Fly-fishing with the pros

Photo by Paul Robeson, Reporter

GETTING READY TO FISH - Pacheco School’s Physical Education teacher Lora Fox shows seventh-grade student Shannon Scroggins how to handle a fly rod behind the school last week. Veronica Thomas is at right. The students will go fly-fishing tomorrow because of a grant Fox wrote.

Tomorrow, seventh-grade students from Pacheco School will board a bus at 7 a.m. for a two-hour drive to Antelope Creek Ranch, a private ranch owned by the Fly Shop owners Mike and Bertha Michalak on the other side of Mt. Shasta. The students will participate in an “outdoor classroom situation,” also known as “fly-fishing.” The students will return by 6 p.m. tomorrow evening. The bus ride will be repeated on Friday with eighth-grade students.

Last year, Pacheco School’s physical education teacher Lora Fox applied for a grant through the Future Fisherman Foundation. When the school received the grant she went for teacher training in Michigan in July. Lora and her husband Tim, the retail manager at The Fly Shop in Redding, have experience with fly-fishing.

The fly-fishing unit started last Thursday with students learning the parts of the fly rod and lines, how to tie knots, and how to set up fly rods and lines. Fly Shop employees Justin Miller and Dale Huffman were on hand to show the students how the nine-foot rods should be treated and used.

Miller explained how one should use “smooth action” and the rods should be “something you can feel.”

Lora Fox handed out packets that explained what the groups should bring such as contact information and permission slips and she asked if any parents would like to accompany the classes as chaperones. Some of the parents will be cooking a barbecue lunch for the students.

Tim Fox taught the students the basics of fly tying and Lora has tied flies with interested groups of students during the school lunch periods.

With the help of the teachers, science and physical education is also incorporated into the field trip.

There will be seven different stations at the Antelope Creek Ranch. At the stations, students will participate in fly tying, entomology, tree identification, water testing, nature poetry/sketching, and fishing.

“These trips would not be not possible without The Future Fisherman Foundation, The American Sportfishing Association, Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, and American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance,” said Lora Fox.

“Also The Fly Shop employees, the sales representatives from Scientific Anglers and Umpqua, and members of the Shasta Trinity Fly Fishing Club,” she continued. “They have played a substantial part in this activity.”