The Fly Casting Lesson comical effect on the Rookie Fly Fishers !

In an attempt to match our new found wildly exciting passion for fly fishing and fly fishing trips away with some degree of skill we joined a local Anglers club and were delighted to find they had free casting lessons.

We sauntered into our first meeting and could hardly contain our impatient excitement until the casting lessons began. Just to be amongst it again, the atmosphere, the gear, tackle, flyfishing rods - fisher's heaven ....... mmmmmmnnn should be fun......... We listened to the tips and techniques, then there was a mad rush when to get there before everyone else.

We didn't win the race to cast first and as we waited our turn watching everyone else casting the lines whirred back and forth at high speed in uncontrolled directions. Excitement gave way to fear and panic and to avoid the flicking lines we flattened out against the fence and tried desperately to look nonchalant and relaxed as the lines flew around narrowly missing our faces and swishing our hair. By this stage we were completely freaked out and frozen to the spot in case we got hooked, unable to move as the line flicked around in all directions, controlled by what seemed to us now like a maniac gone mad. I sidled along the fence, glued to the edge and muttered to one of the old hands "isn't it dangerous to stand this close to the castings?" He gave me a horrified look and said "there's no hook on it, its just a fluffy !" To us at a beginning stage of knowhow that meant nothing until we realised that the bright orange indicator on the end of the line was there instead of the hook, not as well.......

Whew ! We cracked up all the way home at how we must have looked and they probably wondered why we looked so weird and could hardly concentrate on the lesson at hand.