This month’s “Rocky Mountain Profiles” interview features Cody, WY resident Gene Hall. Many of you know Gene, or at least know of him, as he is a frequent visitor to the Rocky Mountain Fly forums, where he posts under the handle “wyldgene.” Gene has been fishing for over 40 years and has guided for 16. He is a FFF certified casting instructor and avid spey caster who especially enjoys fishing big dries to native cutthroats in backcountry streams, something he learned to do at a young age while growing up in Northern Idaho.

What do you do for a full-time job?

I’m a forester by profession and have spent the last 25 years or so cruising timber, doing forest stand inventories and land exchange cruises, usually past the end of the road and along some of the nicest streams in the northern Rocky Mountains.

How often do you still guide?

I don’t do much guiding professionally anymore, probably less than a dozen days a year, filling in when the shop gets overbooked or a larger group than expected shows up, or if I’m personally requested. Guiding cuts into my fishing time.

How long have you been guiding and what do you find most enjoyable about it?

I first became a licensed guide in Idaho in 1990. It didn’t take me too long to figure out that I didn’t know nearly as much as I thought I did. Consistent success required a little more than the five or six patterns I used 90% of the time, much better casting skills than my normal “blast it in there” approach, and, worst of all, being able to communicate ideas that were instinct to me. So I went “back to school” and have been learning about fly fishing ever since. That has shaped my approach to guiding. Sharing discoveries, getting someone to “see” instead of just looking, to think about and understand what’s happening around them, and the “why and how” things work are what guiding all about. Fish are the bonus, and big fish are a definite bonus, but the real job is making sure the client understands how to go back out and do it again.

Who has had the biggest influence on your angling outlook/ideas and why?

Hmmm, tough question. I learned the mechanics of casting from Lefty Kreh’s books but I don’t blame him for my bad habits --I learned those all by myself. Gary LaFontaine made me think about how and why flies work, or don’t work. Doug Swisher taught me more about casting in one day than I had managed to learn by myself in thirty years and introduced me to “presentation,” with casting being just the means to accomplish this presentation. Bruce Richards has given me a lot of time and effort, teaching me patience by example. And I don’t think anyone could spend any amount of time around Jack Dennis without catching a bad case of “enthusiasm.” This will sound like a blatant plug for the FFF, because it is, but you will never meet a greater cast of characters than the people who gather at the FFF Conclaves.

Speaking of the Federation of Fly-Fishers, you are a certified FFF casting instructor and are considered an expert caster. In your opinion what is the biggest casting mistake you see people make on the water?

Expert is a big word that I personally would reserve for few people. I’ve seen “experts” and I’m not one. Let’s just say that I’ve put some time and effort into learning how fly casting works. The most common mistake I see, and am also guilty of quite often, is the “more is better principle.” More power on the cast, more distance, more equipment, more flies…As it pertains to casting, most of us have a substantial investment in equipment, especially fly rods, but most of us let the fly rod use us, instead of us using the fly rod. Most of us can throw a “shorts ripping” 60’ cast, that if we would relax and let the rod do it’s job would be a 70’ cast with half as much effort. Most of us spend too much time casting instead of fishing. A few little tricks that make your casting more effective can double the time your fly is actually fishing.

Will you share 1 or 2 of those tricks for the readers looking to improve their casting?

Learning more efficient pick-ups that allow you to reposition your fly for your next cast and drift with less effort, less movement, and less false casting is the central theme here. All these little things add together to make your casting more efficient, so you do more fishing and less false casting. Keep your rod tip close to the water. Keep the slack out of your line. Lift your rod (and your line) parallel to the water before beginning your back cast. (Interestingly enough, this is a basic part of a spey cast, & even helps when doing the "chuck and duck"). Use a roll cast or spey cast pick-up that allows you to pick up more line or heavier rigs without having to strip as much line in, and reposition your line so less false casting is required to get your fly to the next drift. Learn to shoot line on your back cast. Remember: the back cast is not a Power stroke, it's a Speed stroke, coupled with an abrupt stop.

What advice can you give to anglers wishing to improve their casting and how should they go about doing it?

Practice. Practice with a purpose. Practice a certain cast until you know how it feels when you do it right and build the muscle memory of that cast. Learn how to throw mends to specific places in your line. Practice different casts, aerial mends, cast to targets, learn how your rod works. Believe me, it’s easier to make that “one” cast if you’ve already spent the time so you can make it without thinking about it.

You are also an avid spey caster. What are the advantages of using traditional spey casts with “trout” rods and why should an angler learn them?

The obvious advantage to using spey casts with a trout rod is that the cast allows you to make effective casts in tight quarters. When you add effective casts with less effort, less motion needed, and less time required, you are fly fishing a higher percentage of the time. Take the “Roll Cast Pick-up” from Gary LaFontaine’s Ten Commandments of Stealth. When you add a change of direction with a single motion you’re ahead in the game. Another advantage worth considering is that with a spey cast your fly, lead, indicator, & whatever else you happen to have attached to your leader remains out in front of you at a relatively safe distance instead of flying around behind your head. Spey casts also allow you to lift & reposition longer lines and heavier rigs with less stripping and false casts. You can mend, reposition and control your line and drift more effectively with spey casts. The basics are easy to learn and will add a whole new dimension to your fishing.

You spend a lot of time fishing in heavy grizzly country. What precautions do you personally take and what advice can you give to people who may be fishing in bear country for the first time this summer?

Buy the Bear Spray; it’s cheap considering the alternative. Stop, look, listen, check your leader frequently. You can do this by running your fingers along your leader, while you look around at what’s going on around you. Turn around and look behind you occasionally. Take a few minutes to read the literature about what to do if you encounter a bear. Make yourself as large as possible, talk to the bear, and move slowly out of the area. Remember, bears, moose, and bison have the right of way.