Jason Borger rarely gets mistaken for Brad Pitt.

But the fly-fishing educator says he ”looks like Pitt from the back side, and that’s all that mattered.”

Borger was one of two stand-ins who did the casting and fishing for Pitt in Robert Redford’s motion picture, ”A River Runs Through It,” 13 years ago.

He will bring his expertise to Camp Sherman today, Friday and Sunday for a series of clinics on fly-casting. The classes will be held in conjunction with the fourth annual Metolius River Bamboo Rod Fair, scheduled for Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Black Butte School in Camp Sherman.

”One time this lady from the South came up to me and said: ‘You doubled for Brad Pitt? You don’t look like Brad Pitt,’” Borger recalls in his best Southern drawl imitation. ”Nobody gets mistaken for Brad Pitt.”

”A River Runs Through It” is credited with bringing fly-fishing to the masses and popularizing the sport as never before. Borger performs the famed ”shadow casting” in the movie, a technique Borger says is supposed to make rainbow trout rise in reaction to the shadow of the fly on the surface.

”But I’ve never seen that happen,” Borger says. ”Basically the shadow cast is made to look good for the movie.”

Borger spent five years in Los Angeles after the film, but has since moved on to focus more on fly-fishing itself. He teaches beginners the basics of fly-fishing and fly-casting, and he has written a book called ”The Nature of Fly-Fishing.”

Borger is the Director of Fly Casting Education for the Fly Casting Institute, an organization focused on advancing and integrating the science, art and medicine of fly-casting through instructional programs.

In his teachings, Borger focuses on simplifying the art of fly-casting. He instructs his clients to concentrate less on their rod and the fly-line, and more on their arm.

”We always visualize fly-casting as this beauty of the line floating through the air,” Borger explains, ”but when you really get down to it, it’s arm motion. If your arm motion’s right, the rod and line motion is right.”

Borger says that simplifying the art of fly-casting is crucial in order to reduce the intimidation that many beginners experience. He teaches anglers to focus on a single foundation and then build from there.

”It’s opening up the idea that they can play around and practice and get some idea of how to control the line, rather than becoming very rigid and doing X, Y and Z,” Borger says.

Borger began fly-fishing at a young age. His father, Gary Borger, was a professor at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, and had his summers free. Jason would join him in the Rocky Mountains, all the way from Canada to New Mexico.

Jason Borger hooked his first fish on a fly-rod on Montana’s Squaw Creek, when he was 2, just a few miles from where he performed his shadow casting in Redford’s film.

”My family had its own ‘A River Runs Through It,’” Borger says.

Borger is the headliner for the Metolius River Bamboo Rod Fair, which will celebrate the bamboo fly-fishing rod and its many legendary aspects.

Today many fly anglers use graphite rods, but Borger says the bamboo rod is ”a labor of love and a work of art.”

”There’s so much work that goes into a bamboo rod, it becomes a beautiful instrument,” Borger explains. ”It’s natural material and it maybe provides a different mental connection. A well-designed bamboo rod can do wonderful things.”

At the fair on Saturday, six Northwest bamboo rod makers will build a rod to be raffled off at the end of the event. More than 200 rods will be available for casting, and the State of Oregon Angler Education Program’s casting instructors will help introduce fly-casting to all. Several guest speakers are also scheduled to appear. There is no charge for the event.

For more information, call the Camp Sherman Store at 595-6711 or visit www.campshermanstore.com.