Review; dvd, Single handed distance fly casting, Mike Marshall.
Mike Marshall is unique in the world of fly casting and fly casting instruction. He became a champion fly caster through sheer determination and a renowned instructor by accident. He has developed, with the aid of an acutely analytical brain and engineering background, a style of instruction that has been honed by teaching, quite literally, thousands and thousands of people to cast a fly line. More recently he is also the one man who has spearheaded a resurgent BFCC with his determination, hard work behind the scenes and sheer bloody mindedness. When he sets out to do something it gets done. So I wonder why I am surprised that when he decides to leave a legacy and create a fly casting library for the BFCC that his first creation is such an epic. Epic in scope that is, not cinematic quality, he is the first to admit he is no George Lucas or even Michael Winner. In fact he had never used a video camera until he started this project. Personally I have to think he was (is) either mad, naive or stupendously brave to decide to create a dvd that will tell you, step by step, everything you need to know to go from being a beginner to a potential champion in one dvd. And do it without any help. The mind boggles.
170 minutes, ten short of three hours. It’s long. I know. I sat through it in one hit. I am glad I did though and I urge you to do the same the first time you view it because you soon forgive the cinematic quality, the odd fuzzy slo-mo and the dog. There is some fascinating stuff in there, certainly things I didn’t know or had never considered, and, as the chapters go by you start to get a flavour of the man and his methods.
Once you have watched it through you can then go back to any of the 22 segments that you may be working on and refresh your memory before going out to practice again. I wish I had something like this to refer to a few years ago when all I wanted to do was hurl a five weight line to the horizon, it might have saved me months or years of frustration.
This is really three dvds in one and I think it does suffer in some respects because the scope is just too large. I found that I actually wanted more detail in some of the sections. There is plenty of food for thought though. From the detailed analysis of the double haul how to repair a cracked line. From the coins to the money shots of a Master at work.
This is the first in a proposed series of dvds on all aspects of fly casting that will eventually fill the BFCC library.
Bring it on.
The dvd is available from the
www.thebfcc.co.uk website.
