I've heard about old school casting competitions, but can't find any details. What was involved? What kind of accuracy and distances would one need to be proficient with?

 

I might just set something up with my buddies if I can get them into it.

We used to set up targets around the front yard and basically play HORSE, flipping, pitching, over/under obstacles. 1/2 oz jigs with the hook cut off. 44oz Circle K cups make great targets, knocking bottles over….it could get pretty wild. 

45 minutes ago, ElGuapo928 said:

We used to set up targets around the front yard and basically play HORSE, flipping, pitching, over/under obstacles. 1/2 oz jigs with the hook cut off. 44oz Circle K cups make great targets, knocking bottles over….it could get pretty wild. 

Pretty much exactly what we used to do when I lived in Florida. Knocking stuff off the top of bottles as another fun one 

If you have a washer board game , you can have a pitching competition. Ive done it alone.

 

Japanese fishing magazine did one a few years back, Kagiya is a Jackal tournament pro, Yoshida is a bank fishing specialist, not sure about Kawashima

I had a co-worker that would cast plugs to tea cups. He had some trick casts too. One of those guys that did whatever he did to a very high level, or didn't do it at all.

Back in the day, 90's and 2000's, Academy Sports had leading Pros giving free seminars and casting contests for the youngsters -- boys and girls. The Pro's would do demonstrations with their casting skills casting lures into coffee cups and the like. Good times ... 

Good Fishing

I am positive I could win a backlash contest.

Around 1991 or so BASS started the Casting Kids competitions.  Every trade show, tournament, etc  had a booth set up.  They would have regional qualifiers and then the national tournament.  We really looked into it then because we were doing club tournaments and I was pretty good for a kid at the time.  The competitions would be cans, buckets, or some other bullseye target on the ground that you had to hit or get close to, all of varying distances.  

19 hours ago, king fisher said:

I am positive I could win a backlash contest.

Beat this LOL

Some guys brag about 10-pounders, I brag about 10-foot backlash tangles. Step up if you think you can hang — I’m the undisputed backlash champ until proven otherwise

 

Back in the late 60’s and 70’s as young guys we use to do that stuff up at the farm a lot with fly and spinning rods. Not a real competition just to mess around during lunch or break time. We would bass fish but it was more about trout fishing when I was a kid. But it is all the same. It’s all good practice. Especially in the backyard. 

1 hour ago, Spankey said:

Back in the late 60’s and 70’s as young guys we use to do that stuff up at the farm a lot with fly and spinning rods. Not a real competition just to mess around during lunch or break time. We would bass fish but it was more about trout fishing when I was a kid. But it is all the same. It’s all good practice. Especially in the backyard. 

 

I worked at a fly shop one summer where the other guy and I would be on the front lawn all the time doing that.  We wanted to make sure we were familiar with all the rods of course...

 

I think we wore out a couple of the lawn lines that summer.  the 8'9" st croix bob clouser special 7 wt was a favorite.

I'm in a casting competition every time I go out on Lake Menderchuck.

Some days I fare better than others.

But I'm always in the game. 

A-Jay

 

Distance? Pretty much everybody on the interweb but me, can cast all the line off their reels. 

I'm not really into distance, nor am I into trick shots. Accuracy is my concern. I do cast for distance sometimes when fishing, but it's not my thing.

My Dad and I used to go to fishing rodeos. He was considered a master with a fly rod. He held seminars and help teach youth groups fly fishing.

     There was bait caster and spinning  contest too. They placed what looked like a hula hoops out in a field. The subtracted the missed hoop from your distance and so forth.

The long distance casters had huge rods and round bait casters, they would wind up and spin taking a few steps forward and let it rip. I haven’t seen or heard about any fishing competition in years, do they still have them. Not that they were on Wide World of Sports or anything.

When I was a kid, one of the boat shows we went to had a row of buckets for kids to pitch a casting plug into, kind of like the old Bozo the Clown Show (which prepared many of our generation to be beer pong champions). 
 

They had prizes for each bucket, going up in value. I hit the second to last bucket and got a Cardinal 752 reel. 

When I worked at a fishing lodge in Alaska, we had  fly  casting contest for $1000 every year.  The owner would give the winner another $1000 if they could beat him.  It started off as simply a distance fly casting contest.  In later years it was a contest similar to golf.  The target was three long casts away.  You kept casting until you hit the target. They positioned the course in a way, that a person could lay up and get to to the target in 3 good long casts, or go straight over an obstacle, and maybe get there in two casts.  If you tried the direct route and failed, you would have to waste a cast directly to the side making it a minimum of four casts to get there.  I was never a great distance caster and was usually far from being the winner.   One year the expected winner didn't even bother to watch my second cast. I would normally take the lay up rout, but felt lucky. On my second cast  I launched the best cast of my life and put the fly within a couple feet of the target which if I remember right was a normal size Frisbee.  All the guides and guests started yelling, thinking they had seen the biggest underdog upset in sports history.  I just touched the target with the fly reeled all the way to  the tip for my third cast.  When the expected winner heard all they yelling and saw me dancing around like I had won the Superbowl, he assumed I had hit the target in two casts.  The pressure was on, but the other guide nailed it, and landed the fly right on the target in two casts.  He was so relieved when he found out that he didn't have to be in a cast off, that indead my touching the target with the rod tip was considered a third cast.

 

I wish they would have had a contest for spinning rods, I probably would have won every year, and if they had upped it to baitcasters, I would have never lost.  Most of the guides didn't even know how to cast a baitcaster.  They were artists with fly rods, but could backlash a baitcaster just by picking one up.   

 

I don't know who cried the most that night.  Me or the Bait Monkey.  At that time in my life the Monkey would only leave me with a little money for beer and I had to share it with him.  Every dime I had he spent.  I can remember push starting my POS car because I didn't want to spend the money for a new starter, all the while trying to decide if I wanted a new 7 wt. or a new 8 wt. fly rod.  The Monkey sitting in the passenger seat smiling why I Pushed, jumped in dropped the clutch and hoped for the best.  I'm glad the closest store that sold beer, was on a hill I could park on, and the fly shop was close by.     

44 minutes ago, king fisher said:

When I worked at a fishing lodge in Alaska, we had  fly  casting contest for $1000 every year.  The owner would give the winner another $1000 if they could beat him.  It started off as simply a distance fly casting contest.  In later years it was a contest similar to golf.  The target was three long casts away.  You kept casting until you hit the target. They positioned the course in a way, that a person could lay up and get to to the target in 3 good long casts, or go straight over an obstacle, and maybe get there in two casts.  If you tried the direct route and failed, you would have to waste a cast directly to the side making it a minimum of four casts to get there.  I was never a great distance caster and was usually far from being the winner.   One year the expected winner didn't even bother to watch my second cast. I would normally take the lay up rout, but felt lucky. On my second cast  I launched the best cast of my life and put the fly within a couple feet of the target which if I remember right was a normal size Frisbee.  All the guides and guests started yelling, thinking they had seen the biggest underdog upset in sports history.  I just touched the target with the fly reeled all the way to  the tip for my third cast.  When the expected winner heard all they yelling and saw me dancing around like I had won the Superbowl, he assumed I had hit the target in two casts.  The pressure was on, but the other guide nailed it, and landed the fly right on the target in two casts.  He was so relieved when he found out that he didn't have to be in a cast off, that indead my touching the target with the rod tip was considered a third cast.

 

I wish they would have had a contest for spinning rods, I probably would have won every year, and if they had upped it to baitcasters, I would have never lost.  Most of the guides didn't even know how to cast a baitcaster.  They were artists with fly rods, but could backlash a baitcaster just by picking one up.   

 

I don't know who cried the most that night.  Me or the Bait Monkey.  At that time in my life the Monkey would only leave me with a little money for beer and I had to share it with him.  Every dime I had he spent.  I can remember push starting my POS car because I didn't want to spend the money for a new starter, all the while trying to decide if I wanted a new 7 wt. or a new 8 wt. fly rod.  The Monkey sitting in the passenger seat smiling why I Pushed, jumped in dropped the clutch and hoped for the best.  I'm glad the closest store that sold beer, was on a hill I could park on, and the fly shop was close by.     

Sounds like a wild time. Thanks for sharing.

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