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After a few years of fishing with Stefano closely almost every other day. I decided I wanted to take this a little further. Using my connections in the travel business I shared with him my idea to attract customers. I was sure that people would love to experience some of the places that he was taking me to go fishing. This would mean that I would have an excuse to go fishing more often and translate for Stefano while he guided, and I would benefit of the experience.
Stefano thought it was a great Idea but before we could continue he said it would be really important for me to start to learn more about casting a fly. He said I needed lessons and i would benefit from this greatly. I did not know where to start with this so I googled around and to my luck came across a website Little did I know how much this would change my life.
I Looked through the website, the Italian school of fly fishing. It sounded very official and they offered lessons, casting weekends around Italy. So I booked myself in.
The venue was in a very small village in the Sesia valley about 2 hours away from lake Como where I lived at the time. I got in the car and drove up to the valley. So far, in Italy, I had only fished our local valleys I was excited to see what else was out here. As I drove up the valley i could see the river meandering up the valley slowly but surely getting smaller and smaller as I climbed higher. I remember looking out and thinking to myself what pools on that river I would like to fish.
Eventually, I arrived, my satnav pointed me off the round down a small grit road towards what looked like a chalet. I parked up and got out. The chalet was all in stone and just sublimely beautiful, it had classical stone walls a big wide terrace and generally a very welcoming place in the heart of the mountains.
One thing I love is getting out of the car and smelling pine trees, cool crisp air, and hearing the river crackle. This place had it all, I already felt good about arriving here. As I walked closer to the chalet to check in I saw it was right on the river bank, You couldn’t see it was on the river from far away but as you got closer you could see a huge pool just under the hotel. Oh how cool.
I walked in and checked in, already there where a load of people here for the course. The hotel staff gave me a briefing of where my room was and showed me the awesome bar loaded the an unlimited selection of Belgian beers. Perfect!
I took my bag up to my room, through my gear on the bed and went down stairs to check in with the course. I was introduced to the SIM (Italian School of Fly Fishing) secretary, who, in turn, gave me the briefing of how the course works. He handed me the time table of lessons. I looked through them, day 1 morning casting on land introduction to Italian casting. Lunch, afternoon casting lessons on the river. Dinner, evening fly tying tutorial led by experts of the school. 5 days of this! woahhhh!
He said by the end of the course I wont be able to lift my arm any more. I was thinking very cool! He also handed me the casting manual of the school. He said “read through this this evening so you start to get an idea of what you will be learning. He gave me a badge, stickers, files, and a SIM School Hat then said “But first Dinner!”
We went up to the dining room and there where about 50 people on one long table in the middle of the dining room. The group filled the chalet. The dining room overlooked the beautiful river, and as the sun set, I sat down and felt at home right away. I was introduced to my instructor @Paolo Ercoli and already I felt at home. This was not just a fly fishing course but an induction to the sport these guys Live, Breath, Talk only Fly Fishing. It was awesome these guys where talking about things I had never heard before, How to perfectly balance a leader, what length it should be, balanced with a 3 weight line and rod. What rod is best for these casts. They where talking about all these different casts?! wait wait? different casts? You telling me there is more than one cast when fly fishing? I asked paolo as he was drinking beer and laughing with another instructor. He laughed and gave me a breakdown on the casts that the school taught! Cut cast, double haul, and so many more I had no idea what they where, what he was saying but it sounded amazing. Needless to say, I went to bed buzzing having discovered all this new information. yet getting up at 6am didn’t even faze me.
Early morning, Im up, I serve myself a coffee and some breakfast brioches. Breakfast was relatively silent. We all got together said good morning and then headed down to the cars I grabbed my gear and followed suit.