Well I have just returned home from 3 weeks in America. It was an absolutely superb trip. Here is a slideshow of the trip.
I went over there with Peter Hayes (who is a Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) Master Casting Instructor, a fishing guide, and one of, if not the best, fly casting instructor in Australia he can cast alright too! We met another mate of ours Randall Trethewie (a FFF Certified Casting Instructor) over there as well. Both Peter and Randall are from Tasmania (Cressy and Launceston respectively).
My Diary notes can be found using the links to the right 2008-USA but in short, we spent 3 weeks together and got up to all sorts of mischief. For instance, we:
- visited the Sage factory in Seattle;
- fished in Montana for a week with another mate of ours Chuck Ravetta who is a fishing guide at the Big Hole Lodge on the Wise River when he isnt spending 3 months of the year fishing in New Zealand). Chuck is a great bloke to spend time with and is an outstanding fisherman. I learnt a lot from him - for instance the right and wrong way to get into a raft (yes I took an impromptu swim while getting into the raft on our first day). Oh and thanks for the sympathy Haysie, I reckon he ended up as wet as I did laughing sooo hard....... who brought him;
- someone we know (who shall remain nameless) had too much to drink one night and ended up having a little vomy in the sink the next morning. Not one of Peter's finer moments
- attended the Federation of Fly Fishers 2008 Conclave at Whitefish in Montana. We got to hang out with some of the best casting instructors in the country and I can speak for all when I say we had a great time. The Conclave holds special significance for me, as I sat for and passed the FFF Masters test to become Australia's 3rd FFF Certified Master Casting Instructor (and number 164 in the world, there are also about 1030 CCIs at last count). As you can imagine I was pretty happy, but I can tell you that I put in the work for it. I spent most nights and most weekends for 3 months prior to the test pracitising my casting and reading about teaching/fly casting.
Just to let you know what it was like, I was tested by 3 people, John Breslin a member of the Board of Governors, and 2 other Masters, Molly Semenik and Rod McGarry. I was very fortunate as 3 finer people you could not meet. The test ran for 4.5 hours and consisted of an oral exam on theory, explanations of how to teach various casts, fault diagnosis of casts performed by the certifiers and then a performance test. The test can be found at the FFF website . John, Molly and Rod went out of their way to make me feel relaxed and comfortable during the test, which was great as the testing process can hardly be said to be a stress free environment.
I felt justifiably proud of my performance, and I will say this about the Americans, if you succeed at doing something then they are generous with their praise. That night at the FFF dinner I had people I didnt know coming up and congratulating me. It was only then that I found out that of the 5 candidates that sat that test I was the only one that passed! This seem consistent with some Masters tests held in Japan earlier in the year when only 1 of 6 passed. I was one happy little Aussie battler.
- spent a day with the great Lefty Kreh. He is a top bloke and an great entertainer.
- I then went and spent 4 days checking out New York, while Peter went and fished the Bearverkill in upstate New York and met Joan Wulff. I will let Monsieur Hayes tell you all about that.
So in short it was a fantastic time.
I want to thank Peter Hayes and Matt Howell (Australia's second FFF Master, Peter was the first one in Australia to pass the test - I think only about 2 weeks before Matt) for all the time and effort they gave me in answering my questions and talking through things with me. I want to also thank Brian Henderson who is a CCI and lives and runs a fabulous casting school in Jindabyne for the assistance he provided me as well. I can wholeheartedly recommend Brian's skills as an instructor and his venue as being first class, plus he and his wife Anne are outstanding people and great fun to hang around with! (In fact Brian is my tip to become Australia's 4th Master). So thanks guys!
Simon
August 08
PS I was right about Brian, he passed his MCI test in October of 2009 to be come Australia's 4th FFF Master. Peter Morse also passed a day or so later - he is number 5.