For Immediate Release For the American Casting Association FROM: John L. Field
2006 NATIONAL CASTING CHAMPIONSHIPS IN LONG BEACH, CA.
The 98th American Casting Association (ACA) National Casting Tournament will be held at Long Beach, California July 31 – August 5, 2006. It will be hosted by the Long Beach Casting Club (LBCC).
Some of the world's best casters will compete for trophies, medals and prizes in distance and accuracy events in the traditional ACA casting competition that dates back to the mid 1800s. Several of the champs can cast a fly cast more than 200 feet! One of the most incredible distance accomplishments was turned in by Steve Rajeff at the 2003 National tournament: he cast a 1⁄4 oz. weight 325 feet with a spinning outfit! A 1⁄4 of an ounce is equivalent to the weight of 11⁄2 sheets of 8.5" x 11" stationery paper.
For the accuracy events, 30-inch floating targets are placed at various distances. It often takes a perfect score, or close to it, to win some events in a National. For the plug-accuracy games, targets are placed 40 to 80 feet. In the fly-accuracy events the targets are from 20 to 50 feet. The Bass Bug targets are from 20 to 70 feet.
The accuracy games will be held at the LBCC pool. Located in scenic Recreation Park at 7th Street and Federation Drive in Long Beach, LBCC has its own clubhouse and a 130’ X 255’ oval casting pool. Thus, no matter what wind direction, targets can be placed to give the casters the best possible advantage.
The distance events will be at nearby El Dorado Park, Area III Glider Field.
The schedule is as follows:
July 31 – Practice Day.
August 1, 2 –Distance Events.
August 3 through 5 –Accuracy Games.
August 5 (evening) –Awards Banquet
LBCC has a rich angling and casting history that dates back to 1925. This venerable casting club certainly has ample experience in sponsoring major tournaments. It hosted the ACA Nationals in 1947, 1954, 1961, 1971, 1978, 1984 and 2000!
Many of today's tackle advancements and casting techniques can be directly attributed to tournament casting. It was the tournament casters who developed aluminum spools for casting reels, weight-forward fly line tapers, shooting lines, the double-haul fly casting method, feathering an open-face spinning reel for pinpoint accuracy, fly line calibration system, hook size standards and many other features that are commonly used by anglers today.
For more information, contact
Tournament Captain: Mark Lipe mlipe@elcamino.edu ACA President: Patrick McFadden p.mcfadden@insightbb.com ACA Vice President: John L. Field johnfield@earthlink.net The American Casting Association website: http://www.americancastingassoc.org/