I have a favor to ask.
I am presenting a new live seminar on saltwater fly fishing at my local fly fishing club. It is scheduled for a couple weeks from now. I am pretty happy with the presentation content, but want to present the seminar once before then to a small friendly audience to iron out any bugs, get feedback and make sure that I have the right amount of content to fit the time slot.
I was wondering if any members here would be interested in helping me out by attending this trial run via Zoom webinar. The eventual target audience is expected to have a rudimentary understanding of fly fishing, but I will take whoever is interested. I think that if you have an interest in fly fishing at any experience level, you will find it useful.
The agenda:
1. Differences Between Saltwater and Freshwater Fly Fishing
2. Gear (Rods, Reels, Fly lines, flies)
3. Knots an Leader Systems
4. Casting Skills and Drills
5. Line Management, Retrieves, Fighting and Landing
6. Go Fishing! - Local and Remote Destinations
The plan is to keep the presentation under 90 minutes plus time for Q&A
If you are interested in attending the live webinar, please PM me and let me know which of these time slot works for you (you can choose more than one). I will pick the one that the most folk can attend.
USA times:
Wed May 28 5:00 PM Pacific-PDT (8:00 PM Eastern-EDT)
Wed May 28 8:00 PM Pacific (11:00 PM Eastern)
Thur May 29 5:00 PM Pacific (8:00 PM Eastern)
Thur May 29 8:00 PM Pacific (11:00 PM Eastern)
If there is any interest, I will send a follow-up PM to those that have responded with the meeting instructions.
Here is a sample slide:
(https://alantani.com/gallery/39/39639-5340-CastingSkillSet.jpeg)
Thanks!
-J
Bad scheduling, Precisely the only days I'll be away from home. :-[ ;D
EDIT
I forgot the time difference, I will be home 08h00 the next day 30 May 25 so this could work.
I always get the US times wrong https://bitl.to/4ZXV
I can do Wednesday, either.
Nice, I hope it goes well.
I'm in!! - john
Do you tell people how many fewer fish they will catch ? :d I'm in just let me know buddy.
Todd
Thanks for the folks that have responded here or via PMs!
The date/time will be: Wed - May 28, 8:00 PM PDT (Thur May 29,3:00 AM UTC)
Cornelius: It looks like you are the time zone outlier The time will be 5:00 AM Thursday in Pretoria. I will see about getting you a recording if you are still interested ansd are not keen on getting up that early.
I will be sending out PMs to the attendees with a Zoom meeting link.
For anyone else interested, there is still room. Just send me a PM.
Thanks again!
-J
Thanks for providing south African time ;D ;D
We should be home, however I will be required to do some chores like unpacking vehicle, and whatever other orders that come my way and don't think I can get behind my computer without incurring serious repercussions that won't be forgotten for a long time. >:D
Will be nice if you can record it, but otherwise so be it.
Thanks/Dankie ;)
Many thanks to the members that volunteered to attend the webcast and provided feedback.
The feedback was quite useful and was incorporated for the live seminar that I presented to the club last week. The seminar was well received.
Thanks again!
-J
Was this recorded? I love to see it, if it was.
Quote from: jtwill98 on August 05, 2025, 02:53:57 PMWas this recorded? I love to see it, if it was.
Nope. Tried to record it for Cor, but had technical difficulties...
I wouldn't mind doing it again live if there is enough interest.
-J
I would be interested in a zoom session.
I would certainly be up for it again; not being a "true" flyfisher there was still a TON of good information in the presentation that applied across many techniques...- john
I could probably do it, if you decide on a time & date let us know ASAP and can put on the calendar. No significant SW experience, all FW, and not up to date on techniques or equipment for the last 12 yrs... sounds perfect for my contributions 😁🤔🤐.
I could suffer through it again. :d
Cheers
Todd
I'll tune in. Dominick
I am kinda busy ATM. I will try to arrange something for these last week of this month (August). I will post when I have a date.
Thanks,
-J
Possibly Jury Duty at the end of August. A definite maybe.
I find the actual trials to be interesting. But the process of finding 12 persons to serve is at best frustrating. Listening to these people that have valid excuses isn't too bad, but many are a plain PITA. Stupid reasons of why they can't, so thinly veiled you could see light through them. I'd love to be able to holler-out; "just shut-up that B.S. and say you don't want to do it, or don't think you should have to!"
Can you imagine being on trial, falsely accused of a felony or Capitol crime, having a court appointed lawyer, and depending on jurors that don't want to be there?
One time at trial many years ago, during juror questioning, after a Judge admonished a potential juror for referring to the defendants as "criminals", the potential juror then said; "well, they're here aren't they?" Exasperated, the Judge looked down and banged his forehead with his fist. About 1/2 hr. earlier he had given those guideline instructions for guilt or innocence—-wait until the testimony and jury conference is completed. If that one was planned by her, it was genius, she got excused by the defense.
What a wonderful initiative, sincere congratulations.It has always been my dream to learn and become a fly fisherman.Actually, I would like to learn fly fishing from a boat for billfish, but I don't rule out that in my area it would also be interesting to catch sea bass.
Quote from: MexicanGulf on September 23, 2025, 02:41:28 AMWhat a wonderful initiative, sincere congratulations.It has always been my dream to learn and become a fly fisherman.Actually, I would like to learn fly fishing from a boat for billfish, but I don't rule out that in my area it would also be interesting to catch sea bass.
Saltwater fly fishing has an undeserved reputation for being quite difficult. It is not hard to become competent with some proper basic training. Folk that have a bit of saltwater conventional gear experience are the easiest to teach. Folk that have done a long stint of stream flyfishing can be the most difficult, because they can have trouble switching to the more athletic casting style required for saltwater fly gear.
My favorite species are actually jacks (especially yellowtail), snappers, and then tuna.
I lost interest in targeting billfish before I took up fly fishing, but have been on the boat when sailfish and striped marlin were cast to and caught (I am the perfect boat mate. The other guy gets all the shots :D ).
There are two ways to catch a billfish on a fly: You can cast to a free swimming billfish spotted on the surface from a stopped boat. This is less common, with fewer places where this is possible. You have to be a a bit lucky to get a billfish like this to eat a fly, or you need to get the fish all fired up by chumming with some live bait.
By far, the most common method is to drag a typical trolling spread with hookless lures and/or baits. The billfish comes up in the spread and starts whacking a lure. The lures are removed at the same time that you plop the fly in next to where the lure was (a very short cast). If the boat is taken out of gear before you plop the fly in, the IGFA counts this as a legitimate caught-on-a-cast-fly, even though the boat is still moving and you are doing as much trolling as manipulating the fly.
From there, the modern technique is to use the sinking fly line with very light drag to pull on the fish from below, encouraging it to wear itself out by running and jumping on the surface. The boat follows the fish, you retrieve the line, and if the fish is not too large or sounds too deeply, you land and release it. Once the fish get over 200 lbs, the odds start working against you.
The captain and crew have to be pretty good, but the skills for the fly fisherman don't have to be that high as long as they can follow the coaching.
This is not to disparage this style of fishing for billfish. There are fly fishers (many quite skilled) that greatly enjoy this style. And it is visually very exciting. My point is that you mostly just need the money for doing one of these trips once you get a bit of experience with larger saltwater fly gear and fish. You don't need to be some sort of master fly fisherman.
-J
Quote from: jurelometer on September 23, 2025, 05:15:46 PMQuote from: MexicanGulf on September 23, 2025, 02:41:28 AMWhat a wonderful initiative, sincere congratulations.It has always been my dream to learn and become a fly fisherman.Actually, I would like to learn fly fishing from a boat for billfish, but I don't rule out that in my area it would also be interesting to catch sea bass.
Saltwater fly fishing has an undeserved reputation for being quite difficult. It is not hard to become competent with some proper basic training. Folk that have a bit of saltwater conventional gear experience are the easiest to teach. Folk that have done a long stint of stream flyfishing can be the most difficult, because they can have trouble switching to the more athletic casting style required for saltwater fly gear.
My favorite species are actually jacks (especially yellowtail), snappers, and then tuna.
I lost interest in targeting billfish before I took up fly fishing, but have been on the boat when sailfish and striped marlin were cast to and caught (I am the perfect boat mate. The other guy gets all the shots :D ).
There are two ways to catch a billfish on a fly: You can cast to a free swimming billfish spotted on the surface from a stopped boat. This is less common, with fewer places where this is possible. You have to be a a bit lucky to get a billfish like this to eat a fly, or you need to get the fish all fired up by chumming with some live bait.
By far, the most common method is to drag a typical trolling spread with hookless lures and/or baits. The billfish comes up in the spread and starts whacking a lure. The lures are removed at the same time that you plop the fly in next to where the lure was (a very short cast). If the boat is taken out of gear before you plop the fly in, the IGFA counts this as a legitimate caught-on-a-cast-fly, even though the boat is still moving and you are doing as much trolling as manipulating the fly.
From there, the modern technique is to use the sinking fly line with very light drag to pull on the fish from below, encouraging it to wear itself out by running and jumping on the surface. The boat follows the fish, you retrieve the line, and if the fish is not too large or sounds too deeply, you land and release it. Once the fish get over 200 lbs, the odds start working against you.
The captain and crew have to be pretty good, but the skills for the fly fisherman don't have to be that high as long as they can follow the coaching.
This is not to disparage this style of fishing for billfish. There are fly fishers (many quite skilled) that greatly enjoy this style. And it is visually very exciting. My point is that you mostly just need the money for doing one of these trips once you get a bit of experience with larger saltwater fly gear and fish. You don't need to be some sort of master fly fisherman.
-J
You leave me enchanted, I'm in love with the idea of starting fly fishing 🤩