In 1895 Grant was invited to participate in a local casting competition organised by the local magistrate and angling author, Mr J.H Corballis. Mr Corballis, whose best-known work was Forty Five Years’ Sport, was a keen sportsman and resident of Moniak Castle on the River Beauly. His intention was to invite a selection of notable casters from across the Highland region to take part in a competition to be held from an anchored boat on the River Ness. There would be no switching of the line involved and the cast would simply be executed straight downstream alongside a measuring board, which had been specially constructed for the event. Using a 21ft rod, Grant’s main competitor took his turn from the suspended boat and with a colossal effort, roll cast the great distance of 56 yards. One by one, each remaining competitor took his turn until finally Grant was rowed out to the suspended casting platform. With his trusty bonnet turned back to front (his trademark), he stripped the entire fly line from his reel and made the first of his allocated casts with his 21ft ‘Grant’s Vibration’. It would be fair to say that not only did he win, but he blew the competition clean out the water. His longest cast was officially registered at a staggering 65 yards and was his longest ever recorded cast. What makes his achievement that day on the River Ness so unbelievable was he lifted the entire 65 yards clear from the water and returned it onto the dangle without shooting a single inch of fly line on the forward delivery – pure genius!
Such was the increasing interest in Grant as a caster and his revolutionary Vibration rods, the following year he was invited to London to demonstrate on the River Thames in front of a selected audience of angling journalists. The setting was Kingston-on-Thames and the audience included Mr Crawshay and Mr Wilson from the “Rod and Gun” and the angling editors of the “Land and Water” and “The Field”. The night before the exhibition, Grant attended a pre-arranged appointment with a selected panel of these journalists, for what was basically an interrogation about the casting qualities of his new rods. He asked the distinguished panel “What has been the longest recorded cast ever made?” Mr R.B Marston replied “Forty nine yards and one foot.” (The record held by the then world record holder John Enright from Castle Connell