Only about 100 people in the world can say that they're a master certified fly-fishing casting instructor - and Wānaka man Carl McNeil is one of them.
His top-quality Epic Fly Rods have been ranked among the world's best by American outdoors magazine Field & Stream.
Fly fishing. Photo: Supplied/Pete Slotemaker
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McNeil tells Afternoons turning his obsession with fishing began in a way familiar to many Kiwi blokes, as a child going on trips with their dad.
“I grew up like many Kiwi lads, my dad took me fishing and I do have a distinct memory of trolling for trout out the back of a boat with what wasn't much more than a piece of twine wrapped around a bit of broomstick, which must have made to keep me entertained and shut me up more than anything.
“But we actually caught a fish and the fish pulled the line and stick out in my hands when I bought in it so yeah, that was my earliest memory.”
From that moment on he was hooked on fishing, and New Zealand is one of the best places to feed a life-long love of the sport, he says.
"We’re spoilt rotten for the best outdoor places in the world… As I eventually got into fly fishing, it becomes a bit of an obsession, actually.
Fly fishing differs radically from other forms of fishing, McNeil says, such as surfcasting or fishing with a line and sinker from a boat.
The artificial fly is cast using a fly rod, specialised reel, weighted line and mono trace. It requires a rhythmic casting technique involving timing and a fair bit of skill to get the fly in the spot you desire it.
“We're trying to emulate or copy insects and bugs that are in the environment and vertebrates, all those good things. Those flies tend to be really, really small - they're tied with lots of natural materials like fur and feathers and materials like that. And they're essentially weightless.”
McNeil studied fly-casting mechanics to become a certified instructor in the US, through the Federation of Fly Angers.
“Within that, they run a programme to train teachers or other people that might want to come instructors to test and teach other people to fly cast and so I sort of did that remotely for three or four years as an initial exam and then after that first qualification those that want to have a crack at going on and doing a Masters and that was another couple of years of study and lots of exams and all those good things.”
After those exams, he still didn’t have any notion of transforming his passion into a business and simply loved the art and mechanics of fly fishing – the twist of your wrist, the proper technique when casting, or having a sturdy stance when standing in water.
McNeil says there are lots of layers to that onion.
“It's really taking your time and fly casting is all about technique and not muscle. if I was going to give advice to any fly caster, particularly the blokes that tend to just put too much power into things, just take your time, concentrate on form.
“It's like most sports or playing musical instruments, a bit of practice and technique is everything."
The specialist fly rod McNeil designed has been well received around the world. He puts a modern twist on fibreglass – the old-school rod material your dad or granddad would have used.
“It was sort of superseded 60 years ago by carbon fibre.
“What we did initially was take a step back. I think when we stopped making fly rods out of fibreglass we missed a whole lot of really good things about that material. So, we resurrected it.
“We use a fairly modern fibreglass - it's actually used by the Sikorsky helicopter company to make helicopter blades. The stuff that we use is a really modern material. So, we make the fibreglass rods and then we make carbon fibre rods, which will be reliant on sort of being cutting edge, but it was those fibreglass rods that probably put us on the map initially.”