Casting
Watch first-hand as experts demonstrate an array of skills and techniques for every skill level
We ask that you bring your own rod and cast along. A limited number of loaner rods will be available on site the day of the event.
All demonstrations will take place on the grassy lawn next to the River Park Trailhead.
Casting Classes
Bronze FCSD Course
09:00 - 09:50 AM, 10:00 - 10:50 AM, 11:00 - 11:50 AM, 12:00 - 12:50 PM, 01:00 - 01:50 PM
The mission of the Fly Casting Skills Development program (FCSD) is to give all fly anglers a guide to learning and improving casting skills that address increasingly advanced fishing situations. It starts at the Foundation level, for true beginners to the sport who might be picking up a fly rod for the first time. Learn more here.
Introduction to Fly Casting
09:00 - 09:50 AM, 10:00 - 10:50 AM, 11:00 - 11:50 AM, 12:00 - 12:50 PM, 01:00 - 01:50 PM, 02:00 - 02:50 PM
A Co-ed class introducing a basic Pick-Up-and-Lay-Down cast for first-time fly casters. Other basic skills will be covered as time allows. No equipment or experience is required. Open to all new fly fishers age 8 and up (participants ages 8 – 13 must be accompanied by a parent/responsible adult).
Mastering the Roll Cast
11:00 - 11:50 AM, 01:00 - 01:50 PM
When to Use It and How to Leverage It Effectively to Catch More Fish in Diverse On-Water Scenarios.
The class will be conducted on the water at Clearfork and will cover the practical application of the roll cast in real fishing conditions. Instruction will include an overview of key river dynamics and terminology, such as river left, river right, upstream, and downstream.
The course will also provide a brief introduction to the switch cast, highlighting its applications and comparing and contrasting it with the static roll cast to help anglers understand when each technique is most effective
Casting Doctor - Open Session
02:00 - 03:00 PM
Come in and cast on your own
Open Session
03:00 - 0:500 PM
Come in and cast on your own
Instructors
Meet Your Instructors
Bill Campbell, CI
Bill grew up in the suburbs of Baltimore, MD where he learned to fly fish when he was eleven years old. The area’s local farm ponds and its tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay proved to be excellent fishing classrooms for him. During his teenage years, his passion for fly fishing grew by regularly reading Lefty Kreh’s “Maryland Outdoors” article, which was published weekly in The Baltimore Sun. Throughout his fly-fishing journey, Bill has had the good fortune to fly fish from New Zealand to Maryland and many places in between. Today, he fishes mostly on Lake Texoma and in the lakes and rivers of East Tennessee. His favorite place to fish is on the banks of Lake Texoma chasing smallmouth bass on topwater with his British Lab, Charleigh by his side. He divides his time between his residences in Fort Worth, TX, and Monteagle, TN. Bill is a Certified Casting Instructor (CI) with Fly Fishers International (FFI).
Camron Dunn, CI
I am from Lubbock Texas, and I went to school at Texas Tech University. I am a certified casting instructor through FFI. I love fishing northern New Mexico and southern Colorado for pike and trout around Santa Fe, Taos, and San Luis. I predominantly to fish around Texas for Large and Small Mouth Bass, but my favorite is salt water fishing in Florida, The Bahamas, and Belize.
Clint Barton, CI
Clint Barton is an FFI Certified Casting Instructor who lives in Georgetown, Texas. He has been fly fishing for 25 years. Having retired from the corporate world in 2014, he presently works at Living Waters Fly Fishing in Round Rock, Texas where he also teaches fly tying and fly casting. As a charter member of the San Gabriel Fly Fishers he has held several offices and is currently serving as Vice President.
Jim Hund, MCI, THCI
Jim Hund is a FFI Certified Master and Two-Hand Casting Instructor who lives in Lubbock, Texas. He is an at large member of the FFI Texas Council board as the Texas director of casting instruction education. He began fly fishing in the mid-1980’s. He also actively fishes two handed rods swinging flies for steelhead and pacific salmon
Rex Walker, CI
Rex Walker is a DFW area casting instructor, fly fisher, and fly tyer. Rex has been helping people improve their fly casting skills for the past 20 years. He has worked with many of the region’s fly fishing clubs, at fly fishing events across Texas, and with both Reel Recovery and Project Healing Waters. Rex is a Fly Fishers International certified instructor and a member of TFO Rods Pro Staff. When not helping other fly fishers improve their casting skills, Rex can often be found on Lake Texoma chasing black bass and striped bass on the fly.
Ron Ridgeway
Since picking up a fly rod, at the age of seventeen, fly fishing and casting has become a part of who I am. I casted poorly for years, no mentors, no YouTube and no instructional DVDs. When I began to attend fly fishing shows and get- togethers, in the eighties, things began to develop in a positive direction. You just don’t know what you don’t know…
Even today, as I work with a student struggling to get timing and coordination all together, I like to assure them that all of us “casters” were right where you are at one point in our casting career. No one is born knowing how to cast. It’s a skill we all have to learn.
I have been fortunate to fly fish in a lot of great destinations around the world. But, I find I’m just as happy casting to bream in a stock tank as I am standing on a flat in the tropics casting to bonefish and permit.
I guided on the Kootenai and Bull rivers in Montana for thirteen seasons. I rowed a drift boat around seven hundred miles per season and making new friends with clients from all over the world. It was while working with anglers in Montana that I developed my enthusiasm for teaching fly casting.
I am a Fly Fishers International Certified Casting Instructor and regularly teach casting and guide for Redfish, Speckled Trout and Flounder through my guiding business, Matagorda Loops, in Matagorda, Texas. I get to spend about two hundred-twenty days a year in my skiff or wading the Matagorda Bays. I live full time in Matagorda, with my wife Sharon.