Dot com or dot co.uk

I have been ferreting around trying to find out where I have been going wrong (see previous post). If you Google my name I am No1,  numero uno, the big cheese. Type in fly casting instructor and it’s an entirely different kettle of fish. If you use Google.com I get a mention on page 2, if you Google.co.uk you will be considerably older than you are now before you even get a hint I even exist. I think the problem is that WordPress, who host this blog, is a .com so Google assume I am one as well. I am missing out on the entire .co.uk market. The other problem is what  people type in to find an instructor ‘flycasting instructor’,’ flycasting lessons’. Is flycasting one word or two, should there be a dash between fly and casting? Buggered if I know, and if I don’t, I don’t suppose anyone looking for flycasting lessons does either.

 Interesting stuff eh, there is more to this blogging than meets the eye.

 If anyone out there has any suggestions then please let me have them

Idiots Guide to Fly Casting

Not sure where this is going, just make up a title and build something around it. It’s a bit like being lost, you have an idea where you want to get to but you won’t know if you made it until you get to wherever it is you end up, and then discover you went in the wrong direction and have a five mile hike back to where you want to be.

 I don’t really understand why fly fishers are not more interested in flycasting, after all it’s the basis of the whole thing. Do we fly fish for any other reason than that we find an asthetic pleasure in presenting a fly to a fish in such a way that they are fooled into taking something made from metal, fur and feathers. Let’s face it, there are simpler ways of doing it, ones that don’t require such a level of ability to get the bait to the fish.

 I know I managed for years to catch the odd fish without one formal casting lesson, and more to the point, any understanding of the mechanics of flycasting. I have mentioned before that every cast was an adventure, I soon gave up stripping lures because a) I wasn’t casting far enough, and b) I was having to cast every thirty seconds. I soon discovered that I could make one cast fish for ten minutes or more if I put a midge pupa on ( but only one midge otherwise I tangled up). I still caught fish and there wasn’t the anxiety of making repeated casts every few seconds. I may just be naturally talentless, who knows.  I’m not saying my fishing pleasure was any less, I just made sure the wind wasn’t blowing the line into me, it wasn’t blowing straight at me, there were no trees or bushes or fences behind me. Nope, a nice breeze from behind and no obstructions, and I was prepared to walk miles to find the perfect spot!. If I had bothered to learn to cast properly I could have spent many more hours with a fly in the water rather that wandering around trying to find somewhere where the wind was coming from behind.

 Was I, am I, the only fly fisher to suffer this? Surely not.

 I think what I am asking is, why don’t more fly fishers take casting lessons? Are most of them born with the God given talent to cast? Judging by some of the truly appalling casting I see on the banks then the answer is a resounding no. No one needs to false cast twenty times to make a forty foot cast, and then bugger it up by giving the final delivery a mighty heave that collapses the cast. Perhaps they feel the need for some vigerous exercise.

 Someone put up a challenge on Sexyloops a few years ago. Starting with only 20′ of line outside the rod, cast 100′ with only one backcast. With a bit of creative thinking it it’s quite do-able. So, getting your fly back on the water with only two or three falsecasts is what you should be aiming at. If you are on a small river you may not even cast one overhead cast all day, you just roll, snake or spey your way up or down stream. These are all cool casts to learn.

 I know there is a lot more to catching fish than being able to cast properly, but by God it helps.

Why did I do it. Part 1

Surprise, surprise, I have just found another stats page and discovered I do have visitors. Welcome, whoever you are. You don’t have to be embarrassed, there is a comments section and you are more than welcome to add some if you like. I promise not to wrap a five weight around your head the next time we meet.

 So, what shall we discuss this week. As I am a flycasting instructor perhaps I should mention it now and then, not that I am doing much instructing at the moment as it’s not really the weather for it, is it?.

 Why did I become an instructor?. Good question, and a long story.

 I had never considered I was instructor material. Not enough patience, not enough experience and not enough knowledge, not enough of anything really. It started with my first ‘proper’ lesson with Paul Arden. I was rather shocked when he asked me if I had ever considered instructing. I think I laughed at the absurdity of it while at the same time feeling slightly flattered that he thought I was good enough. I now realise it was a devise to get you to think more about the mechanics of flycasting and in that respect it worked because I guess that was the moment the seed was planted.

 Initially I was much more interested in casting a five weight to 100′, when I got to 100′ it then became 110′, and so it went on for a few years until I reached a point where, for one reason or another, I realised I had probably reached my peak as far as distance was concerned and I was beginning to get more interested in the ‘twiddly stuff’ as my wife likes to call it, accuracy, change of direction casts, slack line, curves, mends etc.

 After a while I realised I needed some structure to my practice so I downloaded the FFF CCI casting test and worked my way through it.  At some point I thought I needed to find out how good I was and the only way to do that was to put myself up for testing and that is the moment I decided to become an instructor.

 I will continue this saga over the weekend because my wife and I are being taken out to lunch by one of our sons, I wonder what he wants!