Crash course ! / MCCI exam

Two mornings in a row I took Peter Lami and Rene Hesse out for tarpon on my skiff. Rene is an MCCI candidate who had no experience with big game salt water fly fishing.

Rene got a crash course ..... casts required, fish spotting, presentations, strike techniques and fought and caught 4 large tarpon in the process. He also learned some things about how to handle himself on the skiff as well as some poling techniques.

We plan on covering lots of this stuff at the Conclave at Loveland as Lefty, Jim Valle and I hold our Workshop on salty fishing.

Perhaps (once he's recovered) we can get him to relate what he learned. That will be a good exercise for him ..... and the rest of us.

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Al Crise placed two attachments relating to the taking of the Master's exam on his site. One is from me sent last year and the other contains golden advice by the late Tom White.

Since this is the time of year ..... conclaves included, that some of you will be taking your exam, I think it timely to revisit this information. For that reason I thank Al for bringing these up and will also include them as attachments to this message.

Candidates must read the current exam casting requirements and expectations carefully. Changes to the exam beginning Jan. 1st of this year include new wording on several tasks. New requirements include 3 different ways of making tailing loops and the demonstration of proficiency in making basic casts with the non-dominent ("other") arm .

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Thanks for getting me set up with the performance requirements. That one little box on the FFF site would never go anywhere for me. I have printed out the attachment you sent , thanks.

I joined the group just as you seemed to be finishing a session on curve casting, aerial mends, etc. and I have questions about the curve casts.

I have seen curve casting done by Lefty and Jason at fly shows. They demonstrate pretty much a clean 90 degree cast. My question is the Master examiners are looking for how long to an offset, how much of an offset and is the leader to be straight? At some point I need to spend some time with a good presentation teacher on the water instead of just reading and studying from books. I get a few opportunities for weekend trips to Missouri but guided funds are awfully sparse at this time around here.

I keep practicing curve casts and mending on my little smallies in the creeks around here but they really seem to care less! They just want to clobber a moving struggling target!

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Don... I've gotten several messages ... even a couple from our CBOG members on navigating the website for the Master exam requirements. The site is a great deal better than it was in the past, but I see we need to re-visit this section to try to make it more user friendly.

Rather than a word or book description, I'd advise you to try to collar a Master or CBOG who can actually take you through those curve casts and mends. There are several ways of making them.

If you were nearby, I'd be happy to do that ..... or if you are planning a trip to the Florida Keys we could get together and do it. If you catch me at the Conclave, I'll carve out some time to do that with you. (Dennis Grant, Jim Valle and I will also be covering some of that in our Workshop there on "Difficult Casts to Difficult Places".................)

The most practical way to do this, I suppose, is to get a list of the Masters and CBOG's from the FFF office or website and see if one of them is near your home or within relatively easy reach.