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Texas Fly Fishing Expo Casting Instructors
What is a Certified Casting Instructor (CCI)?
A Certified Casting Instructor (CCI) has demonstrate the high standard of performance that creates confidence in students and other instructors. CCI’s can accomplish casting tasks quickly and easily, accompanied with good demonstrations and clear, concise explanations. Certified Casting Instructors can effectively teach the art of fly casting to all levels.
What is a Master Casting Instructor (MCI)?
A Master Casting Instructor (MCI) requires more than just meeting a specified set of casting requirements. It also requires a broad range of experience in casting itself. Certification is the end of a process, not the beginning. A Master Caster is an exceptional individual, able to teach others how to teach. These are rather demanding requirements, but they are the requirements that IFFF wishes to be assessed.
Even anglers who have excellent fly fishing skills may not necessarily be certified at the Master’s level – ability in angling is only part of the certification process. Equally important is a broad range of casting abilities (for instance being able to make curve casts by more than one method) and a great deal of comfort in demonstrating them.
In the teaching of casting, the MCI can describe the skills in as many ways as possible because different people respond differently to verbal descriptions. The ability to see casting through the eyes of the untrained caster is essential, especially since the Master Casting Instructor teaches others how to teach.
Steve Hollensed – Steve is a full time Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing Guide in Texas. He is a Master Certified Casting Instructor and is an active member of the Casting Board of Governors, serving as Co-Chairman of the Masters Test Committee and a member of the Examiner Review Committee. Steve hosts fly fishing trips throughout the Americas and runs an active schedule of casting classes and schools. He is a recipient of the Mel Krieger Award in 2015.
Bob Garber – As a young boy began fishing the ponds, lake and rivers of north east Oklahoma with family. First picked up a fly rod in 1973 and for the last 14 years the fly rod has been the only choice. Have fly fished for warm, cold and salt water species across much of the western United States, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alaska and The Bahamas. Is currently a Master Certified Casting Instructor for the International Federation of Fly Fishers, Education Director for the Fort Worth Fly Fishers and an Angler Education Instructor for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department..
Andy Payne began fly fishing with my son in 1986. Finally learned how to cast when I became a life member of the IFFF about 18 years later. Fell in love with learning about casting and the activity of the IFFF casting education process. I was certified in Oct 2012 at Southern Counsel fair in Mountain Home, AR. I have been a business executive since leaving the USMC as an artillery officer in 1969 with one tour in Vietnam. Expect to be fully retired later this year so I can devote more time to learning about and helping others to learn about fly casting. I live in Houston with my wife Tinker of 26 years and have 4 grandsons. Two have been taught to fly fish and two are a bit too young but will be in the que in the future.
Chuck Easterling is a retired Chief Deputy Prosecutor for the State of Arkansas. Chuck became a CI in 1997, and MCI in 1999 and was elected to the Casting Board of Governors in 2003. He has served as chair of the CI Test Committee and currently serves as the chair of the Examiner Review Committee. Chuck also serves on the International Committee and has participated in CI and MCI testing in New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Spain and Ireland. Since his retirement Chuck spends the bulk of his time at his family’s cabin on the Little Red River in Arkansas where he chases trout and practices his two handed casting when not forced to do yard work.
Gary Davison (Gulf Coast Spey) Has been involved in instructing single- and double-handed casting for over 10 years. He is an IFFF Certified Casting Instructor who has had the honor of learning and teaching fly-casting with some of the best in the field which include Al Crise MCI, Lee Davison MCI,THCI, & Steve Hollensed MCI. Gary is associated with the OL Al’s CCI study group along with Mr. Jim Bass CCI and is an active member of Dr.Gordy Hill’s MCI Master Study group. Gary is an avid fisherman with a passion for fly-casting and is especially interested in those techniques that trend toward adaptation of Spey Casting to the Gulf Coast area for both single and double-handed presentation.
Jim Hund – I live in Lubbock and practice law when I am not fishing. I began fly fishing in the mid-1980’s. I have and continue to fish for warm, cold and salt water species across much of the western United States, Alaska, Florida Keys, British Columbia and Belize. I have been certified as a Casting Instructor for the International Federation of Fly Fishers since 2012.
Jerald Lewis is an IFFF Certified Casting Instructor and has been fly fishing for more than 20 years. His passion for fly fishing started out in cold water pursuing trout, but has transitioned into warm water chasing largemouth bass, sand bass, bream, and crappie.
Bill Gammell is a college biology instructor from Baytown, Texas. Bill grew up the son of an avid outdoorsman and he has kept the family tradition alive. He is a world renown fly fisherman known for his casting and his how to booklet The Essentials of Flycasting and dvd Teaching Yourself to Fly Cast. He has fished all over the US and parts of the Caribbean focusing mainly on trout, largemouth bass, and redfish. He is currently a CBOG Emeritus for the FFF Casting Instructor program.
Molly Semenik lives in Birch Bay Washington. Having recently retired from 15 years of guiding in Montana, Molly now offers fly fishing instruction (both single-hand and two-hand) in Washington and women’s fly fishing destination travel in Montana. Every spring Molly offers women’s classes in Washington, Montana and Utah. This spring Molly has her first book coming out covering some not so well known streams in Montana. Molly is very active as a Master Certified Casting Instructor and as a member of the Casting Board of Governors for the International Federation of Fly Fishers (IFFF).
Rex Walker is an IFFF Certified Casting Instructor and a member of TFO Flyrod’s Pro Staff. Rex is the casting instructor for the Dallas Fly Fishers and the Red River Fly Fishers.
Stacy Lynn – The sport of Fly Fishing has been central in Stacy’s life since 1995. Stacy has worked in Central Texas’ best fly shops since that time and is an avid saltwater and freshwater angler. She is an International Federation of Fly Fishers Certified Casting Instructor and a graduate of Joan Wulff’s Fly Fishing Instructor’s School. She has been an active member of the Guadalupe River Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Alamo Fly Fishers, Austin Fly Fishers, Rockport Fly Fishers, Texas Fly Fishers, and Texas Women Fly Fishers. She is a Lead Instructor for Texas’ Casting for Recovery program – a weekend fly fishing retreat for women surviving breast cancer – and an organizer for the Lydia Ann Fly Master’s saltwater fly fishing tournament benefiting CfR. She has been a feature speaker, demonstrator, and instructor at numerous events including Oktoberfisch, The Fly Fishing Show, The Shallow Water Show, Fly Fish Texas, Flat Out Fishing!, TPWD Expo, the Houston Fishing Show, and several FFF Conclaves. Stacy is the General Manager of Bayou City Angler, the new specialty fly fishing shop in Houston, Texas. Her favorite Fly Fishing endeavor to date is sight casting in saltwater, especially to Redfish and Tarpon, and her instruction specialty is helping fly casters prepare for the challenging and exciting Saltwater Fly Fishing experience.