Deano’s first Casting event of 2009!

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My first casting event of the year was at West Sussex Casting Club (www.sussexcastingclub.tripod.com).

It’s my first event with the Sonik sk4 5-7oz 14ft and I was really looking forward to giving it a real good thrashing!  I started the day on a 175 gram sinker,  0.35mm  main line  (around 15lb)  and 0.80mm, 80lb  shockleader with  minimum of 8 turns round the spool. I made my first cast of the day and I tried to get a reasonable distance down with my first cast to give me something to work with.  My first cast was 228 meters – ok, but nothing great in my eyes. I had a couple more casts around same distance, then on my 5^th cast, I swung the lead back, let it get on the outside to make a nice big arc, came round and started to feel the rod load. I was thinking at this point, ‘here we go,’ so I got into the power stoke and nailed it.  I looked up at my line to see what path it was taking, thinking ‘well it’s in court’ and I started taking the magnets off the reel watching it closely.  Just as the line fluffs, I stop it with my thumb.  ‘Great,’ I think, looking down at the reel and at this point, I can’t wait to get down the field.  So I watch the  other guys cast then as we are making our way down the field, winding in as we go,  a caster says to me ‘What rod are you casting Deano?’  ‘Sonik,’ I reply.  He says ‘What lead you on?’ ‘175g,’ I reply. ‘It sure revolved very fast!’  As we get there I’m thinking it’s got to be over 240 meters.  As Dennis comes over to give the measurement he said ‘242.81 meters; lovely cast!’

So now I decide to cast the 150gram sinker with a set up this time of 0.31mm line (approx 12lb bs) and once again, an 80lb shockleader with minimum of 8 turns round the spool.  I had my first cast and it was around 240 meters. I pulled it out thinking to myself ‘come on, you can do better than that!’ I had two more casts and the best was 245 meters, according to official measurement.  

Right, I’m thinking to myself, come give it some welly this time. I hit it very hard in the power stroke, again winding off the magnets, just as it fluffs I stop the spool.  Lee Adams says to me ‘that’s a good one.’ ‘I hope so mate’ I respond. With this I wound in thinking it could be a good one – certainly over 240m, but perhaps near a 250m.  Dennis comes and measures my cast and says ‘248.75 meters.’

Great, I beat my personal best by over a meter on a 150gram lead and that also beat the back casting club record at Sussex, which I held at 247.8meters 

Overall, I had a good first event and am very, very happy with the sk4, beating my old 150g PB - what more can a man want?

Tight lines and long casting

Deano

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