Let’s face it. Most fly fishers won’t have visions of sugar-plums dancing through their heads during the wee hours of Christmas Eve. Truth be told, most of the anglers I know will be dreaming of new rods, reels, and other gear. Gear is almost always our focus as we prepare to celebrate the arrival of jolly old Saint Nicholas.

And yet gear may well be the last thing we need right now.

As much as I enjoy using thoughtfully-designed and well-crafted fishing equipment, it’s obvious to anyone who pays attention that a lack of adequate gear isn’t holding most fly fishers back. And while it’s always tempting to blame our shortcomings on less-than-wonderful fishing tackle — or to believe that a new fly rod will help take our angling to the next level — such wishful thinking is almost always mistaken.

Gear is not the final arbiter of our success; at least not for the vast majority of us.

So if new equipment isn’t going to help us improve our angling, what should Santa leave under our trees on Christmas morning?

Here’s a thought. How about a gift certificate for a casting lesson or two? (Or maybe three.) While there are always exceptions to the rule, I can guarantee that, everything else being equal, good casters catch more and bigger fish, and have more fun on the water, than poor casters. So unless you’re already a fantastic fly caster, spending some quality time with an expert instructor is one of the fastest and easiest ways to improve your angling.

A word of caution, though. It’s not always easy to differentiate great casting instructors from people who claim to be great casting instructors, but who fall short of that lofty goal. For every supremely talented instructor out there — think John Juracek, or Brant Oswald, or Chris Korich — there are any number of folks who simply don’t have the requisite skills to help you improve as rapidly and effectively as possible.

With that in mind, you might consider doing some serious due diligence and then spending your next angling vacation in close proximity to an exceptional casting instructor. After all, fly fishing skills trump fly fishing gear every single time — and casting is right at the top of the list.