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Sanborn Mills Farm in Loudon, New Hampshire, is a 350-acre historic working farm and non-profit adult craft school. Dedicated to preserving 19th-century New England agricultural and artisanal heritage, the farm serves as a living classroom. Visitors and students can experience traditional crafts, blacksmithing, draft-animal farming, woodworking, fly rod building, basket weaving, just to name a few of the offerings.

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Intro to Fly Fishing

Our class for the day would be an introduction to fly fishing! We both had dabbled with fly fishing to a degree but we were striving to lay down some good fundamentals and improve our casting technique.

The class would last a full day and include an introduction to equipment, safety, knots, line and leader, stream and water mechanics, matching the hatch, casting technique, landing fish, and much more.

Jamie Eisenburg

Our instructor for the day was be Jamie Eisenburg. It was clear even before the class that she is super passionate about all things fly fishing. We received an email prior to the class informing us of what to bring and to feel free to reach out with any questions prior to class.

She owns and operates Eisenburg’s Fly Fix, which covers everything from custom fly rods, fly tying, guiding, coaching, and more! I would encourage you to visit her website and watch this video to gain the perfect introduction to why fly fishing is a little slice of heaven.

Break for lunch

After a thorough introduction to equipment, safety, food sources and matching the hatch, we took a break for lunch.

The entire facility has a warm feel and beautiful craftsmanship throughout. The dining room is inviting and includes displays and samplings of other classes available at Sanborn Mills. I found myself admiring some of the forged objects and contemplating my next adventure!

The food was absolutely amazing and far above what I had expected. We all opted to eat outside and enjoy the grounds.

Down to the mill ponds

After lunch, we packed up and headed down to the two mill ponds for some hands on practice. We started with a quick, real life introduction to matching the hatch. You can see from the picture that we were able to collect a great sampling of food sources within a small area of the lower brook.

We practiced roll casting and false casting at the lower pond with some individual attention from Jamie. We learned the importance or maintaining rod angle and accelerating to a hard stop which allows the rod energy to transfer into the line. Practice will certainly help improve my technique, but it definately helped to better understand the mechanics of fly casting.

I managed to catch a 12″ pickerel but it slipped away before we could snap a picture. It sounds like a fish story, I know, but it was a thrill to see it go after the fly in real time!

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The staff at Sanborn Mills Farm are amazing, and I can absolutely recommend Jamie Eisenburg for anyone looking to break into fly fishing. Sanborn Mills Farm is a really special place, with a special vision. I highly recommend checking out their class offerings and exploring one of them that speaks to you.

For another treat, check out my post on the Mcauliffe-Shepard Discovery Center.

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This post was created in collaboration between the author and the AI Tool Google Gemini.

Until the next post: “Live Free and Explore!”