Man, did this one hit home. It brought back some delightful and frustrating memories of trying to learn to cast on my own by reading about it.

When I was about 12, I decided to take up fly fishing. My dad had a bamboo rod, reel and line but had not fly fished for years. I probably should have asked him for some pointers but instead I bought a Scientific Anglers/3M (I think it was their publication) pamphlet called something like "To Cast A Fly." It had diagrams and text but the harder I studied it the more difficult fly casting seemed. I finally just started casting and pretty much ignoring most of the advice/lessons except one, which Castwell provided at the end of his article, i.e. stop the rod. I will have to say that the one "rule" the book did stress was stopping the rod at given points on a clock, e.g. 10:00 and 2:00.

And I thought I was the only person who had trouble deciphering written descriptions on how to cast. Thanks Castwell, its nice to know I am not alone.

Rick