I learned way before there were VCR tapes - DVD's - or You Tube.
For ten years I was a hacker, thrashing around with a fly rod relying on the gift of good hand to eye coordination to avoid hooking my own head. After those ten years of no instruction whatever and thinking I was doing OK I had an experience that changed everything. ....
Part One:
http://www.theflyfishingforum.com/forums/blogs/hardyreels/124-we-dont-get-way-overnight.html
Part Two:
http://www.theflyfishingforum.com/f...s/123-we-dont-get-way-overnight-part-two.html
Ard
I suggest every Newbie read Ard's story.
My own accounts somewhat mirrors his. I have been fishing since I was about 6 years old. When I was in Utah for my Radiology Residency, I decided it was time to learn how to fly fish. So I bought a quality Fenwick FF series Fiberglass Fly Rod, a Berkley fly reel and a Cortland fly line. I got a copy of Jim Green’s
Fly Casting From the Beginning. After all, I had been fishing for well over 25 years and how hard could it be?
How hard? Just about impossible BECAUSE I had been spin fishing for so long. My muscle memory was programed for a spin fisher’s windshield wiper casting motion. I even took a trip to the Provo River, hoping that moving water might help me cast. It was a disaster.
There was no internet. There was no fly video instruction. I put the rod, reel and line away until I could afford some personal instruction.
Fast forward several years until I finished my medical training and had some disposable income. I signed my wife and I up for a weekend Fenwick Fly Fishing class taught by Gary Borger. He was the Midwest Director for the Fenwick courses and the Midwest Editor for Fly Fisherman Magazine. In one weekend, I had a basic set of casting exercises and I knew what a proper casting motion looked and felt like. I could cast and I had an introduction to entomology and fly fishing techniques. What I did not know at the time was that Gary lived in the same city I did and that our friendship was just beginning.
So my “Old Man’ was a thirty something Gary Borger. Gary would go on to make the very first fly fishing instructional video for Scientific Anglers and then videos and books under his own company. I lucked out.
Here are segments from his original video for you to view.
#1 - Introduction and insects
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvSDjHgo0UY[/ame]
#2 - Roll cast and knots, shotgunning riffles
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ksa8KmVWuo[/ame]
#3 - Overhead pick up and lay down cast, false casting, reach mend, parachute down and across downstream mend
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_C1EotGPlY[/ame]
#4 -Midges
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbUFUMwgqWo[/ame]
#5 - Caddis, Stonefly, Sinktip line & Leisering lift.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WZbM1H8k0Y[/ame]
#6 - Brooks method, Stoneflies,
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plfVb30yFyY[/ame]
Gary has told me a few stories about the filming of his videos.
I do know that some that video was filmed at $3 Bridge before they took the old wooden bridge down and replaced it with the metal span.
Gary told me the story of one day when the film crew set up on the bridge, and he was downstream getting ready for the director to start filming. That was in the days of 35mm film and it was expensive to burn film expecting Gary to catch a trout on command.
Gary was set up on a spot that he was sure held fish. So when the director called, "Action!", Gary cast and hooked into a good fish. He fought that fish for quite a while, and by the time he brought that fish into the net, quite a crowd had gathered on the bridge. It turned out to be a big whitefish, disappointing Gary, the director and the crowd.
Another time Gary and the crew were setting up at Buffalo Ford on the Yellowstone River in Yellowstone Park. Allow me to digress with a bit of a backstory. The illustrator for Gary's first two books, "Naturals" and "Nymphing," was our mutual friend Bob Pils, who was a commercial artist at Wausau Insurance Company, the sponsor of 60 minutes on CBS in the 70's.
Bob Pils taught at Gary's midwestern Fenwick Fly Fishing Schools, and Bob had two sons who are fantastic fly fishers. The younger Andy Pils was about 10 years old at the time and he was fishing at Buffalo Ford several days earlier. I've seen Andy out fish anglers 3 times his age including yours truly, and this time was no exception. Andy was out fishing and out catching everyone around him. So picture little Andy Pils and hold that thought.
Then comes the Scientific Anglers/3M film crew to Buffalo Ford. After filming, there was an old curmudgeon, who said that the film crew should have been there several day earlier to film the kid who was out fishing everyone, implying that this kid was better than the guy who they were filming, who was Gary. The old guy then asks Gary who he was. Without skipping a beat, Gary replied, "Lefty Kreh."
