Youth Fly-Fishing Education for Rocky Mountain Hemophilia & Bleeding Disorders Association

By Mark Kuipers

Chapter member John Rincher and I spent a pleasant afternoon on Flathead Lake teaching a group of young people aged 14 to 18 about fly fishing and cold water conservation. All the kids have various bleeding disorders and all were full of enthusiasm and interest about fly fishing.

On the way there, we stopped at the Jocko River and seined for bugs and captured a collection of stoneflies, caddis flies, mayflies and even a big fat sculpin. We started showing them the bugs and comparing them to the flies in our boxes. They found that pretty interesting.

Then it was on to fly casting. A few of the kids had some experience so we taught them how to double haul and loop control. The first timers did a great job of casting and I think we made a few converts.

We capped off the session with a discussion of catch and release and cold water conservation.