Perhaps you think you don't need any fly casting tuition.

Put a dinner plate on your lawn, stand back 12 metres (40 feet) and have a go at landing a fly on target. Shocking, isn't it?

I finally got sick of my imperfect casting and decided to do something about it. Practising didn't help much. I found it impossible to self analyse my throw and, despite an awful lot of effort, I hardly improved at all. I had to admit that I didn't know enough about the technicalities of casting or even how a rod really works. Clearly I needed professional tuition. Peter Hayes is held in very high regard in professional circles and was recommended to me by more than one fishing guru. Anyhow, I figured that I could scarcely do better than be instructed by the current Australian fly casting champion (not to mention fly fishing champion) and eventually took the plunge.

The school I attended was held at Corra Linn during July. What a staggering six hours of tuition it tuned out to be.

Let me start by stressing that all students improved dramatically over the course of the day. Three rank beginners coached by Lisa ended up as good at casting as any average fly fisher you'd be likely to meet in the Cowpaddock. The other anglers were average casters to start with but all improved out of sight. Despite some of us having had years of experience, we could hardly credit how easy it was to become appreciably better than we had been.

Importantly, Peter's undisputed prowess with the fly rod is matched by his skill as a teacher. Everyone received heaps of personal analysis and faults were explained in simple language, not in incomprehensible jargon. Peter was also willing to answer questions on general fishing matters.

This may sound over the top, but that six hours of tuition were the most exciting hours of formal education I have ever experienced. Furthermore, Peter's clever use of prompts, analogies and memory-triggers meant that, despite being saturated with information and technical advice, I was easily able to recall the main points while honing my skills at home during the ensuing weeks. (Mind you, if I had forgotten I could have referred to Peter and Lisa's printed overview which reiterated the memory triggers as well as strategies for overcoming common casting problems.) The improvement in my casting has been so dramatic that, far from being the chore I expected, practising has proved to be addictive.

I want to stress that the techniques developed and refined by tournament casters are the techniques now being enthusiastically embraced by the world's leading anglers - it most definitely is not show-pony stuff. I have not seen these modern techniques described or explained in current literature or videos, so unless you are involved in the tournament scene they are bound to come as big a revelation.

Now, once you have done the course, I recommend that, like me, you practice at home, say a hour or so every couple of days for a month, and then have your cast re-analysed. By this time you will need to be reassured that you have not developed any new bad habits and in any case it will be time for fine tuning. You will also be ready to concentrate on things other than the basic cast, perhaps roll casting (the real way), serpentine casting, casting across the wind, bow-and-arrow roll casting or . . . well, the sky is the limit.

When I knew my casting was ready for further refinement, a casting mate and I hired Peter for one of his Advanced Fishing Skills Days at Arthurs Lake. For us this meant being able to learn more about casting and being able to get the low down on English loch-style fishing (both dry fly and wet fly techniques). But it could have meant pretty much whatever we had wanted.

Peter has a vast knowledge of all trout fishing techniques and has fishing skills second to none.""

Greg French - 1999