Well there goes another CLA Gamefair. No more overpriced bacon rolls for 12 months!

A few years ago the CLA started an Open Spey Casting Championship, and found a sponsor to offer a healthy £1,000 prize which stimulated interest - a lot of interest! Casters started travelling from all over the UK and abroad to compete, competition increased, distances increased, more casters appeared. Spey Casting is more popular now that it has ever been and that competition seemed to catch the imagination of salmon anglers and spey casters. I don’t think the CLA Spey Casting Championship created the wave of interest in all things Spey but it certainly helped push it along and as other similar open competitions sprang up in its wake it retained it’s kudos as the first and most desirable championship – the one the casters wanted to win!

At Ragley Hall this year I turned up to watch a few sessions where casters qualify for the final. The measuring ropes were laid out as usual - 30° angle change - with the measuring rope at 90° to the bank. In the past measuring has raised a few eyebrows but this year for the first time a team of surveyors from Geometric set up next to the platform – sighted the fluff on the end of the cast and could measure casts with real accuracy. All the casters appreciated the speed and reliability of the measuring. I’d heard about this system before I reached the platform so I expected to see smiles all round. Sadly, no!

The first cast I saw the caster placed his line down the 30° rope, lifted the heavy 18ft rod a few feet, swept it around to throw 100ft of line into a shallow V shaped loop, raised his arms as if ready to chop wood, and powered forwards. Meanwhile, his loop had formed over the walkway and handrail leading to the platform and not surprisingly his line tangled.

For reasons known only to the CLA organisers, the casting platform was positioned so the line had to be formed over that walkway - over the handrail - and up onto the bank. These are the best Spey casters taking part in what was the premier Spey casting event and the people who lay out the casting platforms clearly don’t know what they need for the event and, more insulting, don’t seem to care.

Little wonder then, despite being pleased by the new measuring system, casters were not happy and the number of international entrants was down. Little wonder when I asked one or two competitors which Spey Casting event they consider the Grand Prix of their sport the CLA Spey Championship is not it! Most mentioned the Spey-O-Rama competition held in San Francisco, others mentioned the World Championship in Flycasting 2010 to be held in Fagernes, Norway on August 13-15.

Personally, I hope the CLA and the S&TA take a long hard look at the way they run these events. They may have been first on the scene but now they look dated and amateurish.

• If you attended the CLA Gamefair this year I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. Write your comments below or contact me on the Forum page.