Rickard Gustafsson | Saturday, 25 October 2025
Where I last had to end my FP was 1:30 in the night. I sent the FP to Paul and got the usual, “Heading out for a fish, have a great day!”. First I needed a great sleep. The following day was a great day. All the days were great days during the event. To me it felt more like a meet up for fellow caster to have fun, share ideas and teach each other than a testing event. The hotel had the good taste to not open breakfast too early so you did get some sleep in the morning. But we were all there when the breakfast opened, except a few that liked to sleep a bit better than some of us. Well I would have liked to sleep a bit longer but couldn’t. Then it was out on the field and spend the whole day there, doing fly casting stuff, then dinner when we ran out of daylight, then hanging in the bar and talking about casting and fishing until late.
Spending a whole day on a lawn is easier than it sounds. You just bring some fly rods and some fly casters and then the day is suddenly over. Bring some tomatoes also.
I got told by Mark Surtes that the tomatoes would be the only thing I would remember. Kind of true, but I do remember other good things from that workshop. Me and the other CIs that stuck around got a teaching workshop from Mark. Fantastic workshop we got there Mark! Too bad that I’m losing degrees of freedom in my mind trying to compose this FP.
In short it was about how to give a student a chance to learn fly casting and get a good introduction. Unfreeze the body, we cannot start to talk about not using only wrist to anyone, we shouldn’t mention that at all. The student needs to see the line to know what’s going on. I got some great tools with me from that session, thank you!
Mark did mention something else during the event. How he felt like the greatest impostor after his CI. I can relate now. That feeling is catching up on me now. How can I be a CI? I’m just a beginner. Coming home from the event I know a lot more about fly casting than going in to the event, but at the same time with a feeling that I know less than before.
How did I end up here? I’m just a beginner and now I shall go out and teach others? It will be both great and a bit scary. But is one of the big next things. I know somethings though, I actually got some good tools going in to this. Hopefully with skills and tools, metaphorical tools not pool noodles or something similar sometimes suggested, to never have a student standing on the field with the same feelings I had in my first contact with fly casting. ”What I’m I doing here? I just want to go home”, ”I cannot do this”, ”This feels impossible”.
Those are the feelings you give your student when you try to learn them with the vertical pickup and laydown as the first drill.
If I can succeed in that, giving all the beginners I hope to meet a good introduction, I will be very happy.
Other things I remember well from the weekend. There have existed very strange jobs through out the time. Like nailing various things to trees that you never expected to be nailed to a tree. I got a lesson in the svirgolato, thank you François!
That Swedish liquorice isn’t appreciated everywhere. I on the other hand found it to make a pint of bitter taste even better.
Foxes smokes weed, at least they can create that smell. I didn’t know that. As I was about to start my test we got a distinct smell of weed. I found it quite strange for someone to go sit close by our testing field and smoke. It didn’t get less strange for me as the assessors told me it’s either that or a fox. I thought they were pulling my leg, but apparently not.
Thank you all at the event for making it an unforgettable experience! And thank you Paul for giving me the idea and guiding me through the process of the CI. I might have gotten the idea by myself sometime but it was you that started it with, ”What’s next? CI?”
England we need to talk! You cannot have 60 mph as a base speed on your roads. 60 km/h would be better fitting. Do you have some kind of death wish? Do you hate seeing the nature while driving? I had a beautiful drive on my way home from the event. It would have been much more pleasant if I didn’t have to be rushed by someone not being able to take that I’m not 60+ everywhere.
Maybe your roads wouldn’t be decorated with dead pheasants. Or at least I would’ve been able to stop and nick some feathers for my fly tying.
I would’ve been able to get a better view of the two border collies herding sheep on the beautiful green hills. At least I found a parking spot so I could go for a walk on the fantastic green hills. I even got to see a roman castle. Quite expensive to pay 12 GBP to walk around a few minutes around some old rocks, but interesting.
So what’s next? Quite a bit of stuff, some very interesting stuff. But I will save those for future writings.
Cheers, Rickard