Joy of fly fishing starts young

By GAIL SCHONTZLER, Chronicle Staff Writer

Fly-fishing club for middle-school kids? Or slave labor to keep dads supplied with fishing flies? You decide.

Arnie Dood laughed when asked if the real reason his 12-year-old son, Jordan, joined the Bozeman middle-school Fly Fishing Club was to provide the old man with free flies.

"He just sits and ties and ties, and it's wonderful," said Dood, endangered species coordinator for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "I've got 200 flies."

Jordan, a sixth-grader at Chief Joseph Middle School, insisted he's in the club to please himself.

"I like to fly-tie, it's a relaxing sport," said Jordan, who listens to books-on-tape while he ties such favorites as elk-hair caddis. "You can go out and fish -- it's just fun to get out and enjoy nature."

Jordan figured he has been a fisherman since around age 2. Starting as small fry was a pretty common story among the half-dozen boys who turned out Tuesday for the club's weekly after-school meeting in room 221 at CJMS.

Josh Stanish, owner of Montana Troutfitters, comes every week to show the students how to tie flies or cast a rod or practice the finer points of fly fishing.

"I have a mutiny on my hands every time I do something other than tie flies," Stanish said.

"I already know how to cast," explained Luke Holdeman, 12. "I don't know how to tie flies."

One reason Stanish wanted to support the club is that "We're in the middle of some of the best fly-fishing in the world." Plus, he comes from a long line of teachers. Hanging out with the kids is "real rewarding," he said. "Anything that's not a computer game" is great for kids.

The club is free. Stanish has donated all the starter fly-tying kits, and a box full of materials -- elk and deer hair, and colorful feathers from ducks, geese, peacocks, ostriches, golden pheasants, sharptail and Hungarian partridges. There are feathers from chickens that have been genetically engineered to produce longer feathers.

This week's lesson was how to tie a Royal Wulff. It's difficult, Stanish said, but "everybody's been bugging me about it since the club started" last Christmas.

The boys, as well as three women teachers eager to learn, gathered around to watch Stanish's wizardry, turning bits of feathers and fluff into an imitation of a mayfly that's good enough to fool trout.

"This is one of my go-to flies," Stanish said, demonstrating how to whip a peacock curl, pheasant tippet, yarn and red floss onto a fishing hook with a bit of thread.

"The main thing is it's so easy (for fish) to see. The cool thing is you can use different colors. Red seems to work best."

Then the boys and teachers sat down at their own desks and fly-tying vises to imitate the master imitator.

Thirteen-year-old Tyler Decker finished early and showed his Royal Wulff to two fellow CJMS students.

"Sweet," one said.

"Using my own flies to catch fish is really fun," Tyler said. He enjoys the lessons from Stanish. "He's really good. He makes it really fun."

Matthew Wheat, 12, said one reason he joined the club is that store-bought flies can cost $2 apiece.

"You can buy hackle (feathers) for $11 and it's good for 100 flies," Matthew said.

Cliff Kallem, 14, who takes the bus from Sacajawea Middle School after school to participate in the club, said his favorite fly is the Royal Wulff, so he was excited to finally learn the secret of how to make his own.

Tyler Rooney, 12, a fellow seventh-grader from Sacajawea, said he tied his first fly when he was about 2, with help from his dad, a former fishing guide. It was a "big fuzz ball I made up," he said, that looked like a mass of fish eggs. He caught a trout with it last month at the Bozeman Pond.

Ann Cannata, a seventh-grade English teacher at CJMS, was laughing over her difficulties with the Royal Wulff.

"It is rewarding," she said of tying, but added, "You feel like you've got 17 thumbs!"

Special education teacher Robbie Johnstone said she has an art background and finds tying flies "very relaxing."

The club's sponsor is Sara Jones, child study team coordinator for special education at the two middle schools, who has been tying flies for six years.

Every Wednesday night she spends three hours with the Belgrade Tiers and Liars, a group of guys who are serious about their fishing.

"I love to fly-fish," Jones said. "I build rods, tie my own flies, have a drift boat. My goal is to become a guide."

She wants to specialize in taking women, children and people with handicaps and special needs out fishing.

Jones said she got hooked on fishing after she tore up a knee and could no longer play co-ed softball. Rollie Rieger, athletic director for the Belgrade School District, invited her to the Tiers and Liars club.

A couple middle-school girls have turned out in the past for the Fly-Fishing Club, which usually draws about 16 kids, Stanish said.

Also helping out with the club is Don Heyden, a retired Navy man who now belongs to Trout Unlimited and Headwaters Fly Fishers. "When I was working as a missile engineer, I needed something to unwind. I found I really like it.

"It's fun to see the kids blossom," Heyden said.

Stanish said he plans to continue with the club next school year, and would eventually like to see one at Bozeman High School. With schools facing budget cuts, the community is going to have to pitch in more to provide extracurricular activities to kids, he added.

His own son is only 1 year old -- too young to tie flies, though he does enjoy trying to eat Dad's feathers.

"I was 15 when I got my start tying flies seriously," Stanish said. And see where it lead. "It gave me a career."

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