Marathon High School Fishing Club: World Angling goes back to school

Posted under fly fishing news by Will Benson

On May 15th Dave, Brian, Mitchell and I packed up every fly rod we owned and headed north back to school. An old buddy of mine from when I played pony-league baseball in Key West, Luis Leal, is a teacher at Marathon High and a cofounder of the Marathon High School Fishing Club. He and another teacher Ben Craig decided to organize an after school club to get youngsters excited about fishing. Most of the time they talk about their latest fishing trip or knots and leaders. Sometimes, they get to take a school sponsored trip and go fishing instead of going to class. That’s always a popular affair. Attendance is usually at an all time high on those days. The problem is, you have to be a member of the fishing club beforehand in order to skip class to go fishing. And being a member includes having to sit through the occasional boring lecture about our great pastime. This day the boring lecture was my responsibility. I tried to keep it short and sweet. I spoke about how I got into fly fishing by cleaning boats at Sugarloaf Marina, how my parents always encouraged me to do what I loved, and how all that turned into a passion for film making. As Dave gave me the international symbol for “cut it off,” I knew that was enough and that really the kids just wanted to see the movie. So we rolled with it. For 45 minutes the kids watched intensely as our film passed from jumping tarpon to giant redfish to tailing permit. Needless to say, they enjoyed the show. We then packed up our fly rods and headed out to the baseball field for some casting lessons. I was amazed by how quickly the kids picked it up; especially the girls. With just a little instruction on how the process of casting works, the kids were soon double hauling and laying out 60′ of fly line with no problem. Then, with a little encouragement from Mitchell and I, the boys were playing mexican standoff and shooting fly lines at each other. The girls shook their heads and dismissed the boys antics as immature attempts to show off. They were probably right. But… boys will be boys, and a bit of male rivalry is common in this neck of the fly fishing world. ?It was great to see kids getting excited about fishing and interested to hear about what we do. I can’t say enough about what Luis and Ben are doing for the sport. It’s great! I think it’s a refreshing approach to reach out to kids and impart knowledge about the sport, conservation, and etiquette. It was great to see the future right in front of us. We hope to get a chance to take the kids out on the water next time. I’m sure they won’t mind missing a day of school to go chase tarpon. I know I wouldn’t. 

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