Tellis Katsogiannos - How fly fishing formed my life

How it all got started

For me there has always been a connection to water. Even as a small kid, spending my summers in Greece, I just felt like one with the rivers and oceans. It is hard to explain what it was or still is, but in a way, it is almost like the water speaks to me or at least makes me feel whole. The more coherent I am with my surroundings the better I feel and the better I fish. In the beginning I fished for all kinds of species with all types of methods, for me it didn't matter as long as I could fish. For me it was the excitement of not knowing and constantly trying to learn and understand all the "whys" and "hows". In the spring of 1995, at the age of 10.5, I got to tie my first flies and later that year, I got my first fly fishing equipment. That was the steppingstone to what I am today and how I have lived my life.

For many years I still fished with all types of gear, and not just fly fishing, but as soon as I made those first fly casts, I knew that I wanted to master it and slowly it just took over completely. I remember my first catch with the fly rod, a small perch, and how proud I was that I had finally cracked the code for fly fishing or, so I thought. Today, almost 30 years later, I am still learning, and I still scratch my head trying to figure out how to crack "the code". That's the beauty of it all, you will never be fully learned, there will always be a scenario or a fish that outsmarts you and pushes you to reinvent yourself yet again. If I would lose that feeling, I would stop fishing. As some of you might know, swinging flies for salmon and trout is "my game", a game that started over 20 years ago and I think I now love it more than ever. For me it's just the most rewarding type of fishing and rivers and flowing water "speaks" to me in a way stillwater doesn't.

During the time growing up, knowing I would do this forever, the dream of maybe working with fly fishing occurred to me. I mean, I understood that it could be possible as there where obviously people working with it, it was a potential business. I took the leap, when moving to Gothenburg at the age of 16 to study at the Sportfishing Academy, a school that in Sweden has been the foundation for many people that today are in the business. A great place for anyone who wants to get some good groundwork and to get connected to the whole arena. It was through the academy when I also got the chance to work in Orkla river for the first time, working as a guide and instructor with Syrstad fly fishing school. After spending 5 years in total in Forshaga (where the school is located), I was ready to take that big leap of faith and go for it.

Moving forward as a professional

As soon as I graduated, I registered my own business with a clear plan, to sell high quality fly tying materials and to arrange fly fishing and fly casting courses. The first years were in many ways much harder than I thought. Even though I was quite experienced and quite good at what I was doing, I was still the new "young guy" that no one had heard of. The first big thing that made me into "someone" was my first instructional DVD that I made all by myself and released into the market in 2007. Luckily, I did also at that time have a great cooperation with Loop Tackle that of course helped me. But it still was constant work to prove myself and proving that I was serious about what I was doing. Choosing to take the high road and to stand my ground was a lot of times more difficult, at least in short term. Regardless of who you are or what you do, in the end, that is always what you should do. Never doubt yourself or fall into temptation for "quick fixes", stand your ground if you are certain because in the end that will be noticed. As the years went by my business kept growing and it was finally starting to feel like I was going somewhere with all of this. But for several years I still needed some extra jobs here and there to fill the gaps of low seasons.

Slowly adding more products to the online shop, getting more and more clients to join my casting lessons, the company grew. I started my first hosted salmon trips to Orkla river in Norway, it kept growing into something more and in 2012 I took a huge step. This is the time I created my own brand and released my first small collection of rods and lines. For me this will probably be one of my proudest moments in my business life, and what will be one of the most important decisions I have made. It was at this point I could finally be working full time with my company and did not need to take extra jobs anymore. From that point it was a fact that I was in the fly fishing business for real and there was a clear path for me for the years to come. It was some great years that followed, and I was finally up the hill and the company was finally a more stable operation. Then Covid happened. For me and the whole operation with hosted trips really took a big hit as borders between countries closed and it was impossible to arrange my 8-10 weeks of salmon courses in Norway. During the years of the pandemic my focus shifted to more domestic trips, a lot of online courses, live events of social media and the full focus on the fly tying. Covering some of the losses from what Covid brought. During these years, I received tremendous support from Elsa Antheia, who worked alongside me. Looking back, I am sure I would not have been able to push through without her effort, and I will always be grateful for the help and support we provided each other during these challenging times.

In the winter of 2021-2022, I received an offer that surprised me and made me reconsider many aspects of my life. Guideline Fly Fishing reach out saying they wanted to have a meeting with me which I of course agreed to, not knowing what it really was about. They were asking if I was interested in slowly taking over the product development for rods and lines after no other than Mr. Leif Stävmo himself. To be offered something like this was nothing but humbling and at the same time, almost overwhelming. Having some of the industries heaviest names asking me to work with them was amazing, and after a few meetings I signed the papers and a new and exciting chapter in my life started. A chapter that I will keep writing together with some of the most fantastic people in the industry.

The passion of fly casting

"I can't catch a fish that I can't reach". That mindset made me in a very early age start to practice fly casting. I didn't want to end up in a scenario where my casting abilities was the factor of not catching the fish. If the only spot available was the shitty place with big branches, I needed to master the roll and spey cast. If the fish wasn't biting or if I had the wrong flies that was fine for me, but not getting the fly where I wanted it was unacceptable for me, so I practiced a lot. Later in life I started take interest in teaching and how to become better, practicing how to show errors and how to correct them. Over the years I have had some amazing people to discuss with, teaching me, teaching each other to become better. To name just a few of these great casters and instructors, Trond and Knut Syrstad, Thomas Berggren, Stefan Siikavaara, Lasse Karlsson, Christopher Rownes and many more. This list could and should be much longer, but these guys has definitely been the most influential in my personal development as we had personal dialogue for many years. As the years passed the interest in distance casting grew. Already after spending a summer with the great spey casters Trond and Knut Syrstad (Knut, who sadly passed away in 2014), my interest in spey and distance casting grew. In 2010 Stefan Siikavaara contacted me about the first World Championship in Fly casting in Norway and the rest is history. Slowly but steadily I became better and better, with constant "nerdy chats" with most of these guys, the consistency grew, and I started to prove myself on the international courts.

In 2016, I did what my mind was set to do since I started, I won the World championship in spey casting which is to date my most significant fly casting moment. But besides just the whole tournament participation, I kept practicing teaching because I truly loved spreading the joy of fly fishing and fly casting. In 2017 I decided to also become a certified casting instructor for single hand and Master Certified for double hand with the great organization, Fly Fishers International (FFI). I still live with the mindset - If I am prepared and know my abilities, I will not fail the task that appears. So regardless, if you care about distance or not, practicing for it might give you advantages that your fishing buddy doesn't have. Being able to control the cast and the line more accurately will make your fishing so much easier and that is just the fact. And who doesn't love the feeling of a perfect loop, nicely presenting the fly exactly where you want it?

My personal "go-to" in fly casting

Over the years of practicing, I have tried to find something to have as a main focus. That is, to keep my casting consistent and I would like to share a few of them with you. All of them which I have tested over the years of teaching. These are very important, regardless of single or double hand rods, water anchored cast or aerial ones. These are my main focusing points that are always with me:

1. Keep slack to a minimum - Regardless of what cast you are doing, if your system and the line contains slack, your cast will be much more difficult to keep clean. If you start a cast with a line that contains slack, most of the movement you do will just stretch that line out instead of actually moving it. As soon as that line is straight, your slightest movement will move the line towards the direction you are moving it. If it's full of slack, the movement will first move/stretch the slack out and as soon that its finally straight it will move towards your aimed direction.

2. Start your cast with 100% focus - It's easy to be sloppy in the first back cast or sweep. But it's in the first movement or mindset when we set the tone for the whole cast. If you start your cast close to the surface, with no slack in the line, it is EASY to move it. If you start too high with some slack, and then add some "non focus" into the cast, it's going to be much more difficult to get a smooth and controlled casting going.

3. The mirror image - Think about the back and forward cast as a mirror image. If you have a target in your forward cast, your back cast should have a mirror image towards it. If you are aiming downwards in your forward cast, your back cast should be coming from a high point – a mirror image! This is most often talked about as a straight line between X and X or the "180 degree principle". Regardless of what terms you use, this is what to aim for. Even in spey casting when you do a direction change, the D-loop and anchor should be aligned as much as possible towards your final target. When we break this "rule", the line has a big chance of colliding or creating the bloody tailing loop because we are changing direction without knowing or compensating for it.

4. Timing - Whether you are a "pro" or a beginner, being off in timing can affect the power application, double hauling or anchor. Being off in timing is probably THE error we all face now and then. The best way to try and find the perfect timing is trying to be smooth, relaxed and focused. When I really and I mean really, started to try to become "one with the line", to constantly feel the line, these issues became less of a problem. If you feel, or see it, the line does what it is supposed to, and your timing will be better.

5. The power application - Power, acceleration or speed, you can choose what word suits you best, but it needs to be there. There is a lot of myths in fly casting and "not using power" is one of them. If you want to cast further, you need more energy going into that line. But when applying power, the human factor often is a problem. That is when we add more power, it's often to abrupt. Words that's difficult for us to put together is power BUT smooth. Think of a cast as a dance, the rhythm, the smoothness into a firm and distinct movement. Just look at a martial artist or a boxer, if you want to be fast and powerful, you need to be smooth. Float like a butterfly, sting like a be (Muhammad Ali).

Fly fishing is a lifestyle regardless of why we do it. Enjoy it, be one with it, and listen to what nature is telling you.

Tellis Katsogiannos