Park Record file photo
High Country Fly Fishers has postponed its first event of the year.
The Park City branch of the environmental nonprofit Trout Unlimited has moved its beginner fly-tying classes that were scheduled for Jan. 15, 22 and 29 to Feb. 12, 19 and 26.
Although the dates have been changed, the format of the classes, which will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, will remain the same, said Tom White, one of the vice presidents of High Country Fly Fishers.
“The tying is done one-on-one with an instructor,” he said. “We hold them indoors, and they run about three hours.”
High Country Fly Fishers will supply all equipment and materials, and enrollment is limited to 10 students, White said.
“Attendance to all three classes is highly advised, but not mandatory,” he said. “It’s advised because the classes build on each other.”
Registration for the fly-tying classes is available through highcountryflyfishers.com, White said.
“Once people register, the activity leader will keep in touch with them through emails, and will inform them about any adjustments or postponements,” he said. “We hope by the time we get to the fly-fishing clinic in April that things will have settled down.”
Those fly-fishing clinics, which are for beginners, will run from April 26-28, according to White.
“Space is limited so we can pair each student with an individual instructor, and those sessions are outdoors,” he said. “The third day of the sesion is the culmination of the learning. We take them to a private ranch to fish where they can apply what they learned and have a great day.”
Fly-tying and fishing clinics are a way for High Country Fly Fishers to bring like-minded people together, White said.
“We focus on conservation, education and the stewardship of the resources we have around us,” he said. “We work with biologists and the Division of Wildlife Resources quite frequently.”
Another goal of the group is to have fun and meet other fly-fishers, according to White.
“We like to take them to places where they may not venture out by themselves, and teach them about the different bodies of water around us,” he said. “I do a little bit of fly-fish guiding during the summer, and a lot of first-timers find they love the beauty, serenity and wildlife they get to see. That’s exactly what we want to expose them to.”
High Country Fly Fishers also introduces youths to wildlife conservation through the Trout in the Classroom program.
Courtesy of Tom White
During the program a DWR biologist and club member will deliver a fish tank of trout eggs to local schools in the winter.
Students will then take stewardship of the eggs, raise the fish after the eggs hatch and release the fish into the wild in the late spring.
“This is a great opportunity for the students, who range from third grade to seniors, to learn about the life cycle of a trout,” White said. “The program also brings up the subject of where our food comes from and how we can be good stewards of the land.”
It’s always a celebration when the students release the trout, White said.
“It’s a great outing for the kids at the end of the school year,” he said. “As with every class, the kids name their fishes and say goodbye to their favorites.”
White got into fly-fishing while growing up in California.
“There’s a saying that ‘Trout don’t live in ugly places,’ and I find that to be true,” he said. “Fly fishing would take me into Sierra-Nevada or the San Gabriel Mountains.”
White also latched onto the more creative aspects of fly fishing.
“Fly fishing is that it brings out the creativity in me, and with the fly-tying portion, I can bring out different materials and properties and come up with a fly that works well for what I need,” he said.
The creative aspect also ties in with the scientific side of fly-fishing, White said.
“I’m a bug geek, and I’m fascinated by the metamorphosis process,” he said. “A lot of people’s concept of fly-tying is the dry fly, but I like tying flies that represent the whole cycle from where they start moving in the water until they pupate to the surface and fly away. I like finding success with flies that represent the three phases of the life cycle. And when I do that, I feel that I’m really tapped into the natural world.”
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