length and the big Carron rods.
Ian was using a CND rod of 17' 8" with a long bellyied Partridge line 105 ft as well.
Steve had his big Loomis and an XLT.

Other Results in the Over head Salmon distance the winner was WAY YIN a very popular win................

I will endevour to get some of the photos from the publicity company I was far too interested in the competition to attempt to take any photos myself, But Scott moves his rod tip through a huge distance when he is casting unbelievable.

 

[Gardener]

Scott moves his rod tip through a huge distance when he is casting unbelievable.

The other thing that struck me about Scott's style was how low his rod was as he brought it back. The result was that his d-loop was low - very much a > rather than a D-loop, in fact. This meant that his forward delivery was very high, and the casts kept climbing as the line extended, too. He gets amazing flight on his delivery. He was also extrordinarily efficient and got many casts into his 3 minutes. But all six finalists were fantastic to watch.

The wind was certainly a factor. I thought Steve Choate and Ian Gordon were both unlucky, with casts that only just drifted inside the rope (although I don't think they would have beaten Scott).

I wonder how a left hander would have fared? The wind would certainly have favoured them, not only in filling the loop but also requiring a smaller angle change, especially with the wind as it was. Mind you, they might have wrapped the line round Michael Evans's neck, given the closeness of the platform to the bank! Would a l/h single spey have been allowed?

As I noted elsewhere, the improvements in distance are remarkable. 51yds was the winning cast in 2002 and 2003. This year, in far from optimum conditions, that would only have come 6th. So who's going to break the 60yd barrier first?

 

[juro]

I hope someone posts video or photos to help understand what Scott is doing. Fascinating stuff!

 

[Willie Gunn]

The wind was certainly a factor. I thought Steve Choate and Ian Gordon were both unlucky, with casts that only just drifted inside the rope (although I don't think they would have beaten Scott).?

strange how the wind always drops as the Musto final progresses....last year was exactly the same....when it actually favoured Ian G what goes around comes around

I wonder how a left hander would have fared? The wind would certainly have favoured them, not only in filling the loop but also requiring a smaller angle change, especially with the wind as it was. Mind you, they might have wrapped the line round Michael Evans's neck, given the closeness of the platform to the bank! Would a l/h single spey have been allowed??

Yes a left handed speycast would have been allowed but I think most of the casters still favoured the right hand up. Mathew the only lefthander in last years final failed to make the final this year but did well in other events.

As I noted elsewhere, the improvements in distance are remarkable. 51yds was the winning cast in 2002 and 2003. This year, in far from optimum conditions, that would only have come 6th. So who's going to break the 60yd barrier first?

I hear Scott is fast approaching 70yds and surprised the markers with an early cast on Friday that they estimated as 59yds when the wool was actually behind them and Scott was already stripping it back for another go. It was almost as if he was dancing when he stripped in all that line.

 

[Andy Wren]

Some where

Somewhere earlier on another board ,someone was planning to win the Musto with a 9 foot rod ,Malcom Charles was there any sign of this ??? :lildevl:

 

[Gardener]

Andy, since the person in question has recently joined these boards I'll let him speak for himself.

I had a pm from him at the end of last week explaining that, for reasons beyond his control, he wasn't able to make it to Blenheim. But he tells me he's consistently speycasting 48 meters with a 9' rod, which would have got him into the finals, at least!

 

[Berlin]

Somewhere earlier on another board ,someone was planning to win the Musto with a 9 foot rod ,Malcom Charles was there any sign of this ??? :lildevl:

Hi Andy,

That was me and as Gardener said, events transpired against me in the run up for the show..

It took ages to finally get a SH that loaded the T38 rod, allowed good turnover and still conformed to the 2.5 mm maximum dameter floating line restrictions. I ended up with virtually all of a DT 9 as the head, with a 15lb hauling line and 6lb siliconed Stren as running line.

A thumb injury and a girlfriend that parted company with a horse meant I could not attend.

Scott's (extraordinary) cast of 59 meters means would I would not have been in the top 6 anyway, but it would have been fun to try.

There's always next year

Well done to all who took part and congratulations to the winners Scott and Way.

Cheers,
Carl

 

[Cascade]

Willie,
thanks for all the news, great information for us who were unable to attend !
Peter.

 

[Willie Gunn]

Peter,
I enjoyed the crack, but things have really moved on from last year. Brendon was struggling a bit with his Spey Casting but I noticed he made the finals of the Salmon Distance.
The Scots really ran away with the top six places with only Steve Choate stopping it being an all Scottish final.

 

[fredaevans]

"Berlin," welcome!! to our side of the posting pond.

Good to see you join us on the US board. You've already noticed a number of 'names' you're framilier with on both fff and wwfff.
fae

Again, thanks to Malcolm. Still no info up on Musto's Home Page on the compitition.
:>(