Casting

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 Lewisville, TX and Monteagle, TN. Bill is a Certified Casting Instructor (CI) with Fly Fishers International (FFI).

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 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.

I have taught for DFF, FWFF, Red River FF, Casting for Recovery, Reel Recovery, Project Healing Waters, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Boy Scouts, Orvis and private.

I began fly fishing over 60 years ago and have fished from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego plus Africa. I have done some salt water, Mexico Belize and Turks plus our own Gulf.

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.

Thi Nguyen, CI is a retired RN, FFI certified casting instructor since 2020. He lives in Houston with his lovely wife.