Clinics & Programs

In addition to guided trips and individual casting instruction, Brant Oswald Fly Fishing Services also offer customized clinics (on all aspects of fly casting, fly fishing, and fly tying), longer schools, and presentations to groups.

One of the best ways to take advantage of our fishing experience and teaching ability is to book a clinic tailored to your own goals and schedule.  This kind of clinic, focused on a specific technique or fishing situation, provides highly effective instruction, as we can combine various aspects of the topic, including casting, “on the water” line handling and presentation techniques, knot tying, etc.
Here are some common scenarios for which a customized clinic is ideal:

• A group of friends has booked its first salt water fly fishing trip, a bonefishing trip to the Caribbean.  Everyone in the group needs to learn (or improve their use of) the double haul and other distance casting techniques, and all will benefit from learning casting techniques to deal with windy conditions.  A customized clinic for this group could also cover basic salt water knots and line handling techniques.
• An intermediate angler (or a small group) realizes he always catches fish on nymphs when fishing with a guide, but is not sure how to fish nymphs effectively on his own.  This clinic could cover some basic entomology, ideas behind fly selection, rigging techniques with various indicator types, and practice in mending and line control.  As an outfitter, Brant (or one of his licensed guides) can then take the student from a practice session to the stream to apply these techniques in a real fishing situation.  Many clinics of this type are best conducted as part classroom/demonstration and part on-stream fishing practice.
  

Fly Tying Instruction

As a professional fly tier with 35 years of experience, Brant also offers fly tying instruction, either as individual or group lessons, or as an adjunct to other clinics or presentations.

Half day fishing, casting or fly tying clinic

$350 for up to 4 people

Full day fishing, casting or fly tying clinic

$500 for up to 4 people

E-mail or call for more information or for rates for longer schools, a series of lessons, or other customized programs.

Slide Presentations

Brant has documented most of his fishing career with a camera, and he can offer a number of audio-visual presentations to fly fishing clubs and other groups. Since he is also a commercial fly tier and casting instructor, he can also offer a combination of a slide program with a tying or casting demo, depending on the structure of a club's meetings.  If a club has a social hour before their meeting, Brant can do a tying demo while people are socializing, with the demo connected to the program material.

Brant is in the process of digitizing all of his slide programs, and additional presentations will become available as time permits.  Please e-mail or call for details.  Here is a list of programs available now:

"Spring Fishing in Yellowstone Country"

This is a program on fishing in the Livingston/Bozeman area in the spring (pre-run-off) period.  This is one of the best times to fish our area, and the program is designed to give planning information for a trip in the mid-March to mid-May period.  This program includes info on spring hatches and fishing techniques for the Yellowstone River, lower Madison River, area spring creeks (Nelson's, DePuy's, O'Hair's, and Milesnick's), and private lakes.

"Spring Creek Fishing"

With the wealth of great spring creek fishing in our area, this program can be adapted to the interests of various audiences.  It can be oriented it toward

• Spring creek technique, with the emphasis on the technical aspects of hatches, fly selection, reading water, etc.,
• Specific information on the spring creeks in our area (Nelson's, DePuy's, and O'Hair's in the Yellowstone valley, Milesnick's in the Gallatin valley), with more emphasis on timing of hatches and trip planning info, or
• A discussion of spring creek fishi ng for a more general audience, with less technical info and more scenic images and fish shots.  This version of the program includes images of spring creeks Brant has fished all over the West, including Silver Creek, Hat Creek, Fall River, and the Henry’s Fork of the Snake.

"Stillwater Fly Fishing"

This program is oriented toward an audience that has some experience in trout fishing, but wants to get started fishing lakes and ponds.  It includes information on important stillwater food sources, fly and equipment selection, lots of emphasis on reading water, plus scenery and fish shots from around the West.