Fly Casting and Kids

let 'em grow 

I just returned from a fancy weekend at a fly-fishing conclave complete with professional fly tyers demonstrating their skills, television stars--truly fishing experts-- telling fishing stories, and fly casting experts leading classroom and on-the-grass-fly casting lessons.

The setting was fun, a resort on the banks of Crystal River on the west coast of Florida.  It was a saltwater fly fishing event where long distance casting was promoted and the flies being tied were for fish like redfish, snook and sea trout.  In “the salt” anglers are often faced with casts beyond 60 feet.

The average age of the attendees was around 65, with one teenager in attendance, along with his dad for the father-son warmth of it all.  I didn’t see one kid under fifteen fly casting or in an indoors clinic.  

Abel fly reels and Winston fly rods and the latest tropical fishing clothing were all around.  $1500 rod and reel outfits were common.  These guys--95% were men--fly fish all over the world.  To put cost in perspective, one of their fly fishing setups cost more than all the fishing tackle--spin and fly and plugging outfits combined-- that the best fisherman I know owns--a redneck from Ft. Pierce who can throw a fly farther than all but a very few of the pros at the conference.  I’m talking waay over the top, high priced gear.  

The boats being promoted at the entrance to the show were the most expensive fishing skiffs on the market, costing upwards of $50,000 for a sixteen-footer.  They all had poling platforms that doddering old guys with stiff knees are well advised to stay off of.  Most of the owners hire youthful guides to do the poling for them or, more likely, the boat is just a bragging tool saying, “Look at me.  I’m a fly fisherman!”  They’re the high-end fishing equivalent of the latest Porsche.

You get the idea:  these were five hundred high-end fishermen who support the fly fishing industry, avid fly fishermen.  I was looking forward to seeing the old boys lay out long casts at the casting seminars, but it never happened.  Very few could cast worth a hoot!  Why they can’t is a mystery.  

One measurable common denominator in casting is the distance you can throw a fly.  To make casts of, say, eighty to a hundred feet, the caster must do a number of things correctly.  He must learn the “double haul,” a technique that speeds up the line’s movement through the air.  A caster who can double haul has mastered the cast well enough to manage shorter casts with ease, casting accurately in a variety of conditions...from a boat, in a stream, while wading on a bonefish flat on a windy day.  

I’ve been on bonefish trips to faraway places with men who can barely cast out of their shadows.  Why do they go?  Florida Keys guides who fish for permit regularly have clients show up whose only experience with a fly rod is casting in small mountain streams with very light fly rods.  They expect the guide to teach them how to catch a permit on a fly, the wariest of Keys gamefish, while standing on the bow of a skiff in conditions that are frequently adverse, with rough water and high winds.  It’s an impossible task, yet these anglers seem to think that fly fishing, all fly fishing, is the same, that they’ll learn in a day on the water to cast a fly 80 feet with a 10 wt. rod.  

To fish with a nymph in a small stream you can get by without ever making a real cast, just by dangling the fly in the water or flipping it with the end of the rod as you would with a cane pole.  Some people call that fly fishing.  It bears no relationship to saltwater fly casting, though it might be fun.

Yesterday a local fly casting professional told me that after fifteen years of teaching fly casting, he’s still amazed to see how difficult it is for reasonably athletic people.  A tiny percentage, according to him, learn to cast well.  A common occurrence for him is to have a wealthy client show up for a private lesson wanting to be taught to fly fish for a trip the following week.  That won’t work, that dog won’t hunt.  Why do so many people think fly casting is easier to learn than hitting golf or tennis balls?  It’s truly a mystery.

Billions are spent trying to convince sports-minded people that it’s easy, which is all one big lie.  It looks so simple when an expert makes a long cast and all that line goes through the air.  I think it’s unique in sports, this major misunderstanding.

There is no magic wand or fly rod that can turn a poor caster into a good one.  Many of the most expensive rods sold actually make casting more difficult for all but the experts.

Here’s the best way to learn: hire a pro and be prepared to take at least six private lessons over as many months, more if you can afford it.  Call any fly shop for the name of a local instructor who’s certified.  Take short lessons--a half hour is plenty at one time-- and avoid an instructor who insists on telling you all about the mechanics, the technical aspects of the rod’s energy carrying the line and fly, all the theory bullshit.  You can learn that after you learn to cast.  Do not confuse yourself by watching casting DVDs.  Don’t let a well-meaning friend make suggestions while you’re casting.  Stick with your expert.

It’s all purely physical at the beginning.  I like to compare it to learning the game of golf, but I think fly fishing is more difficult once you add in the knots, lines, flies and fly tying, specialized gear, boat knowledge and fishing experience required to learn how to handle a fish once you have one on your line.  Face it:  it’s going to take a lot of effort.  Once you get beyond the very basics, it begins to be fun, and casting’s a lifetime skill you can practice almost anywhere without ever wetting your line.

The most important element in learning is a commitment to regular brief practice sessions at least three times a week, with achievable goals. It’ll be embarrassing at times and can be very frustrating.  It’s not easy, despite how it looks when it’s done right.(that mystery again) Take your time.  Make your cast smooooth, not jerky.  It begins with a slow motion, gets faster, then abruptly stops.  It looks so simple, and it is.  Keeping it simple while you’re learning is difficult.

You’ll want your own inexpensive fly rod outfit from the start, which your pro can help you with. (You can buy a rod, reel and line that’s more than adequate at Cabela’s for under $85, shipping included.  I suggest the Wind River outfit, a 9 foot, 5 weight rod.) Set up a casting area on any lawn or park with short grass.  Walk off a starting distance your pro suggests based on your first lesson, say, thirty feet, and practice casting that far.  (Take notes of the pro’s instructions and corrections to your casts so you can refer to them later when you’re practicing by yourself.  I use a clipboard I can refer to, then drop on the grass.) 

When you can reach that distance regularly, pick out a few spots on the grass within that range or make your own with small objects--a cap or jacket or a stick-- and try to cast to them-- left, right, into the wind, across the wind.  As your casting improves over time, add a little more distance to your target, a few feet.  Practice until you feel comfortable at that distance, then head back to the pro, always with longer casts being your goal, and accuracy at the new range.  When you reach around forty feet you’ll begin to feel that you’ve reached your limit.  Then your instructor will teach you a magic technique called, the “double haul”, which really adds fun to casting and makes long casts possible.

When you get to around seventy five feet you’ll begin to see how much easier it is to cast shorter distances more accurately and faster, and you’ll be managing your line with more ease.  That’s what happens when you’re fishing--the fish move all around, and you need to make quick casting adjustments.  What to do with all that loose line is a major part of fly fishing.  Cast seventy five feet, then bring in your line quickly and cast to an imaginary fish fifty feet away in another direction. Now, fast...another target, a different distance.  You’re on your way.  

Now, does that seem like a regimen for a kid?  Of course not, yet for the last thirty five years at least, the entire fly fishing industry and every fly fishing club in the country has focused on teaching kids to fly cast.  They call it, “planting the seed.”  Countless thousands of kids under twelve years of age have been subjected to old farts waving fly rods, “showing” them how to cast.  The old guys love to position themselves as “teachers,” yet, mysteriously, most of them are poor casters themselves.  It’s all about the egos of the old guys, and it has never been successful.  Not one child in fifty “gets it,” and is able to cast effectively.  Sure, there are a few kids who catch on, and they’re trotted out as examples.  The rest go home frustrated and embarrassed, and will not come back to fly fishing if they can avoid it in their lifetimes, having been humiliated in front of their family, friends and strangers.  No wonder the fly fishing industry is suffering, dying off, and fly fishing shops all across the country are failing.  It’s all built on one lie-- that it’s easy.  

And, don’t forget that the cast is only one part of the fly fishing equation.  Then come the knots, the tackle and its elaborate rigging, the flies, the expense of the rod, reel and line, the need to travel to find fishing locations from shore, or a boat to fish from, and on and on.  Each of those steps are difficult for the little guys and require a commitment from parents similar to baseball, golf and tennis; countless hours and lots of money and car time.

Companies like Orvis know their marketing, and sell the old guys new tackle and fancy sweaters by supporting the idea of rich old duffers teaching kids.  Whatever the rich guys want is what the tackle companies support.  The folks at Orvis know it doesn’t work.