I’ve been fly-fishing for the past 31 years and am absolutely passionate about the sport. I have introduced many a person to this pursuit over the years and am also an avid fly-tier.

It was the mystical allure of fly-casting that first attracted me to the sport. This fascination has never left me and it is something I have always focused to improve on. Fly-casting tuition in South Africa “until recently” was very limited and the available tuition lent itself heavily to the tutor’s personal style of casting. There was less than a hand full of instructors who had formal international training in the art of teaching fly-casting. It was SAFFA (the South African Fly Fishing Association) who identified the need for a structured and uniform teaching program that not only test a tutor’s casting ability but also the ability to teach casting to students with a variety of personalities, skill levels and learning preferences. SAFFA therefore decided to partner with IFFF (the International Federation of Fly Fishers), now FFI (Fly Fishers International), who is the world’s recognised leader in fly-casting education.

SAFFA invited IFFF fly-casting instructors from Holland and Sweden over to South Africa to train the South African candidates for the Casting Instructor Certification Program who also conducted the exams 11 months later. I am very pleased to have obtain this demanding and coveted qualification.