Flycasting Instructor Exams

[Lasse Karlsson]

the large majority doesn't even know that there is certifications as flycasting instructors.

Surely now virtually everyone who fly fishes knows that there are instructor organisations. They might not know the differences between them, but they know of their existence. People coming into the sport will have less knowledge in this area of course.

Cheers, Paul

Really? How do they get to know that?

Cheers
Lasse

[guest]

To be honest, I did not know anything about certification or the various organisations until about 2 years ago

[Paul Arden]

By reading magazines and the Internet I would have thought, Lasse. Obviously everyone who reads this site has heard of certifications. And probably the Spey pages. Fly Fishing and Fly Tying, Trout and Salmon magazines both have instructor listings. So you would probably have to not read any magazines and not visit any flyfishing websites. And then you'd have to make sure that you don't visit reservoirs where their might be an advert. You wouldn't be able to go to a Gamefair, in case you read the programme. Books could be a problem, especially if there's a casting section. And even tackleshop walls often have adverts offering qualified tuition.

Cheers, Paul

[Stoatstail50]

In 1993 I was advised by the then chairman of Apgai that unless I intended to make guiding and instruction a full time career then it was not appropriate to take the examinations...so I didn't.

It was rotten advice because then and now very few people actively look for formal instruction and the ones that do couldn't care less which organisation you are in so long as you can deliver the goods. As a consequence hardly anyone is able to make a sensible living from instruction alone and this is amply evident from the membership profiles of all of the key players here in the UK.

In addition, the organisational business models are generally absurd. In the UK it is apparent that many instructors are dependent on making significant sums by mentoring or examining new instructors. This creates more competition at every level and organsations bicker at each other and eat themselves away from the insides as people jockey for position in a saturated UK market.

Never the less, there are fantastic casters and wonderful instructors in all three organisations that I have had direct contact with and membership of any one represents an opportunity to develop with some of the best instructors in the world. That's why I did it, I didn't do it for any great altruistic need, I didn't do it for the money, I didn't do it because I wanted a career change, I did it because I wanted to be a better angler, I did it because I wanted to be a better caster, I did it out of ego. I did it because I'm stubborn, I did it because some daft pompous old fart told me twenty years ago that I couldn't and wouldn't make it and finally I did it because nice people on here were enormously encouraging and told me that, in fact, I could and would make it.

As a byproduct of all that I occasionally get to instruct now and that's very cool indeed.

[guest]

Paul

unless you are actively looking for instruction, you tend to gloss over that stuff because the magazines etc are overloaded with glossy adverts and the instruction stuff doesn't stand out from the tackle and clothing. In forums, unless you understand casting mechanics the debate is impenetrable. And to the uninitiated, the different organisations are alphabet soup.

Regards Vince

[Paul Arden]

Even for the initiated they're an alphabetic soup, Vince.

In the UK it is apparent that many instructors are dependent on making significant sums by mentoring or examining new instructors.

This is a huge problem. In fact I would argue that this is now what AAPGAI has currently become; a direct money-making venture for committee members and anyone who disagrees with them is booted out.

[Blackwater]

I got to a point where there was no one in the circle of people that I knew that I could really learn anything new from. I was casting a full fly line comfortably and had good line control for slack line casts but the problem was when people asked me how they could do the same had no idea what I was doing differently. I didn't know the words for it and I had never had a formal lesson. There were a few guys around that I knew were casting instructors and it was through talking to one of these blokes that I learned about the FFF CCI and soon enough I had passed the CCI and I was finally able to explain a few of these things properly when I was asked.

For me it was never about making a living from casting instruction and I don't ever remember being paid to give someone a lesson. It was about improving my knowledge of casting to help myself as much as others when they asked for a hand with a casting problem. I am pretty sure no one in my club had heard of certified casting instructors before I sat my qualification outside of knowing of Peter Hayse and maybe one or two others being instructors.

[Mike Heritage]

My way in may have been slightly different but Stoats post is pretty close to how I feel about it. I just found I was in an instructional environment via this web site and the people I met through that involvement so it was a natural progression. It may be interesting to know how many became instructors because of Sexyloops.

I am a bit ambivalent with regard to associations. Like Mark I have found no-one, apart from the members, who give a stuff. I have never been asked for any credentials. I became an associate member of one of the UK associations and never heard a peep from them, not even a reminder to pay my annual subscription! As much as recent events have slightly soured my view of the IFFF they do communicate regularly with E-letters and magazines.

Perhaps the UK is at instructional saturation point and the associations may be better off adding non instructional certificates of casting competence than just keep adding more instructors.

It seems to me that there is an over emphasis on casting ability over instructional ability. I have never had a lesson in how to instruct, it's just picked up as you go along either from listening too and watching other instructors and by trial and error.

Mike

[Bernd Ziesche]

Hi guys and girls,

Here's a question, there are many instructors here and many people who have taken instructor examinations - 1) why?

And 2) has it lived up to its expectations?

Cheers,
Paul

Hi Paul,

1) First exam was to get a paper telling me to be a fine fly caster.
Second one was to set up an advanced challenge to myself in mainly fly casting.
Third one was to get certified as an instructor and to become a a better instructor.

2) Not a single one got anywhere near to have hit my expectations.
Too many things I was missing afterwards.
Greets
Bernd

[Chris68]

My thoughts on this, I became and instructor as part of forward planning, I thought it would be a nice thing to do when I retired, a bit of extra income for doing something that I enjoyed, I had fly fished for about 20 years and had had a lesson or 2 every year to brush up, then I got the bug, got single and double handed qualifications and did a lot of teaching, I expected it to take at least 5 years to build a client base and this is still being built, in the mean time I'm doing a lot of mentoring for the 2 organisations I'm involved with.

So I'm here almost 5 years in, with a decent client base and having helped a few instructors achieve their goals, I started with money in the bank and no credit card bills, I now have no money in the bank and credit card bills, some way of supplementing my retirement in years to come, I'll have to do it to pay of my bills!

It has lived up to my expectations as I have friends throughout the world and more invite to go fishing than I can deal with, I'm even taking one of them up on the invite later this year

Chris