S7, Ep 7: Casting Insights: Fly Fishing Shows and Technique with Mac Brown & Christopher Rownes

Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly. We're back with another casting angles with Mac Brown and a special guest. Mac, how are you?

We're doing great. Marvin, how are you doing?

As always, just trying to stay out of trouble and you know, I think most of the United States is in the deep freeze so you know, we can certainly underscore what we talked about last time about the importance of investing in yourself and getting out and going to one of these fly fishing shows. And I know you and Christopher, who we'll talk to in just a second, just wrapped up the Marboro show and you're waiting for Edison to start.

But why don't you give folks a little bit of recap of Marboro.

Okay.

Marborough was really good turnout, you know, the whole three days and we had a good time teaching classes and demos and the all day class went really well and it was, I was really excited before I even went up there because Christopher and I had never had the opportunity to teach together and it was really fun to teach that class with them and it was good for the, good for the students. We got a lot of good, good photos and happy faces by the end and looking forward to repeat and do it all again here in Edison the next few days.

There you go.

And so for folks that aren't familiar, why don't you give us a little bit of an overview of that all day casting class that you offer usually the day before the official start of the fly fishing show.

Sure.

It's basically going over movement, try to develop more efficient movement for folks for the variety of cast, you know that, that exists that what we use on the water and lots of, lots of different methods there.

For once we address like the aerial type pickup, lay down into roll cast, switch casts and of course we address a lot of the presentation casts which are like curves and aerial men's and how we make those. And it was, it was a lot of fun by the end.

There's lots of happy faces and it's, it's just always fun teaching that because it's an intensive eight hour day, you know, for people to increase their personal skill development.

Yeah, it's one of the great opportunities of the fly fishing shows.

I mean we keep saying this over and over but it's true is that you know, you have an opportunity to learn from some of the best people in the sport and you, you know, Christopher, for folks aren't familiar, I've got Christopher rounds on, I met him last year with Mac either in Denver or Edison, but he's helping Mac teach these classes in Marlboro, Edison and Denver.

And it's kind of curious, Christopher, I know you're from Switzerland, always kind of curious to get the outsiders insight on kind of Americans and how they like to learn and any kind of differences between fly fishing education in Europe and the United States and kind of how anglers approach things.

Well, yeah, thanks for having me, Marvin. It's great to be here on your podcast. I think I'm totally thrilled basically to be here.

And to Cass is one of my, like a legend of the sport, Mack Brown. It's been a total honor to work with him together. And we had some great moments in Marlborough teaching the people.

And I think what's really great is in the US is that the people are really enthusiastic and really want to come to these courses. It's a bit more difficult to. To fill them in Europe, to be honest. So I was very.

I was very happy with the turnout and the people who came, and I think we did quite a good job and helped them with their casting.

Very, very neat. And what is it that makes it logistically more difficult in Europe?

Is it just there are fewer anglers or it's just kind of harder to get around from country to country?

No, I think it's just the Americans are more used to taking classes, taking, having instruction, rather than in Europe. The people want to do all like diy. So I think it's a much better mindset in America. They accept that their instructor can really help them.

And I'm really glad to be here on these shows to guide these anglers towards a better fly cast because just helps you catch more fish.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's kind of funny. I probably. Oh, gosh, at this point, it's probably getting closer to 20 than 15 years ago.

Went to the Wolf School just for exactly that, that, you know, reason. I knew where the fish were. I just couldn't get the fly to him.

Yeah, yeah. It's funny say that I was very lucky a couple of years ago to meet John Wolf herself. And I have a bit of an unusual background. I used to be a dancer.

I used to be a classical ballet dancer. So I've been trained all my life in. In movement. And also John Wolf was also a dancer.

So we had a lot to talk about when I went to visit her at her house. So there's a lot of similarities between teaching movement in dance and also in fly fishing and casting.

So I bring that into my courses and I try to help the people learn as quick as possible.

Fantastic. And so Mac, if folks want to sign up, do you have space in Edison? And I would imagine, I mean Denver's gosh, it's over a month away.

Probably have space there. Where should folks go?

The place to go sign up is the fly fishing show's website at the bottom underneath classes and we put some for the Edison.

I put a post up for all the, the classes that Christopher and I have, you know, this weekend for, for demos to, to casting classes in the all day class. Info's all on that. But, but yeah, the place would be down there at the very bottom of the.

Once they click on Edison at the fly fishingshow.com at the bottom of the page is the sign up places for those classes.

Yeah. And I know Ben's had the signups for your full day classes up for a long time for all the shows.

And you know Max, since you're, you're an old hand at this, I know people know where to find you and they know that you're doing all the fly fishing shows and I think the Minneapolis show and maybe even the Midwest show.

But, but you know Christopher, you know, for folks that want to learn more about you, you want to look kind of let us know kind of your website, kind of what you offer back, back in Europe and kind of where are you on social media so people can kind of check you out.

Yeah, well, my name is Christopher Rounds and My webpage is Christopher.com so it's easy to find. I'll be teaching a single handed spay casting course that's, that's been extremely popular at, in Marlborough and I hope so as well in New Jersey.

And that's a class where the people can, where I give them all the tools they need to change direction in the flycast very simply. So I hope some guys will come along and give it a try. It really does open up new waters.

It opens up new situations that you simply cannot cast to with an overhead cast. So it opens up new fishing experiences. And I'll be teaching on Sunday. I have a course on Sunday morning at the show.

So if anybody wants to come along, they're very, very welcome.

Very, very neat.

Yeah, I mean the single headed space stuff is a game changer, you know, even for fishing small mountain creeks like Mac and I have where you definitely can't get the line in the air very often.

Exactly. I mean it just gives you the, gives you the possibility to change directions with little to no back casting room.

And long overhead casts are very Good for birds, but not very good for the fish. So if you can change direction easily with limited back casting space, you're going to catch more fish, without a doubt.

So this old technique from the 1800s that we use now, with modern rods and modern lines, it really opens up new areas of a river that normally people could never get to. And just to mention, I've got a couple of demos at the show, too. So I try to entertain people and have a good time.

It's always a fun moment to be on the pools there.

Yeah, absolutely. And do you have a favorite flavor of social media, Christopher?

I like Instagram a lot, but I'm quite old. I'm not the best in social media.

Fair enough. Well, as I always say, folks, it's not like Christopher's over here every day.

And this is the great opportunity for these shows is to get a different perspective, meet super engaged and qualified instructors. So I encourage you to go spend some time either in the Mack Brown Christopher Rounds class or their individual classes and demos.

And I believe I'm actually going to have a classroom casting class in Denver. So all good stuff. And I would normally wish everyone to get out there and catch fish, but I think that's kind of crazy.

So I'll just say, you know, if you can't get to a fly fishing show and spend time with Mac and Christopher, spend some time at the vice. Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines. Mac and Christopher.

Tight lines.

Tight lines. All the best guys.