On Monday night, Feb. 26, 2024 at the Olympia Center, the SSFF hosted the first of 5 sessions of the Introduction to Fly Fishing Class. There were close to 30 attendees. We are proud to say that it was close to 40% women. We are happy to see them discovering or re-discovering the sport.

Randy Allen led the night’s topic on “Gear”. As someone who took the class in 2019, it can seem overwhelming at first. It’s easy to understand the idea of a rod and reel. But there’s more to fishing line than just “line”. There’s backing, line (weight forward?, Floating? Sinking? Intermediate sinking?), leader (tapered?, sinking, floating), and how about that “tippet” stuff???? The bigger the number, the heavier the rod, line, and leader. But the BIGGER the number, the SMALLER the hook and tippet. Can’t they be consistent!?

Club members Wayne Dixon, Kevin Angevine, Lee Yeager, Mike Clancy, Tim Mettier, Toby Anderson, Dave Brombach, Bert French, Vic Andrade, and probably a few I missed were there to show some of the other equipment items that might be part of a fly fisher’s repertoire. Everything from the tiniest fly and tippet to a full pontoon boat were there to examine.

During the introduction, the students got to know a little about each other. They also got to hear how the club members developed their passion for the sport. A common theme was “once I got that first tug on the line, I was hooked”. I once called out from a bridge to a Fly Fisher on the Deschutes River below me: Me: “How’s it going?”

Him: “Not much happening – just some fingerlings. But you know, … ‘The Tug Is The Drug’ “

Beware – Fly Fishing can be habit forming. You might find yourself outdoors in and around peaceful waters losing track of time.