Walter & Group.........
From Jerry Puckett:
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Jerry:
By far the majority of fly fishermen who start to fish in the salt for the first time have had some experience with fresh water fishing. That is especially true of folks who undertake fishing for bonefish and tarpon. It is a lot less true of those who try for bluefish and striped bass in the Northeast.
I make my lesson plan for this situation once I know what the prior fresh water experience (with, perhaps some other salt water fly fishing experience) has been. We almost never have to start from, "ground zero". In fact, for this kind of fishing, this would be doable but very difficult on account of environmental demands of weather, including wind on the flats, and the fact that we'd be starting with rather heavy outfits .... especially for tarpon.
Even our bonefish are larger than those generally found in places like many Bahamas venues and Christmas Island. (Having said that, I realize that there ARE large bonefish at these areas, but I'm talking about the majority of the fish.)
In past years, I've spent time teaching native Bahamian fishermen (skiff guides) to fly fish right from the start. Most of them learned very quickly and became credible casters in an amazingly short period of time. Breaking them in on their familiar small bonefish was not difficult. We started with basic fly casting instructional lesson plans and quickly advanced to line shooting, hauling, and wind casting. They were already very adept at hooking and fighting bonefish on spinning rods. Some of them had gained great skill in catching bones on handlines for food, years before. They were unbelievably good at spotting the fish, so that was never a problem.
Fly fishing for spooky Keys bones in the 10 lb. to 15 lb. range (No exaggeration, here) is very different. Even the best trout fishermen have to gain the mindset of fishing in water which may not be moving much with fish which move constantly and, often, unpredictably .... are very difficult to spot without a great deal of, "spotting practice" and which may spook if the angler so much as moves his body or raises his rod to make a cast. Teaching the techniques of leading the fish different distances depending upon the way the fish acts, etc. has to be done on site.
Our, "salty" lesson plans often start with the angler who lets us know of his intended visit months ahead of time. Basically, I recommend practicing the casts he/she know and use, but done with the heavier outfits we use here. Lots of wind casting practice, too. Failure to do that well in advance of the trip can result in painful muscles, "caster's elbow", long lasting shoulder problems and disappointment. Part of that, "lesson plan" list of casting recommendations, includes the practice of distance backcast presentations, low side-arm casts on either side of the body, and elliptical casts with unweighted and weighted flies. The fishermen should learn the, so-called, "salt-water-quick-cast ", as well.
Then, after the fisherman has arrived, we need to add to this lesson plan, the handling of line on the deck of a flats skiff. A lot to that, I assure you. Part of this plan includes things like making the longest cast that the angler can comfortable make with any given weather and fishing circumstance, and then teaching them to avoid having any more line out of the reel on the deck than that. (On reason being to avoid sudden, "birds nest" tangles as the fish explodes, and the other to avoid the twist which is added to the line every time the angler makes a cast leaving some line on the deck and retrieves....).
As part of a lesson plan which Lefty and I used, we even taught the technique of quickly turning the fly rod upside down as a last second move of desparation when a tangled fly line is racing up to the first stripper guide on a bonefish's first blistering run. (Sometimes works !)
Tarpon fishing instruction requires all that and a great deal more ! A lesson plan for that circumstance would run the gamut of casting techniques, as well as instruction for a whole range of presentations depending upon the way the fish present ..... which side of a, "Daisy Chain" to attack with the fly, the use of long range curve casts rather than the, "Hail Mary" fish lining presentation, etc, etc.
I can easily spend an hour profitably teaching tarpon hooking techniques .... not just the low strip-strike, but combo strikes ... and, most importantly, when not to strike. (Our biggest problem, by far !)
All these things and more are covered at Sandy Moret's School of Flats Fly Fishing at Islamorada. Our own Steve Rajeff is one of their frequent instructors there.
Many techniques to add for fishing snook in the mangroves..............
Permit present a whole other world of problems and techniques. Much too detailed to go into, here as added to a message which is already too darn long.
With the possible exception of the, "salt water quick cast", the casting methods are not different from those used in fresh water. Just the applications, the different presentations, and the use of heavier tackle than the average fresh water fisherman uses.
Gordy
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From Jim Penrod:
Gordy,
I would add a couple of things about lesson plans. It can hardly be emphasized enough that forcing one's self to do lesson plans for made up situations helps prepare you for the unexpected and helps to make you think about "what is going to help the student".
And there is no substitute for teaching. If possible find a CI or MCCI who is teaching and ask if you can assist. Tom Broderidge readily acquiesced to that request from me adding that he could not pay me. I did not want paid in money, I wanted paid in experience. And experience I got both in watching how Tom conducted a class to realizing that I was not sure what some of the caster's problems were (As Scott pointed out Bruce Richards' 6 step method is extremely useful). The casting clinic for instructors in Mt. Home last summer was more than worth the money and the drive. When I did my Master's one of the comments I got afterwards was that it was obvious I had done a lot of teaching (Scott was one of my examiners and a keen student of teaching - even during my exam he pointed out some areas where I could improve my teaching as well as demonstrating a better method about doing a particular cast). I believe it was Floyd Frankie who suggested that you should have at least a 100 hours of teaching before taking your Master's Certification exam. I would agree and more would be better as it just makes you more comfortable with teaching and that is what you are there for. You pick up little nuances that at the moment you might not be aware of but they come into play as you go along.
Having said all of that what does one do if he/she is not fortunate enough to be teaching an all day class once or twice a month as I was for the five years prior to my exam? When you are out practicing do it as though you are teaching a class even to the point of talking out loud. Introduce yourself, give your credentials (people want to know that you are expert), give an outline of safety and of the events for the day. Go exactly through what you would do if you had a class there. When it comes to problems, make them up. Start with common faults such as bending the wrist on the back cast, creating slack by lifting the rod tip, on through timing, application of power, etc. Here is a great place to go through Bill Gammel's 6 essentials (I include stop also as Scott does) and apply Bruce's 6 step method. Tell your phantom student what the fault is and how to correct it. As has been said begin with the worst fault first. And if your friends think you are crazy out there talking to yourself, do not fret as they think you are even crazier trying to catch fish in the grass on a baseball field.
Jim
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Jim .... Yes. It was Floyd Franke who wrote that in a Loop article several years ago. In that issue, several of the CBOG's were asked to give advice to CCI's who wished to pursue MCCI status. I highlighted your statement in red.
Gordy
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From Robert Shigley: