S7, Ep 3: Fly Fishing Resolutions and Tips for 2025 with Mac Brown

Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly. We're back with the first casting angles of 2025 with Mac Brown. Mack, how are you?

I'm doing great. How are you doing, Marvin?

As always, just trying to stay out of trouble. And we're actually doing a remote show. You're actually all the way down in Mexico right now.

Yeah, we came down the day before New Year's and looking forward to getting back to all the snow and all the, all the stuff we've seen on the weather this morning. So, yeah, we're about to, we're about to head back here tomorrow.

Yeah, it's funny you say that.

I had some meetings scheduled up in Virginia and actually canceled them because I wasn't sure if I drove up there yesterday if I'd be able to get to them and get home today. So, yeah, it's interesting. It's going to be.

We got a kind of a week of kind of nasty weather, pretty cold, and when they're looking for more snow in the mid Atlantic. Friday, Saturday.

Yeah, that's right. I think it's. And some friends sent me a clip driving back West Virginia this morning, and I was kind of surprised.

This road looked pretty dicey coming back in from the, the skiing country up there. That looked like a pretty challenging endeavor, I'll tell you. It's been nice down here, though, this time of year.

I can see how this would grow on people. I mean, it's like 80 degrees every day. It hasn't bugged. I mean, it's that temperature in the morning that's the high for the afternoon.

It stays about the same all day long.

Yeah. And the margaritas don't hurt either, right?

No, lots of that. Lots of. They have a lot of good, good agave juice down here. So, yeah, that's about the best value down here, really, that we've seen. Yeah.

And so we were, we were talking before we started recording and since it's, you know, we've been kind of talking about improvement in plans and it is 2025 and people like to make resolutions, we thought it might be a good idea to kind of talk to folks about, you know, thinking about improving their, their fly fishing and fly tying skills in 2025 and kind of how to do that and what to do.

Yeah, I think that'd be a good topic just about, you know, a lot of times you hear, you'll hear folks, I get that a lot on the road where people will talk about if I had this rod or that New reel or that new.

And I'm like, well, when's the last time you invested in yourself and did something for the betterment of it, you know, not the free parking lot lesson either, I mean, and like, never. And I'm like, well, why don't you put some money in that?

And I really think that that's probably with some of the best money they could put in to invest, you know, in themselves for decision making models to develop a process to develop some efficiency in their game.

And it's like whether that be casting or just on the water type, you know, decisions, it's just all that stuff is what really leads to the improvement.

I just think that sometimes it feels like it's trying to sell somebody something that they don't really need, you know, and I think a lot of people need it and I think that would benefit a lot of people, you know, not just because I teach either, Marvin. You know, I'm not trying to sell anybody anything. But as a teacher.

Yeah.

It's hard not to say that, you know.

Yeah. It's interesting, right? I mean, I would say we can talk about the how in a minute.

But I think, you know, on the front end, you know, I think it's, you know, you and I talk about this a lot, that it's really important to set some measurable goals, right.

Like, you know, if there's something that you, you know, don't try to improve on everything in one fishing season because you'll improve probably at none of it. You know, I would.

That's right.

I would just encourage people to pick, you know, one or two things that they want to get better at and, you know, and don't make it general. Like, I want to be a better caster.

Like, say I want to be able to, you know, consistently cast at 75ft accurately, or I want to be able to learn how to throw positive and negative curve casts or. Or whatever it is, or even here.

Look. Look at all the lodges down here. I mean, there's tons of them from down below Ascension Bay up to Isla Mahera, which is just.

That's where we went yesterday with the kids. And I mean, every day for seven days we've been here, the wind has been around 35 knots constant. I mean, I haven't seen a calm day.

There's tons of coconut trees and stuff all around us. And you can just see the trees moving all day long from morning till evening.

And I mean, just the thought about what those lodges are for a week, you know, for somebody to drop seven, eight grand to realize they can't cast in 35 knot wind is really kind of sad. So that's probably the most common thing that you hear on the road. It shows like I went to Mexico and I realized I couldn't cast.

I'm like, well why did you go spend all that money to realize you couldn't cast? You could grab your rod and go out and cast it home in a 35 knot wind and find out. But.

So I really do think it's like it would be a beneficial thing to learn some 50 foot accuracy typecast in wind to be able to hit a target if you're thinking about doing that kind of a trip. Because otherwise it's not in the game, you know, and if it's not in the game, then you're back sampling the agave instead of doing the fishing.

Yeah. Which you know, you can buy a lot of agave for seven grand.

Yeah, you could stay in Texas and do that or wherever, North Carolina or whatever. But yeah, no, I just, I just think that that's a common.

I just know from doing the show since back in the early 90s, that's one of the most common questions that people will come up and ask. Well, I went to this trip and sometimes it's some far away exotic place a lot further than Mexico.

You know, then they say, well that's when I realized I can't even throw distance if it's windy.

And I don't know, it'd be a good thing because it is like investing in something that's going to help make you more efficient and have a better decision making model to where you're getting independence and freedom from having to be told what to do and when to do it, to where you know when to do it is two very different things. That's why I think it's a smart, smart decision for anybody.

Yeah. And I think too, you know, part of, part and parcel of that is kind of being honest with yourself. Right. About what you actually really can do. Right.

That's right.

You know, so once you kind of do that and you have the goals, you know, early every year. Right. Everybody knows, right. We've got lots of fly fishing shows, We've got the fly fishing show, we've got lots of regional shows.

And what I would suggest is there are plenty of talks there, plenty of demonstrations there and there are places just like you and Gary offer that great day long class at the fly fishing shows. Great places to get instruction from really good instructors.

But then the other thing too to do with those events is to work on building relationships so you can kind of reach out to people throughout the year that are going to continue to help you get better and achieve those goals you set here in January 2025.

No, I think that's. I think that's smart. And yeah, there's a lot of those coming up and hopefully a lot of them are going to sell out because it's no doubt it's.

It's been a sluggish fall in North Carolina with the storm, you know what I mean? So I'm hoping a lot of them going to really be big again this year, Marvin, because it's been even.

Even if it wasn't for the storm, it was really a weird summer before the storm. Even. So the storm just made it a lot worse for where we live, you know.

Yeah.

But hopefully, hopefully it's coming back, you know. Yeah.

And so, you know, I know you're literally, you're going to get home and be home for about a week and then you head to Marlboro. But why don't you let folks know if they want to do casting stuff in 2025 where they can find you on the show circuit?

Okay. We'll start off in Marlboro when we get back. I think the 15th, and then Edison, then do the. The west coast, all the west coast shows.

And I think I'm gonna go ahead and do Lancaster. That's what I was talking to Ben about today.

I had an opening of a school that got freed up, so I think I'm going to go to Lancaster first as well before we do the show up there at the Midwest. What is it? The Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo up there in the Twin Cities. So then we have the ones local in Bryson City, too.

Marvin, the casting classes and guide schools course in Bryson. That happen pretty much all year.

Yeah.

And I imagine you probably got your show schedule and you probably got your like, you know, guide schools and casting school stuff all on your website. Where should folks go? And I'm sure you'll take deposit money for when it thaws out to get out on the river in 2025, too.

Yeah, that's. That's going to happen. Mainly the Mac Brown fly fish. Under the top menu, there's a specialty page. It tells the dates for all of these things for the.

For the show dates for the different schools, for casting schools.

Actually had a call today for a guy that wanted to do one of the rolling schools that came to one a couple years ago, and he's wanting to do it again to up his game for some, you know, class three and four water. He goes, you know, I've been rowing a lot, and I want to be comfortable doing this other. This next level.

And so, I mean, there's, there's a lot of those types of events listed on that Mac. Brown fly fishing, MacBrown fly fish dot com. We put a link in the thing. You can. You can throw a link in there, Marvin. That'd be awesome.

I do it. I do it for you every two weeks. And you know, folks, I want to wish everybody a happy New Year.

I'm not traveling as prolifically as Mac, so I will be in Denver and I'll be at Bob in the Hood in Michigan, and those will be the only two shows I'll be at. But if you're at either of those, you should, you know, pop by and say hello. I always love to meet listeners.

And, you know, when it falls out a little bit here in the mid Atlantic, I would encourage you to get out there and catch a few tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Mac.

Tight lines. And Happy New Year, Marvin.