4Cff Program Speakers 2021

Be an Archer With Your Cast: How Accuracy Catches You More FishBe it trout, redfish, bonefish or carp, improving your casting accuracy will improve your catch rate. Topics include: understanding loop shape, rod tip path, casting arc, and fly line trajectory. Learn how to point your loop to your target for dead on accuracy. Molly will talk live, share video, and answer questions during the program. The more questions, the better! This will be fun, so I hope you will join in.
Why is casting accuracy important you might ask?"A friend, Chad McCormick, once related an anecdote to me that serves as a perfect illustration of this attitude. Chad was fishing the lower Bighorn with fly shop owner George Anderson a few seasons back, and it was Bighorn fishing at its best: little yellow stoneflies were skittering all over the surface, and the fish were keyed into both hatching insects and returning egg layers. With lots of bugs and lots of rising fish, if the angler put the fly on target, the result was a hookup with another 15 to 20 inch fish.At least that’s how it worked for George and Chad. They noticed another angler fishing the riffle just upstream, making cast after cast, changing flies frequently, conspicuous because he wasn’t catching a thing. All the while, he was forced to watch the anglers below him hook and land and release a considerable pile of fish.Finally, after several more fly changes, this fisherman couldn’t stand it any more. “What are you guys catchin’ ’em on?”, he yelled.George’s unexpected (but painfully honest) comeback: “Accuracy.”1
Molly Semenik was born and raised in Michigan. She fondly recalls the day when, at the age of fourteen, her father presented her with his prized Orvis bamboo rod. When Semenik moved to Utah in 1979, she brought the rod along and spent the next several years fly fishing in western fresh water. She eventually ventured into saltwater angling.A career in fly fishing started with her move to Montana in 2000. By the following year, Semenik accomplished three major goals: 1). become a Federation of Fly Fishers certified fly-casting instructor, 2.)  receive her Montana guide license, and 3.) foundTie the Knot Fly Fishing which she did in  2001. Tie the Knot included guided fly fishing on the Yellowstone River and local spring creeks, but now her focus is on  fly casting instruction with single and double handed rods, using Zoom technology and in-person instruction, and fly-fishing destination trips for women. Molly specializes in introducing women to the sport in a fun, professional, and encouraging way; she believes that “when a woman can tie her own knot, she has started down the path of independence.”Not willing to simply rely on her earlier accomplishments, Semenik became a Federation of Fly Fishers master fly-casting instructor in 2006, co-founded the Yellowstone Fly Fishing School with Matt Wilhelm in 2006, and two years later became a certified outfitter in the state of Montana. She was elected to the Casting Board of Governors of the Federation of Fly Fishers in 2010, where she and he colleagues developed a Casting Instructor program. She annually teaches over 400 students throughout the United States through school, shops, clubs, and shows. My husband and I now live in Birch Bay, Washington where I not only fish for trout but have added salmon and steelhead and Dungeness crab to the mix.We are privileged to have Molly as a member of the 4th Corner Fly Fishers.
Read the website at MidCurrent about Accuracy:1Oswald, Brant. "Fly Casting: The Importance of Casting Accuracy." Part 1. MidCurrent, January 22, 2014. https://midcurrent.com/techniques/the-importance-of-casting-accuracy/.Part 1: https://midcurrent.com/techniques/the-importance-of-casting-accuracy/Part 2: Mechanics of Accuracy: https://midcurrent.com/techniques/the-mechanics-of-accurate-casting/

James Garrettson asks, " Have you ever gone fishing and felt you didn't have the  Tough days on the water?" A Guides Approach to the Water is a deep dive into the daily decisions a full time guide makes to insure clients have a great day on the water. Thinking "trout first" and understanding correlations between trout behavior and river conditions are the foundations of a successful day on the water. Many anglers get pigeonholed into thinking "fly first", when they should fish with their mind before tying on the fly or choosing a rig. A Guides Approach to the Water covers trout biology, understanding river conditions and a meat and potatoes approach to insect life. It is not the fly but the understanding of the trout and their environment that makes for successful days on the water. James Garrettson is a full time guide based out of Northern New Mexico. He was quickly consumed by fly fishing after receiving a copy of the Curtis Creek Manifesto at age 10.  At 14 years old, James' passion for fly fishing landed him a job at Orvis Tysons Corner, store #55  (making him the youngest employee in the company). After cutting his teeth on brookies in Shenandoah National Park and striped bass in the Long Island sound, James expanded his boundaries to chase fish around the East Coast, The Pacific NorthWest, Costa Rica, Bosnia, and the Rockies. James currently guides on the San Juan, Chama, and Conejos rivers. James is an Echo Pro Team member and an Ambassador for Fulling Mill.Visit the website at www.abouttrout.com. Check out the video presentations, blogs, and more to find out the wealth of knowledge James has to share. We are in for a treat.