Franklin Regional Fly Fishing Club works with Trout Unlimited to promote conservation

Eleven students from the Franklin Regional School District found themselves wading into Loyalhanna Creek last week, learning about fly fishing courtesy of the Forbes Trail chapter of Trout Unlimited.

“It’s our opportunity to recruit our replacements,” said chapter member Larry Myers. “We need someone in the future to continue with our programs.”

The newly formed Franklin Regional Fly Fishing Club seemed like an ideal place to start.

Nine volunteers from the Forbes Trail chapter showed students how to fly cast, how to determine which bugs trout go after and how to be respectful of the environment.

“We’re not really a fishing club,” Myers said. “We’re a conservation and preservation organization, and our goal is to preserve cold-water fisheries where trout thrive above the Kingston Dam.”

Myers said that Loyalhanna waters below the dam in Derry Township are considered “warm water” areas frequented much less by trout.

Franklin Regional environmental science teacher James Passarelli, the club’s sponsor, said he saw a good deal of improvement among club members thanks to the mentoring of Trout Unlimited.

“They’re helping us to build the next generation of fly fishers and stream conservationists,” Passarelli said. “If I can teach them anything in the club, it is to just be outside and enjoy the water while respecting nature.”

That is right in line with Trout Unlimited’s goals, Myers said.

“We’re doing a similar program with Ligonier Valley Middle School this year, and next week we’ll be doing a very similar field trip showing them how to tie flies,” Myers said. “We’ll go down to the stream, collect trout bugs with nets and try to identify them, and one of the folks from the Loyalhanna Watershed Association will do an electro-fishing demonstration.

Electro-fishing administers a small electric shock that briefly stuns fish, who can be easily netted and identified before snapping out of it unharmed.

“We’ll be doing the same thing with Franklin Regional students at Linn Run in April,” Myers said. “That’s the same place we’ve been doing an environmental study the past two years on stream health and aquatic wildlife.”

“We want the students to enjoy fly fishing, but it’s more important to Trout Unlimited to teach how to be good stewards of our trout streams,” said chapter member Milt Claney. “We teach the complete package.”