When I started Fly Fishing, it didn’t seem at all complicated at all.  Everything was pretty clear, cast the line through the air a couple of times and let it drop down to catch a fish.

Casting wasn’t the problem, only the trees and bushes behind me.

Almost every week during the summer, I cycled 12 kilometers to buy four flies with my weekly allowance and then back to the water and the trees that loved my flies.

This was a good time, maybe the best!

Now, 30-plus years later, I still have this passion for fly fishing but it’s getting more complicated every day. Sometimes I have to remind myself, “William, it’s only fly fishing!”

Over the last 10 years I have been very active with my fly fishing addiction, building fly rods, tying flies and teaching people about every aspect of our favourite hobby.

The Federation of Fly Fishers is a worldwide organization which works on conservation, education and instructor certifications to support today’s and future fly fishers. In 2009 I became a member of the Board of Governors of the FFF Casting Instructor Certification Program.

At home in the Netherlands, I mostly fish my favourite stream, the Geul, for brown trout, the river Maas for barbel, and the Danish coast for sea-run browns. My stillwater fishing is mostly for carp, rainbow trout, and pike.

I like travelling the world and meeting people that share the same passion for fly fishing.

EWF 2012 Demonstration:
I will demonstrate an easy approach to understanding the world of fly casting and fly fishing presentation, 5 tools we call “the 5 essentials.” I will try my best to present this in German.

William van der Vorst, the Netherlands