I’ve been fly-fishing for the past 23 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) who are 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.