Royal Casting Club de Belgique

as seen by its former secretary, Philippe Huart

Hello and welcome,

Let me introduce you to our club, “the Royal Casting Club of Belgium” and its members who are all passionate fly fishermen. For a modest fee (ridiculous according to our treasurer), the members get a number of services and advantages.

We provide beginners with the necessary infrastructure to learn the art of fly casting, and offer old hands an opportunity to hone their fly-fishing skills. This is possible through the use of a dedicated platform located on a pond in a Brussels park (Ten Reuken, Auderghem). This platform is quite useful, as it makes it possible to cast parallel to the bank, decreasing the number of accidents (fatal or just involving injuries, fights, and the like) caused to passers-by in general, and joggers and young couples in love in particular.

Beginners are put through our no-panic program: someone from our club will always be there to coach you and correct your cast if necessary. Later on, whenever you wish to, you will be able to practice on your own: even though our platform is a private site, access to it is open to all comers. In fact, if a club member and an unwelcome visitor happen to fall overboard, both will be wet but only the casting-boy (that’s how we call ourselves) will be insured. The insurance company will pay for whatever is necessary, from dry cleaning to funeral arrangements -- depending on how well the castaway can swim, and on prevailing water temperature. No, just kidding, actually the water’s not deep enough for that (on the other hand, if the unfortunate visitor is a girl, and if she is young, beautiful and willing, you get to keep her).

Just as interesting and enjoyable are our fly tying premises, fully equipped (hackles, fur, feathers of all kinds ... but also beers, cakes and rum). Every other Thursday, club members meet in jolly comradeship to tie "The Fly". New hands and specialists alike share their techniques for putting together hackles, hair, thread and hook into something which will look like a natural insect.

You will moreover be able to show us your progress during the club competitions that happen twice a year. But don’t worry about performance -- it’s really the participating that’s important, as each of us just tries to show that he can do as well as the next casting-boy.

We also organize fishing trips in Belgium and abroad, barbecues and an annual dinner (to entertain our wives and show them that this "Fly Fishing Club" thing is not pure invention).

We usually meet twice a week in a nice pub, on Tuesdays from 8 PM and on Sundays from 11 AM. Members are free to come or not as it pleases them, but it is actually during these weekly meetings that friendships are made, week-end fishing outings are organized, and saucy gossips circulated..

Once a month (either on a Tuesday or on a Sunday as the weather will allow) we concentrate on a specific aspect of fly fishing during a meeting by the pond platform.

Before I forget, we do send regular newsletters to our members to inform them about our activities, and the national and international fishing events organized by other clubs and associations.

As in all clubs around the world, very different kinds of people meet in the casting club. Like minds get together of course, and small groups are formed depending on shared interests, but everybody is respected (that doesn’t mean no arguments). We are like a big family but you will see by looking at the different pictures in our web site, that we are not born from the same parents! At times we do share the same bed -- the river bed, of course.