Wheeling native Chris Woods, the outdoor recreation manager at Seven Springs, displays the proper technique for the back cast during a fly fishing lesson at the resort.

CHAMPION, Pa. — A dull but pleasant throb resonated through my right shoulder as I attempted to master fly fishing’s most basic cast, the back cast. Wheeling native Chris Woods patiently guided me through the process, offering tips and correcting my often erratic movements.

I slowly but surely gained confidence in my casting abilities, soaking in the fishing lesson and also the serenity of Lake Gosling, located at Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Champion, Pa.

What made the whole scenario even more interesting was that just an hour earlier, I had been involved in a totally different sort of serenity: blasting bright orange sporting clays with a double-barrel Beretta 12-gauge shotgun at Seven Springs’ new Sporting Clays complex. Yelling “pull” more than 100 times and then firing 200 rounds at the elusive bright clays is what led to the shoulder throb.

It didn’t take long for the back cast’s repetitive movements to loosen my shoulder as I worked for about 15 minutes on getting my casts to land on target. Then it came time to actually start fishing for the numerous species of trout located in Lake Gosling’s catch-and-release waters — brown, golden, brooke, tiger and rainbow.