Fly events were in casting since its very beginning. Event at the picture from Olympic games in London (1908) we can se a man staying above the water and casting with fly fishing rod. Probably trying to hit the target on water as he looked below himself. At the beginning caster was trying to lead fishing line in the air trying not to touch the water below him. Ability to hit area inside a floating target was counted.
Today we have target laying on the grass ground so wind is not moving targets when it comes. For better visibility of hitting the target by fly the targets are filled by water.
In the past the targets were 75cm in diameter for fly skish and 60cm for fly combination. Since rule changes at 1993 fly combination disappeared and fly skish took the 60cm targets. for holding water border is 3cm high. Mostly the targets are black and plastic but metal targets of green, blue, brown or any dark color are allowed.
The event check several abilities of caster. The main point of event is ability of caster to lead fly fishing line in the air without touching ground. Length of line in the air is being changed so another ability is to change the length during leading the line from 8 meters to 15 meter, etc. (including the leader and tip).
And last ability is to hit the target. By leading the fly fishing line stop the cast, stretch the line and let the fly hit the place inside the target. That counts.
All the abilities caster proves by casting at 5 targets in different distances and by two casting techniques. Dry casts simulate dry fly fishing. Fisher takes the fly from water and makes false casts to get rest of water out of the fly before putting the fly back on the water surface. So while dry cast caster does at least one false cast before trying to hit the target. Wet casts simulate wet fly fishing. There is no need to make the fly dry so no false cast is necessary. And so wet casts does not allow false casts. Just moving the line laying on the ground closer to next target and then making the cast.
There is still the idea of fishing from land where the place is higher than the water surface. So we use something like table and stand above the targets. In past some caster were walking on the table so now there is a rule that at least one foot must be at the front border of the table.
No rules how big the table shall be. There is only minimum range - 1.5 meter long, 1.2 meter wide and 0.5 meter high.
Mostly no one uses such big table for training. For casting this event almost a chair is enough. But regular tables are used at competitions.
All the 5 targets lay in a line. Table stands in front of them just against the 3rd target. The closest target is on the left side.
First target is at 8 meters from the table. Last target is 13 meters from the table. Between each two targets shall be 1.8 meter distance, measured at the centers of the targets.
Caster has 20 casts. There are 2 casts for dry fly and 2 cast for wet fly. Each hitting the area inside the target counts for 5 points, missing the target is zero. You can gain 100 points if you hit all targets.
Cast could cast from morning to evening and no else caster would have change to cast too. So for making the event casting faster, there is a rule about maximum time allowed for the event. Caster has 5 minutes and 30 seconds for making all the 20 casts. After the time all the remaining targets are classified by 0 points. But only children have problem to get all the 20 cast under the time limit. Usually we cast it in 3 minutes. World championship is different. Most points determine the winner, in case of more casters with same result faster time determines the winner. So there are casters able to cast the event in 1 minute.
Jana Maisel (Germany) was fantastic in that event. She won it 14 times. The fastest 100 point cast was done at 1 minute and 23 seconds (Kalmar, 2000).
Frode Semb (Norway) is another great legend. Rumors say that he finished the event at 1 minute when he wanted to be sure that he would cast 100 points. The fastest archived result says that he was able to cast 100 points for 54 seconds (Berlin 2003).
In Czech lands Ivan Zelenka (Nový Bor) was great guy wining this event at European or World championship 4 times.
For first we won it in Karlovy Vary (1982) as first Czech man, the last was at Bordeaux (1990).