Fly fishing course -in 2025
Course introduction Learning the techniques of fly fishing today is a relatively difficult matter. You have to do a lot of practice and probably join courses with instructors that probably charge money for it. After a course there may be a long time until the next time you work on your technique, and you may have become a bit “rusty”. You will then have to use a lot of time on freshening up. Throwing with a fly fishing rod is all about technique and timing, and you must do a lot of training to get good at it. Some people never do get any good ever, because they are doing the wrong technique, or they don’t have enough time to practice. Some fishers only fish in the summertime (especially salmon fishers, because that’s
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when the season for that fishing is) and they don’t get that much training on throwing throughout the rest of the year. Good fly fishing casters really dedicate a serious amount of time on doing it, and that’s almost the only way of getting good at it. But what if there was a learning tool that could teach you how to do it, give you hints and tips, and give you feedback as you are standing by the river/water?
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Some fly fishing history The first flies were made of natural materials, but now flies made out of artificial materials is very common. Flies are made to look like local insects, and the more authentic they look, the more fish you can manage to catch. In Norway the most common fishes to catch when fly fishing is trout and salmon. Where fly fishing originated from is not known precisely. However, many people credit the first recorded use of fly fishing to the Roman Claudius Aelianus, near the end of the second century. He has described the practices of Macedonian anglers: “...they have planned a snare for the fish, and get the better of them by their fisherman’s craft. They fasten red wool round a hook, and fit on
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to the wool two feathers which grow under a cock’s wattles, and which in color are like wax. Their rod is six feet long, and their line is the same length. Then they throw their snare, and the fish, attracted and maddened by the color, comes straight at it, thinking from the pretty sight to gain a dainty mouthful; when, however, it opens its jaws, it is caught by the hook, and enjoys a bitter repast, a captive.” British fly fishing began to grow rapidly in the 19th century. Many fly fishing clubs were developed, and the fly fishers got an elitist reputation. Fly fishing soon became the only acceptable way of catching fish in slow rivers. In Japan there is a book published in 1878 that records
fly fishing coming from the mountains of Japan as an easier way for local fishermen to harvest fish. In the USA fly fishing peaked in the early 1920’s, and the development of cheap fiberglass rods and synthetic fly lines made it even more popular, but it wasn’t until the early 50’s that fly fishing popularity really peaked. Today, fly fishing is a sport performed by people all over the world.
The beginnings of the salmon fisher’s love affair with Norway were celebrated in Jones’s Guide to Norway , a book which has the distinction of having been written by a man who hadn’t actually been to Scandinavia.
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The course In this course you will have glasses which shows you info on how far you throw, when to time your throws, and how to do it, with help from Augmented reality. The course is built up in different levels from beginner to expert, and the learning will be adapted to the user’s level. On the beginner level you will have more focus on the throwing technique and how to get this right. The interface will show a pair of “ghost” arms that demonstrates the movement that the learner is supposed to impersonate. The learner gain feedback with help from comments telling how well they did on the accuracy of the throwing technique. Later on in the course, there will be more focus on timing the throws and learning to throw far.
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First person view of how the fly fisher wil from the AR glasses.
ll see the instructions and different data
The course is built up in different modules where the expert level is the last module. But even though this is the last module, it does not make it the end of the course. Instead of finishing the course, the teacher turns into a mentor you have with you on your fishing trip. This mentor will provide feedback on your throwing performance, and will be there as a lifelong PAL. The main audience for this course will be everyone that want to learn fly fishing, the ones that want to get better at it, and the ones that want to do it perfect. The learning environment will mainly be by the water, but the course can be used as long as you have a big open space to throw your lace, for example on a soccer field.
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Technology and equipment Included in this course is: • • • • •
Augmented reality Sensors Sonar Micro camera* Drone*
To start the course you would have to buy the glasses, and a sencor in the throwing lace for your reel. You will also need a
fly fishing rod, as this is a course where you are learning by doing. The censor in your throwing lace will give information to the software on the timing of your throws and how far and accurate the throw is. This will be shown and instructed with indicators in the glasses of the user, and has a gamification-like interface.
* Additional features
Flyfisher in the year 2025 using AR glasses.
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At the tip of the throwing lace there will be a sonar that can detect nearby activity in the water. This is a helpful tool for fishers that are a bit impatient and don’t want to spend hours fishing on a spot where there is probably no fish. With all the different technologies and tools for fishing available already today, it is exciting to see how fast the development are going. Today there are fishing rods with builtin screen and live view camera. These are not optimal for use, and none of them works for fly fishing yet, but in time it will come. The WaterWolf camera allows you to tie it on your lace and record in front of your bait these days. With improvement of technology, it will be able to make it smaller and give the fisherman a live view of his bait.
The 2014 WaterWolf camera
The FishEyes Rod & Reel with underwater video camera allows you to see what’s happening underwater in real time, but with only 7.5 meters of line, it is not useful for sport fishing. 8
Additional features Other types of technology can be added to the course for the user’s own pleasure. In this addition you have a camera on your lace in front of your fly so you can see the fish strike in a live view and record it. One other thing will be a personal drone which follows you flying over the water and can analyze it for where the fish might be standing. By 2025 the development of drones and life of batteries will be developed to a level where there is no problem for a drone to fly over you on a longer period of time. These tools will make the whole “package” of the course more expensive, but they are fun to use, and great tools for documenting the fisherman’s catch.
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Live-view from the fishing camera makes you able to see the fish striking under water.
Your personal drone will fly over you while analyzing the river for where the fish is standing, and record your catch on video.
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By Vegard Rosenberg Andersen