What’s New with the Fly Fishing Club

The Fly fishing club was founded in the 2017/2018 school year by now seniors Richie Shulik and Austin Aikens. The club embarked on two fishing trips during the inaugural year but unfortunately none this past year. I have been a member of the fly fishing club since freshman year, and I had the opportunity to interview Richie Shulik to learn more about what we can expect in the coming year.

Shulik shared that he was going to shoot for at least six different excursions this year, and the locations will most likely vary from local, regional and possibly out of state streams. The overall goal is to schedule one trip per month. The examples he gave of possible local streams include Pine Creek which runs through the North Hills and Allison Park regions, and Deer Creek which runs through the Fox Chapel area. Both of these streams are both under a twenty minute drive from Central Catholic, which makes them very accessible and can be scheduled with limited notice. Other streams and locations would include fishing in some of the many tributaries Erie has to offer, the Yellow Creek Trout Club in Indiana County, and even possibly New York.

In these locations the targeted fish would primarily be trout, ranging from the popular rainbow trout, brown, or brook trout. Trout is just one type of fish we will try to catch this year. He would like members to participate in trips in northern PA, with the targeted fish varying depending on what each person personally would want to catch. The type of fish could range from blue gill, bass, or even muskellunge. For the trips to Erie, it would most likely be exclusively steelhead salmon with the improbable brown trout every once in a while.

The goal is to expose members to various streams and fish that may be on their “bucket list” to catch.
In effort to execute on these planned trips, a club needs a passionate and consistent moderator. In previous years, the club had either a moderator not completely involved or lacked a moderator completely. The club is fortunate to have Mr. Heid as the new moderator.

Lucky for us, he has taken over this position because, like many of us in the club, he loves fishing, especially fly fishing. The club will also need permission for early dismissals from school to be able to make these hour long journeys to our fishing destinations. Currently, we have about 30 students who enrolled for our club meetings on Wednesdays, but there are only about ten “loyalist” who have either been in the club since the beginning, or who actually fish, not just attending club meetings for fun. We are always accepting new members, but please only sign up if you truly want the fly fishing experience. The classroom is in the water, where the real learning and fun takes place!