A question I'm regularly asked by clients at some point during a day's conversation is "How or when did you become an instructor?"... Well since you asked...
Many moons ago, perhaps more than I care to mention (This is short for I don't exactly know) I remember being sat at home reading an article in a certain magazine called the Stillwater Trout Angler (I think!). Attached to the front of this magazine was a fly, what fly?... it didn't actually have a name at the time, Turralls had offered it to the magazine in the hope of them devising a competition where readers could perhaps suggest a name for it, in return for a prize.
Although I'm not a competition type of guy I was drawn into participation. With pen and paper I started to scribble down appropriate fishing fly type names:
... trout basher
... irresistible fisher swimmy thing
... 'X' fly super attractor
... Black & chartreuse thingumajig
... Long tail slayer of finned things
You know what I mean, all the great names!, typically when we men over think something you know there's a car crash coming, and boy my list was certainly that. Unbeknown to me, Sarah (She who must be obeyed) peeped over my shoulder and said "Miss Whiplash, that's what I'd call it"... "Don't be daft" I replied, what on earth has that got to do with greenheart, silk and gossamer, the stuff of fly fishing?... "Go and do woman stuff - grout the tiles or fix the roof... I'm trying to think" said I.
I've given the game away already, you know what's coming. After numerous car crashes later I caved in and without her knowing put her suggestion to a postcard, I addressed it, stamped it and posted it with my name on as participant.
'Postcards - they were the days'.
Weeks went buy, as did the closing date. Returning home one afternoon I was eventually greeted by a letter from Turralls... stone me 'Miss Whiplash' had won... I couldn't get over how excited I was at the time and for no other reason than I'd actually won... come first... beaten all who'd entered... I'd slain the competition. Like many, I'm not lucky in competitions, who is?... I defy anyone however not to feel similar when you're the chosen one regardless of however menial you think the prize to be.
At this point it's important in that I must thank my better half Sarah, after all it was her postcard and stamp I used to send the entry in with... c'mon what did you expect?
So what was the prize?... The answer leads me back to the question asked at the beginning of this article... "How or when did you become an instructor?"
As well as receiving copious amounts of fly tying materials from Turralls I got to spend a weekend in the company of the one and only Simon Gawesworth ~ a man needing no introduction.
Having arranged the weekend with the aforementioned Guru we met up at the Half Moon Inn where I was to stay for the weekend. I was greeted by Simon on the Saturday morning where we shared breakfast and discussed what we'd be doing for the next day or so. A bit of casting, him guiding me, some fishing and so on, basically anything I wanted to do.
We'd be fishing the Torridge close by to the Hotel on Saturday, followed by one of his favourite rivers, the river Bray on Sunday. I say fishing but in fact it ended up being the total opposite, although Simon did initially start to show me where and how to fish said rivers, as luck would have it and with my full blessing the weekend turned into a casting instructor's masterclass. I was totally mesmerised by his casting ability and that with which he had to place a fly on an almost imaginary sixpence, just incredible.
"Simon... I want to do that"... said I.
We therefore spent many hours, in fact all of that weekend talking about how he instructs, the techniques he uses and casts he was able to make. I can't recall everything or share with you other aspects than that without detailing conversations we had, unfortunately those are for me - sorry!
I spent more time with Simon following that weekend as well as other influential instructors upon deciding to follow in his footsteps as a fly fishing instructor (One day)... many years have since passed and I've gone through all of the learning processes to become such, firstly STANIC, then adding REFFIS and finally AAPGAI to Masters level.
A treasured possession from that weekend ~ Simon's own first work... THE BLUE BOOK.
So there you have it, that's how I started as a fly fishing guide and instructor, and continue to remain. If you're fortunate enough to have a Miss Whiplash in your fly box then you have my Sarah to thank, if only but for a name... if on the other hand I've had the pleasure to spend time with you on the bank or river then in part I have Simon to thank for being my initial inspiration.
Jim is our ESF in house fly casting contributor and AAPGAI Master level instructor teaching full time in the Cotswold, Wiltshire & Hampshire area... visit his website