Gone Fishin

So, what excuse this time for not posting anything for ages? Well, several as it happens, but I wont bore you with the details.

Last year I decided that I was going to return to the fishing scene after I realised I had hardly wet a line in anger for years. Unfortunately events overtook me and it got postponed but this year I joined a syndicate to a six acre lake and have caught more fish in the last six weeks than I have caught in the last six years, a lot more probably. Its so nice not to have to pay for a day ticket and feel you have to stay there to either get your monies worth or catch enough fish to feel satisfied (or blank and go home grumpy). I mainly just snatch two or three hours or get up early and fish until lunch time. There was a big fish kill last year so the water was restocked which meant the new fish were suicidal early season and it was easy to get the ten fish (released) limit but they are getting a bit wiser now, thank goodness, and the fishing is getting more challenging. There are some big fish in there, rainbows and brownies to well into double figures, so I will make it my job to work out how to target them.

On the casting scene things are ticking along. The IFFF now have a program to create certified assessors called the Casting Instructor Certification Program (CICP), and not before time, some will say. I am part of the program and its really altered the way I approach assessing. However, and there is always an ‘however’ with the IFFF, things don’t run smoothly. We have to do certain things to, firstly, qualify to assess CCI and then do more certain things to qualify to assess MCI. The opportunity to be in a situation to do the full list of requirements is limited in Europe. If I had the money I could go to Poland or Italy or Sweden or wherever to do the final couple of tasks to complete my tasks that would allow me to assess MCI ( I am qualified for CCI) but that is not going to happen for various reasons, a, the cost and b, one of the reasons I said I wouldn’t bore you with. Some of the best assessors I have worked with are in the same boat so I can see a log jam of assessments coming up in Europe sometime quite soon.

One bizarre aspect of the program is that a set of casting definitions has been somehow been shoe horned in and they are the same set that were rejected a few years ago. The definitions have strayed away from a basic overhead cast/ roll cast/ spey cast to things which are either add ons to teach, faults to cure or stylistic. The upshot of this is that, as an assessor, I am going to have to shy away from asking any questions that might give me an answer I disagree with but would have to accept because its been defined by the powers that be.

Perhaps I should just stick to fishing