This past weekend I had the chance to teach an Intro to Fly Fishing Class at the shop. It was a somewhat last minute decision so I was understandably nervous about trying to talk about fly fishing and keep people interested and engaged for eight hours. I’ve never been a big fan of public speaking either…
After the first five minutes of terror and talking way too fast I realized, “hey, this is kind of fun”. Instead of trying to scramble to find things to fill the time, I found myself quickly running out of time to talk about the information I really wanted to pass on. There was only a couple of moments talking about flies, bugs, hatches, and all that stuff that a few eyes started to glaze over. But I still bet that most of those students would be able to look at this picture and correctly identify those bugs as caddis.
There are few thrills quite like teaching someone about fly fishing. Seeing their eyes light up and the excitement for the sport grow is pretty damn rewarding. It’s also our responsibility as anglers to help the sport grow and to be patient and helpful to those who are just getting started. It can be easy to get all pissed off about even more people out on the river and in “our” fishing spots, but there is a lot of water out there. The growth of fly fishing as a whole is a good thing for all concerned.
Do yourself a favor and teach someone to fish. You’ll both enjoy it.
