Photo by Mike Wier
International fly casting champion Maxine McCormick give youth some casting tips at the Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club
As the saying goes; “Behind every problem there’s an opportunity”. As every parent and grandparent knows, a major problem is that young families’ schedules are over-loaded and kids are becoming addicted to electronics and losing connection to the outdoors. Another problem is that most traditional fly fishing clubs and conservation organizations in the Bay Area have dedicated people with strong skill sets but often face aging membership demographics and challenges to appear relevant to busy young families. We recognized that there’s an opportunity to bridge this gap and in 2018, Frank Harris (who sadly recently passed away) lead the effort to form the Bay Area Youth Fly Fishers program to connect these groups by providing fun learning clinics and events for kids taught by volunteers from the local fly fishing clubs and conservation organizations. We designed kid-friendly rods, reels and lines for easier casting and established a standardized clinic format rotating groups of kids between teaching stations (casting, knots & rigging, fly tying, bugs & conservation). The teaching content for each station was designed by the lead volunteer instructor for that program section.
We all learned how to fish as kids. First with bait, then with spinning rods, before working up to a fly rod. For many of us, it became a learning experience and a sporting bond shared with our family members. It also grew into a love of the outdoors, a desire to protect our natural environment and to teach others so that they could share in that enjoyment.