Paul Arden | Tuesday, 27 June 2023
A week off down in KL, could only mean one thing: a hell of a lot of Zoom lessons when I return to the land of the Battleship! I’m in danger of becoming a full-time casting coach at this rate, which I will avoid, believe me!! I have to; I have at least one long guided fly fishing trip booked every month, for the rest of the year, and there is talk about filming season two of the fishing show I’m hosting – although I suspect filming for that will begin next year. Both of these things will seriously curtail my availability for casting lessons. That said, I can probably bring in one or two more students.
It’s very very close to the point where I have to either bring in an assistant coach or else start a waiting list. And that’s a decision I haven’t made yet. I would say though, that it’s been the best coaching experience I’ve had. There is no question that the past three years of giving online flycasting courses has made me a FAR better coach. I have learned a huge amount in doing this. And my goodness; so have my students!!
Normally in 1-1 one-off lessons I don’t get to share anything like this sort of quality or quantity of information. And what can you really do in a one-off lesson anyway? Not very much!! Two or three pointers and that’s about the limit. But 6 months, a year, two years… of recorded sessions… you can take someone to a very high flycasting level indeed. And what I really like, is that quite a number of my course students are rebooking. And I love that. You build a relationship and over time you can really develop someone’s casting skills. While the 12 session course is fantastic; it’s almost the next course that’s better!
The other good thing I’ve been getting recently, is that I have four students who I would have considered to be relative beginners. No double hauling for example and I think it’s fair to say “dodgy” loop control :D One is now throwing 115’. (Six lessons in and about as many months). I don’t know what he eats for breakfast but he is unbelievable. Another chap, he is flying too. Only two lessons so far; but he is really shifting!!
It seems that the fresher they are, you know without decades and decades of ingrained habits, and of course the lower the current ability, the faster you can develop. If someone is already a high level caster, changes take time. This is actually a very good reason to get lessons early on. I’m now of the opinion that I can move a relative beginner to become an advanced level caster, quicker than an experienced caster who has ingrained everything previously. I didn’t believe that was true in the past and I thought decades of waving the rod around counted for more. But I’ve never taught beginners for 6 months or a year before and that’s been very insightful.
What I haven’t had yet, is someone who has never cast before. Of course getting them to part with 700USD from the outset might be quite difficult. I think you have to know that fly fishing is your thing before you embark on a six months teaching plan! So that’s unlikely to happen. Maybe I could do a 6 sessions course for $400 for complete beginners? That’s possible but it’s not like I have a lot of free time :D
So what else? We have 7 rods in production. The best, finest fly fishing rods on the planet, and possibly the Universe. That’s keeping Lee busy! Remember, every rod comes with a free Zoom flycasting lesson. It’s always nice to meet. I’d really recommend taking this up. I think there are a few guys who bought rods last winter who we didn’t meet at the time. Drop me an email – it’s summer now!!
Yep flat out. Still haven’t uploaded the Bruce Richards interview. I know I know. What is Paul doing in life? It’s coming. Snakehead wrapped the truck last week – sorry not a good photo; I was in a rush to get back to the boat! Have a bull bar on order, hence the front end. Life is good. Right I’m going fishing!
Cheers, Paul
PS here is the course (that I never follow but ultimately it’s all in there!):
Accuracy, OSD, Hauling
Roll cast, 3 stops
Backcast deliveries
Jump Roll
Spey Casts
170
Presentation casts
Presentation Mends
Rod planes/loop planes
Wind, all options.
Line management, quick shots
Trick casts/steeple cast/change direction/ snaps/ tailing loops
If you are training for CCI or MCI it’s a different course. If you are only SW fishing it’s different again. And so on.
Ok… now I’m going fishing!