Joy and Don have proposed to the Board of Directors two areas of fly fishing education to begin our journey toward providing additional member benefits to you. As these are established, more will be added based on input from you as to what you would like to learn. The two areas are:
- Beginner Fly Casting Skills Development
- Fly Tying Techniques and Skills
These two areas will add to our existing educational opportunities that include the Western Idaho Fly Fishing Expo; monthly member meeting guest speaker presentations and fly tying/fly fishing related demonstrations; the quarterly Hackle Bender; monthly Member Update; and seasonal classes such as nymph fishing techniques.
Excerpts from Joy and Don to the board,
“We are very excited to be leading the BVFF Education mission, and view this as a tremendous opportunity to give our knowledge and experience to the members of the club. Understand that we believe that anything worth doing is worth doing well. To accomplish this endeavor, we will need help from others within and outside of the club, and it will take time.”
“We have learned that BVFF has added many new members, many (if not most) of whom are enthusiastic, but inexperienced. Our proposal is to initially focus our BVFF education programs on those newer members, and their need for coaching (education).”
“We are suggesting this focus as a first step. If we try to address all issues at once, we will fail. We must be focused on our purpose, and we must proceed with patience. There will be other programs for more experienced fly anglers as we develop the entire program.”
The Beginner Fly Casting Skills Development will be based on the Fly Fishers International Fly Casting Skills Development Program (click Here to view the program). This program has four levels: Foundation, Bronze, Silver, and Gold and can be completed at your own pace; however, if you’d like to turbo charge your learning curve, our educational opportunity will help.
To accomplish the fly casting education, Joy and Don will need help from members who would like to become casting coaches. In either August or September an event will be held to introduce you to the FFI casting skills program. We have a list from May of this year of members who are interested, and we will be reaching out to you. For all of our members, keep an eye out for an announcement for this event.
The Fly Tying Techniques and Skills will likely begin this Fall/Winter and include beginner as well as advanced classes. Joy and Don will need volunteers to lead these classes.
If you have an interest in helping with either casting or tying programs, please email president@bvff.com
