By Thomas Hall –
Founded in 1971, the Sespe Fly Fishers was formed as a group of dedicated fly fishers and fly tyers with a common interest in conservation, education, and fellowship. While the club emphasizes fly fishing for trout, we also focus our attention on other saltwater and freshwater species with speakers and club outings.
We are part of a consortium of fly-fishing clubs that collaborate to bring monthly Speakers to our meetings from all over the world. In the recent past, we have enjoyed presentations by Charles Jardine (Guide, UK), Gary Borger (American author), Skip Morris (Award-winning fly-Tyer, Dave Hughes (Author), Davy Wotton (Coach for US International Fly-Fishing Team), and many others.
We are deeply committed to Conservation and Outdoor Education and participate in conservation projects in collaboration with groups like the Friends of the Santa Clara River, and the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy.
We work with the Ventura County School District and the Department of Fish and Game on a program called Trout in the Classroom. The Ventura County program is the most successful in the state with 23 active classrooms. We supply aquariums, and fingerling trout for students to raise, and eventually release in local waters, thus learning about ecosystems and the importance of maintaining healthy rivers and streams. We also support Casting for Recovery, a flyfishing retreat program for women with breast cancer, and Project Healing Waters, a program for Veterans.
Sespe Fly Fishers offers free Fly-Tying lessons at Eric’s Tackle in Ventura. Long-time member, and award-winning fly-tyer Dennis McCarty leads both a beginner’s class and an intermediate class. Our club offers monthly free casting lessons at Chumash Park with Thomas Hall as the coordinator, from 9-11 am on the First Saturday of every month.
We also collaborate with Santa Barbara Fly Fishers, who offer Surf Casting and Fishing lessons on the second Saturday of every month, usually at Rincon State Beach. For details contact Joseph Narkevitz at joseph.narkevitz@gmail.com
Sespe Fly Fishers is currently working with a property owner in Santa Paula, near the Santa Clara River, to negotiate a long-term lease for a 100’x 200’ shallow casting pond, for use by interested Ventura County Residents. The closest Casting Pond to Ventura County residents is currently located in Pasadena.
A nearby property on the Santa Clara River is owned by the nonprofit, Friends of the Santa Clara River. The property is being used for environmental education and is actively being developed with trails and hosted environmental education classes for students and families.
Sespe Fly Fishers hopes to work closely with Friends of the Santa Clara River to provide both fly fishing and environmental education, and endangered southern steelhead habitat restoration in the area, if a pond can be established.
Once an agreement is signed, Sespe Fly Fishers will commence a 3-year fund raising campaign to raise approximately $500,000 needed to construct the pond with permanent bathroom facilities.
More information on the Casting Pond project will be available upon completion of a long-term lease agreement with the current property owner.
For more information contact:
Steve Schalla, SFF President – email: stevenojai@gmail.com, cell: 805-264-1950
Thomas Hall – SFF Casting Program Coordinator – Thomas Hall, email: thomasfoleyhall@gmail.com, cell: 805-377-5249 Karen Hall, SFF Secretary, Newsletter Editor, and Casting Pond Committee Chair: email: karencolehall@gmail.com, cell: 805-798-0469
https://www.sespeflyfishers.org/
