Santa Cruz Fly Fishing has been busy the past few months and doesn’t seem to be stopping. One of the exciting areas is that we are doing more and more with other organizations n the area. Some are looking towards us for resources, others are wanting to share knowledge and try and grow both organizations. I am encouraging these types of relationships to provide opportunities for our members. I am highlighting some of the organizations with articles in this month’s newsletter:
Fishout Exchanges with the Stanislaus Fly Fishers:
Fishout Committee chair, Justin Ice, continues to come up with ways to increase the number of available fishouts for the club. His latest brainstorm is to form alliances with other fly fishing clubs and do fishout exchanges. The first one is with the Stanislaus club out of Modesto and we are invited to attend their fishout on the Clarks Fork of the Stanislaus River . And in exchange, we will be providing a Zoom presentation on fishing the surf and invite them to join us for the July 6th fishout at Palm Beach .
Project Healing Waters
At the last casting clinic, I was talking to club member, Derek Whitmer, about a local Project Healing Waters (PHWFF) being started in Monterey Peninsula to help disabled veterans using the magic of fly fishing. Derek became enthused and contacted the coordinators to see how what they needed. They already have veterans who have signed up to learn how to fish and go fishing, now they need volunteers. Read the article in Membership Notes to learn how to help.
Steinbeck Country Trout Unlimited: Last month, SCFF member, Kevin Morrison, contacted me to start a conversation between SCFF and our local Trout Unlimited chapter, Steinbeck Country TU. Covering an area from the San Mateo down San Louis Obispo, Trout Unlimited has thousands of local members and almost none of them know about the local chapter. The Steinbeck Country TU Board’s strategy is to leverage the fly fishing clubs within the Central Coast area to quickly build up momentum. To help them, the Santa Cruz Fly Fishing club will be hosting the TU Chapter meeting at the Aptos Grange on Wednesday, June 19th.
Profile: Wild Steelheaders United
Who are the organization’s that SCFF gives conservations dollar to and why? These are the questions that Conservation Committee Chair, Bob Garbarino, is answering with “profile” series to let us know more aobut the organizations that we are financially supporting. The May 2024 newsletter highlights the work of the Wild Steelheaders United.
Profile: Carmel River Steelhead Association
The June 2024 newsletter is highlighting the work of Carmel River Steelhead which member, Rich Hughett, has been supporting since the start. (see link)
Student Scholarship:
Finally by providing scholarships, our relationship with the local public high schools continues to flourish. I had the pleasure of presenting a $500 check to Ruby from Pajaro Valley High School (PVHS) who will be attending Brown University in Rhode Island and majoring in Environmental Studies. Another benefit from providing scholarships is that we get our club’s name out to the community. For example, a teacher from PVHS, Nathan Hokie, saw us presenting last year and joined the club!
I hope that you get out and fish this summer!
Scott Kitayama
Posted on May 29th, 2024