New Tech to old sport

Photo by Paul Robeson, Sports Editor

LEARNING THE HARD WAY - New Tech student Johann Schoelkopf untangles his line at the fishing area in the Anderson River Park. Schoelkopf was the first to catch, and then release, a fish at their fishing day in the park.

Photo by Paul Robeson, Sports Editor

CASTING - New Tech High School students practice their fly-fishing casts, sans flies, into hula hoops at the Anderson River Park. Once they have mastered the techniques they cast with real tied flies in an attempt to catch fish in the park.

With all the modern day technology, and a high school named Anderson New Technology one might think that an old Roman sport would not take place in their school day.

But thanks to a grant from the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, students at New Technology High School were able to learn the art of fly-fishing from professionals and enthusiasts who enjoy the sport. Physical Education instructor Becky Pope’s classes got to learn about casting and then try out what they learned at Anderson River Park.

Woody Woodland, a retail salesman and librarian from The Fly Shop in Redding, and part of their schooling staff, taught the high school students how to cast. Woodland is a Future Fishermen Foundation certified instructor and volunteered, with other instructors, from the Shasta Mayflies, a local fly-fishing club.

Students, who were required to wear sun glasses for safety, learned about fishing etiquette, rules and regulations, knot-tying and the importance of preserving natural resources. The students had two weeks of casting clinics at their school and then took several class field trips to the park for fly-casting and then to fish the river. An after-school fishing club is being developed so students can learn how to tie their own flies and eventually go on fishing trips.

Mayflies volunteers Nancy Morrow and Bev Brown were talking with New Tech instructor Ron Zimmerman and volunteer Barry Caranci about fishing places in the country and about an artificial fly lure either credited to Marcus Valerius Martialis or the Roman Claudius Aelianus in the 2nd century.

Apparently the Macedonian fishermen on the Astraeus River used a snare made of red wool around a hook with two feathers from under a rooster’s wattle. Their pole was six feet long. The snare was thrown in and the fish would go for what they thought was a large fly.

More closely resembling today’s fly-fishing is said to have come from Scotland and Northern England. British fly-fishing was further developed in the 19th Century when books on fly tying and fly-fishing were published.

In southern England, dry-fly fishing became the only “acceptable method of fishing the slower, clearer rivers of the south.” Weeds found in rivers tend to grow close to the surface, and it was necessary to develop new techniques that would keep the fly and the line on the surface of the water.

In the United States, methods of fly-fishing were not as rigid, and both dry- and wet-fly fishing were developed as American rod builders improved techniques for making bamboo rods and fly reels. Fly fishermen are said to be the first to have used artificial lures for bass fishing. The development of fiberglass rods, synthetic fly lines, and mono-filament leaders in the early 1950s revived the popularity of fly-fishing.

Other volunteers helping with the program included: Richard Burns, Barry and Marsha Caranci, Carl Aronson, Marion Schmitz, Beckford Painter, Nancy Morrow, Letitia Cutforth, Ida Morton, Bev Brown and Dena Bommarito.

The last fly-fishing sessions in the Anderson River Park will be held on April 17 and 18.