My wife & I made our first visit today to see Richard at Carolina Mountain Sports and I'll never forget it! Richard has a great shop in Statesville with lots of great flyfishing gear, hiking & camping equip & clothing, kayaks, canoes and the list goes on and on. But what I didn't know I would find is the depth of knowledge and experience that Richard possesses.
I credit myself with being an excellent judge of character and I feel that I can size people up pretty quickly. Richard impressed me almost immediately and after only a short conversation, I knew that this would be a memorable visit. Richard spent a considerable amount of time with us in the shop discussing my objectives and evaluating my 4wt & 8wt rods that I had brought along. He told me more about my rods, reels, line, leaders, etc in 15 minutes than I knew from years of owning them.
Next step, we're in a nice open area, just down the street from the shop and there, the artist went to work. As Richard explained to me, the essential ingredients that make up a nice effective fly rod cast, I watched the most effortless artistry in motion involving a fishing rod, that I can ever recall seeing. While carrying on a conversation with me, and while exerting the least amount of effort imaginable, I watched as Richard floated the fly line forward and backward out through the air with absolute precision. He demonstrated several different casts and casting methods and explained the benefits of each. Then, he hands the rod to me. So, I have to follow that!?
I have had the misfortune of being taught things by those who could hardly do what they were teaching themselves, but yet were excellent teachers. And then I've had those instructors who were at the top of the game in their own performance, but had little hope of ever being able to teach that skill to another. A rare find is the individual who possesses both the keen, polished, precise ability to execute their craft at an extremely high level and yet are just as proficient and talented at conveying those skills and abilities to students of their art. Richard is one of these folks.
Using what I had taught myself (mostly wrong) and what Richard had demonstrated for me, I lifted the line from the ground and set it in motion. In a matter of minutes, I was making the longest, most effortless, most accurate casts I've made with my flyrod. I was even making a couple of casts that I didn't even know existed!
With Richard's assurance that I had equipment plenty good enough to accomplish my objectives and now the skills needed to make it happen, I headed home to start putting in the time. All the way home, I couldn't believe how excited I felt just to begin practicing what I had learned. For the first time since buying my first flyrod over 20 years ago, I felt like I was ready to become a flyfisherman!
Thanks Richard, for showing me the way! Thank you for the warm hospitality shown to my wife, our dog(who took a tour of the shop) and myself. See you again soon!
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Jim
I credit myself with being an excellent judge of character and I feel that I can size people up pretty quickly. Richard impressed me almost immediately and after only a short conversation, I knew that this would be a memorable visit. Richard spent a considerable amount of time with us in the shop discussing my objectives and evaluating my 4wt & 8wt rods that I had brought along. He told me more about my rods, reels, line, leaders, etc in 15 minutes than I knew from years of owning them.
Next step, we're in a nice open area, just down the street from the shop and there, the artist went to work. As Richard explained to me, the essential ingredients that make up a nice effective fly rod cast, I watched the most effortless artistry in motion involving a fishing rod, that I can ever recall seeing. While carrying on a conversation with me, and while exerting the least amount of effort imaginable, I watched as Richard floated the fly line forward and backward out through the air with absolute precision. He demonstrated several different casts and casting methods and explained the benefits of each. Then, he hands the rod to me. So, I have to follow that!?
I have had the misfortune of being taught things by those who could hardly do what they were teaching themselves, but yet were excellent teachers. And then I've had those instructors who were at the top of the game in their own performance, but had little hope of ever being able to teach that skill to another. A rare find is the individual who possesses both the keen, polished, precise ability to execute their craft at an extremely high level and yet are just as proficient and talented at conveying those skills and abilities to students of their art. Richard is one of these folks.
Using what I had taught myself (mostly wrong) and what Richard had demonstrated for me, I lifted the line from the ground and set it in motion. In a matter of minutes, I was making the longest, most effortless, most accurate casts I've made with my flyrod. I was even making a couple of casts that I didn't even know existed!
With Richard's assurance that I had equipment plenty good enough to accomplish my objectives and now the skills needed to make it happen, I headed home to start putting in the time. All the way home, I couldn't believe how excited I felt just to begin practicing what I had learned. For the first time since buying my first flyrod over 20 years ago, I felt like I was ready to become a flyfisherman!
Thanks Richard, for showing me the way! Thank you for the warm hospitality shown to my wife, our dog(who took a tour of the shop) and myself. See you again soon!
Jim
