The weather forecast in Chico was for showers all day. I awoke at my home in Fairfield at 6:00 AM to cloudy, drizzly skies, so I did a little “anti-rain dance” that I hoped would last for 8 hours until the WUF First Annual Youth Fly Fishing Clinic was over. As I drove thru the Sacramento Valley, the skies got clearer, the showers stopped, blue sky appeared and I began to see hundreds of ducks and geese flying around the rice country. As exciting as that was, I was more excited to arrive at 99 East to help 11 young anglers enter the world of fly fishing!

At 10:00 AM the clinic began with breezy, sunny skies and 11 excited students, ages 9 to 15-years-old. Each were handed a Sage rod, reel and fly line that they would borrow for the day and a bag of essential fly fishing goodies that were theirs to keep. Goodies included: a lanyard to keep their hemostats, nippers and zinger, around their neck, fly boxes, strike indicators, tapered leaders, fishing license holders, fish identification books and a Student Handbook for the class work.

Instruction began with a knot tying lesson. Large rope was used to practice tying. Once the students were ready, they moved on to practicing with monofilament. After learning a few basic knots the students were broken into small groups to rotate around instruction stations. The stations included:

  • Casting – Target, stance, grip, stroke, rod position, timing and line control, false casting and final casting
  • Entomology – Bugs, bugs and more bugs! What fish eat, the life stages of insects, hands-on bug “fishing” and how to choose the right fly to maniac the real thing.
  • Fly-Tying – Basics of fly-tying, hooks, thread, colors, and body and wing building. Each student tied a damselfly that was used later that day.

Thanks to the W.U. crew we had a great lunch of hot dogs, chili, chips, fruit and drinks to replenish our energy, which I needed more than the students! I have a greater respect and understanding for schoolteachers! How do they keep up with kids all day?

At about 2:30 PM, after the students rotated thru all the classes, they all went out to the trout pond to fish with the flies they tied (and found in my fly boxes). I should have done a longer “anti-rain dance”, since a large rain squall line was blowing in from the north and skirting just east of the property. The wind was picking up, the skies were darkening, and the trout that had been nicely feeding on surface just a hour before, took cover to wait out the storm. It was very impressive to see how well all the kids were casting in the tough conditions after one lesson. About 30 minutes later, Mother Nature decided she couldn’t wait any longer and big thundershowers opened up on us and we all ran for cover. Most of the students bid farewell and headed home. A few stayed longer and learned to tie a couple more flies while it rained and, when the rain stopped, they went back out to fish. Gus Conwell, one of the students, ran back into the store where I was packing up the fly tying materials, and said, “We caught a trout with the fly we tied and it was this “BIG!” Even young fishing stories start big.

Overall, the First Annual Wilderness Unlimited Foundation Youth Fly Fishing School was a great success! We all had a great time, the students were eager learners and graduated into the world of flyfishing.

I would like to give special thanks to our instructors Walt Robinson, Floyd Dean, Will Perry, and Jenna Copeland. I would also like to thank the Wilderness Unlimited Foundation for organizing this event, Wilderness Unlimited, Rick Copeland, W.U. lunch crew, George Griffith, Katherine Rankin and Mike Vega, Doug Brutocao of Doug’s Bugs, Loretta Strickland, and the Northern California Council Federation of Fly Fishers ( NCCFFF) for their contributions.

I hope to see all of you fishing a trout pond on the fly!