With 30 years of experience as a teacher of fly casting, Brant offers students the very highest level of expertise and value in casting instruction. During those years, Brant worked as Director of Orvis’ West Coast Fishing Schools and co-director of the Mel Krieger Schools. More recently, he has served as the casting instructor for the Sweetwater Travel guide school program.
The vast majority of students who book individual casting lessons fall into one of two categories: complete novices or intermediate casters who want to learn the double haul (often because they are planning a first saltwater trip). We welcome these students, but usually suggest a short series of lessons to fully address these stages in a caster’s career.
An individual casting lesson is best treated as a problem-solving session. Narrowing the focus of the lesson to a limited range of casting skills or problems will allow the instructor and student a better chance to make real progress.
Here are some suggested topics for an individual lesson:
- Minimizing tailing loops
- The “variable casting stroke”: learning to match rod bend and size of the casting arc to allow proper loop control at various distances
- Casting in the wind
- Use of the line hand: single haul, double haul, striking and playing fish, retrieves
- Line control on the water: mending, curve casts, reach casts
Most casters can process only a limited amount of information in a single session, and the caster must always practice beyond the confines of the lesson itself to truly learn the material presented in the lesson. We generally limit the length of an individual lesson to about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. If the student is interested in covering more material, we also offer half day and full day casting clinics, but we will enforce rest breaks from casting with classroom material or demonstrations.
Although we do a lot of one-on-one lessons, the ideal group size for an individual lesson is 2-4 people. This helps prevent the instructor from “overteaching” and gives the student time to practice within the lesson.
Rates
Based on number of participants:
| Single lesson | Half-day clinic | Full-day clinic |
| $150: 1 or 2 | $500: up to 4 | $650: up to 4 |
| $250: 3 or 4 |
Contact us about quotes for longer lessons or larger groups.