Went to the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival this past weekend. One of the things I wanted to make sure I did was to listen and watch Lefty give a demo and talk on his casting. He was scheduled to do this 4 times during the festival-2 on Sat and 2 on Sun. Even though the last 3 classes were a repeat of the first I went to all 4 of them. The man is absolutely amazing, to say the least. Conditions were horrible on Saturday with 20-25 mile an hour plus winds. His casting is effortless !! Even with the wind he could do things with the line that an "expert" caster couldn't do. Like lay a straight line out 40 feet on the casting pool and have the leader and 5 feet of the line flip to the left between two people--against that wind. He said where the line was going to go before he made the cast. And then he did it a second time, same way so it was no fluke. And then, Sat afternoon after the second class, I had a chance to have a few minutes of one-on-one instruction with him.

In all of my 55 plus years of using a flyrod, I have never had a casting lesson, never watched a video, or tried to use a book. This was a first for me and to do it with someone of that calibre is truly inspiring. Now I have to get out on the water and practice what I learned from him. Wont be any fishing for a while. Just practice, practice practice until I can undo all of my bad habits. Cant wait.

George