Transcript: Casting Angles with Mac Brown
S6, Ep 3: Casting Angles with Mac Brown
2024, Marvin S. Cash
The Articulate Fly
http://www.thearticulatefly.com
Transcript
Marvin:
[0:04] Hey folks it's marvin cash the host of the articulate fly we're back with the first casting angles of 2024 with mac brown how you doing mac i'm doing great how are you doing marvin as always i'm uh just trying to stay out of trouble and putting the finishing touches on my arc here in charlotte north carolina that's good we're gonna need an arc looks like they're They're calling for tonight and tomorrow.
Mac:
[0:29] I think you might need that, Art.
Marvin:
[0:30] Yeah, they're saying we're going to get four inches of rain.
But before we kind of dig into the business end of our conversation tonight, was Santa Claus good to you this year?
Mac:
[0:39] Oh, Santa Claus, he's always good. He did a good job this last Christmas as well.
Marvin:
[0:46] Well, there you go. I would hate to hear that you got coal in your stocking.
Mac:
[0:50] No, that wouldn't be fun, would it?
Marvin:
[0:52] It would not be. And, you know, as we head into the very beginning of 2024, you know, that's synonymous with show season.
And we thought it would be a good idea to talk to folks about how they can use show season to improve their skills if they can't get out and fish.
Mac:
[1:07] Yeah, that's right. There's a lot of good seminars, you know, on various topics from wet fly to reading water to just all kinds of assortments there that if they're interested in one of those to learn more about it, that would be a great place to start. There's a lot of good demos.
And yeah, watching the demos, I think, a lot of times it's hard to hear.
Some of the venues are harder to hear than others.
You know, depending where you stand, if you stand close to where the speaker is, you can hear if you're on the other side or far away from the speaker, it's really hard to kind of make out what's being said.
But I think a big part of that would be it's easy to start watching loops and watching loops, But if you're really wanting to learn deeper about your own casting, I would say just watch the hand, watch the movement of the person that's casting, and just ignore the line because they're not going to put somebody up there throwing rainbow cast, you know?
So watch the movement, and you'll come away learning a lot more.
Marvin:
[2:07] Yeah, and, you know, use your phone, folks. I mean, you've got that $1,000 supercomputer in your pocket, and you can record the hand, and you're getting the audio at the same time, and then you can kind of watch it in slow motion.
And to Mac's point, I mean, everything that's really important is happening at the hand.
Mac:
[2:24] Yeah, and also there's a lot of other, you know, two-and-a-half-hour classes and things like that if they get really excited about it.
You know, they could sign up, take one of the classes.
There's a lot of classes offered, you know, at the fly fishing show, and there's going to be – I was looking over a lot of the titles actually this week, and that's another great place to have kind of like one-on-one – well, not one-on-one, but basically there's 10 people in a class.
Marvin:
[2:53] And so then you'd be one of the 10 and you got two and a half hours to really digest it you know not make that makes a world of difference over just watching youtube yeah for sure but you know to kind of back up a little bit to the casting demonstrations watching the hand is important but you and i were talking before we started recording that you know the other stuff you can do is you know you know watch um you know foot placement and body position to kind of get a feel for or how proficient casters like to position and move their body.
Mac:
[3:24] Yeah, from the footwork all the way up. That's good.
That's real good. Because I've noticed over the years, teaching since back in the mid-'80s, people tend to just look at the loops and look at the loops, and then you make the loop do something wild, like turn a curve or a pile cast or whatever it might be, and they're so mesmerized watching the loop, then they're really missing the point you know i mean they're missing the point of where it all came from it's kind of like starting to read a book and go to the very end and see what happens first it's like it's kind of the backwards way to do it but usually people tend to look at the line more than more than the caster and i think that would be a a really big place to start you know yeah and you know i don't know i'm i'm kind of a super organized type a person so i generally tend I tend to, as Ben, for example, posts the talking schedules and the casting demos and things like that, I generally have a pretty good plan when I go to a show where I want to be because if you don't plan, my general experience is I find out that I end up going home and I miss something.
[4:30] That's right. Yeah, I've planned out. I look at all the, you know, when I get a little break here, a little break there.
I wrote out my itinerary for the first four shows today.
And I try to put those breaks to use them constructively where I can, you know, get done what I want to go see. A lot of times I'll go sit in and get to watch. watch.
You know, it might be somebody, you know, there that's given a seminar in a room and talking about a topic I want to go hear about.
I mean, that's a great way to spend the downtime, you know, because a big part of it too, we're on our feet a long time during those shows.
And it's nice to go in the seminar room and actually watch something and be, you know, sitting down and learning something that way. A lot of times it's fun.
Marvin:
[5:18] Yeah. And if you're into destination travel, It's a really good way.
You know, there's destination theaters. You're going to generally find people talking about trips pretty much anywhere in the world. And, you know, they're not cheap.
And so, you know, to be able to kind of listen to a talk and then go talk to the outfitters in the lodges at the show is another great thing you can do.
Mac:
[5:39] Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's always fun. Like a lot of the really neat destinations and they'll have people.
There's always very good representation from the Bahamas.
And I used to go sit and watch a lot of those presentations that go on, you know, from Andros, and those are always a lot of fun.
Super friendly folks, too. But, I mean, last year, the one in Denver, we got to watch one of the destination theaters about Iceland, and that was a lot of fun, too.
Yeah, they had a lot of good slides, really good pictures. It made you feel like you've just been to Iceland just watching it, you know?
Marvin:
[6:16] Yeah, that's become a really popular destination, nation. And I know you're, uh, we were talking earlier today, you've already got your show suitcase pack.
Where are you going to be on the show circuit this year?
Mac:
[6:26] I'm going to Denver next week, middle of the week, next week.
And then right after we get home from Denver, we get a day turnaround to go to Edison.
And then we come back from Edison, and I think there's a two-day turnaround, and we're in Atlanta.
And then we get a little bit of a break, and then we go out to Pleasanton, California for the fly fishing show.
Then we come back, get a little break for a week, and then go up to Michigan for the Midwest Fly Fishing Expo. So, yeah, it's getting ready to be busy, Marvin.
Marvin:
[6:59] I don't have quite that ambitious a schedule. I will be with you in Denver and Edison.
And unfortunately, we'll miss Atlanta this year because I'm going to go up to Mike Schultz's Bobbin' in the Hood at Schultz Outfitters and spend some time with the streamer guys.
But, you know, folks, we love questions at the Articulate Fly.
You can email them to us. You can DM us. And if we use your question, I'll send you some Articulate Fly swag. And also wanted to remind you that Mac and I are partnering.
We're doing a three-part online series that starts February, March, and April.
The purpose of that series is to really kind of help you kind of reset with a really easy-to-understand foundation that will allow you to progress more quickly but also allow you to diagnose your own casting problems and fix them.
So I'll drop a link to that in the show notes. and you can sign up for that as well.
And, you know, I would encourage you. I know Ben has been very, very active putting out the speaker schedules and the class schedules for all of his shows.
So you can check out to see where Mac is speaking or doing demos or all of your casting classes with Gary Borger sold out.
Mac:
[8:11] I don't even know. I was trying to find that out, but I couldn't see the numbers. So I don't know yet.
Marvin:
[8:18] Yeah, and so just so folks know, I think the day before the show starts, Mac and Gary do an all-day casting class that's really awesome.
So just some stuff to check out. I'll drop all that stuff in the show notes.
And, you know, Mac, before I let you go tonight, you want to let folks know where they can find you so they can book a casting lesson, go to guide school, maybe spend some time on the water with you in 2024?
Mac:
[8:42] Sure the uh the easiest thing is just mac brown fly fish and or fly fishing guide school on facebook or instagram they can direct message me on one of those or or go to the websites and same thing fly fishing guide school.com or mac brown fly fish.com.
Marvin:
[8:59] That's the easiest way to get me yeah well there you go and i want to wish everybody a happy happy new year happy 2024 and And I hope everyone has a great show season.
Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Mac.