Casting class- the dud...

[papaguss]

so,i signed up for a casting class because the instructor wanted to help me cast better with my fiberglass rod. and Bonus!!! my son can learn how to fly cast without me killing him. Imagine a red faced pear roaring at a stick " Stiffen up that wrist stiffen up your wrist! aaauuurgh!" But someone else teaching him? he lives and I get to take pictures- Which I forgot totake because I was geeking out over how fast he was catchig on and how wonderful his presentations were. he's got to tighten his wrist... but as skinny as he is.. not a surprise.

it was just three people in the class and it really seemed to be jsut the basics- which is great, I want to cast a woolly with my rod, dang it! NO joy! even though she specifically asked me to bringthe danged to thing to learn on it... didn't have me work it at all... jsut a graphite, I can cast graphite! and having her tellme it was a wonderful cast on a wonderful 6wt TFO rod doesn't help my 4wt fiberglass game!

So, know your teacher before you go out to learn. Know what it is really going to be, and make sure, doubly, triply that you voice what you are expecting and what is expected. Frankly I was fuming... Only thing that brought me to not blowing any noise about it was the excitement from my son. he really was feeling more confident about this fly fishing thing.

Gawd I love being a dad....

Tight lines.

[Uncle Jesse]

Just a suggestion, but perfect casts and form is not that important. I've been flinging line since about 1968 and have neither but I still have fun, catch a few fish and enjoy the time I spend with a rod in my hand and friend by my side. Let him have fun, if he likes it, he'll get better. Most kids listen to other more closely than their own parents.

You will probably get to teach him to drive, as a matter of fact you already are if he rides with you. That's very important to get right, done it 3 times, my young wife, my son and my daughter. They remind me that I made them all cry, but it's the most important thing I have ever taught them to do. They have all bent sheetmetal, but none have been hurt while driving.

[papaguss]

Uncle Jesse, I agree, andmy desire for taking the class was not to aquire the perfect cast or form, but to rather aquire the ability to cast it with some level of proficiency to begin with. Honestly, I wouldn't even do thatand tried it myself save for the the good people in FAOL who told me that taking a class might improve my casting to include landing my wooly bugger into the water. Not simply hooking it to parts of me.

and having my son take classes in casting means that itis an enjoyable experience that we continues to want to share with me, not a tedious task forced upon him by his faher. He has enough of those for now.

I truly meant that it is great to be a dad, to have that pride when I see him in class getting that line out there and falling so smoothly on the glass-flat water of the casting pool. though the confusion brought on my him flinging his line into balls on the water when we went out fishing made me glad I didn't have any hair to pull out.