Fly High
Fishing club promotes friendship, conservation
By Jessica Laskey
Photography By Linda Smolek
April 2025
Those people with fishing gear outside the Conzelmann Community Center at Howe Park aren’t lost.
They’re most likely members of California Fly Fishers Unlimited practicing casting before their monthly meeting.
“Our audience wants to learn—can they do it, can they get help? That’s an area we excel in,” says Paul Wisheropp, a member since 2011. “We focus on conservation, education and outreach.”
Since 1962, Fly Fishers Unlimited has promoted fly fishing and encouraged conservation of the state’s fisheries, aquatic resources and watersheds. The group offers classes, outings, socials and meetings to serve amateurs and aficionados.
“It’s a very welcoming club,” says Laurie Banks, a member since 2008 and past president. “When I joined and was talking to the old-timers, they were such a wealth of information and so willing to help me get started. When I retired and had some time, then I got really active. It’s a great support group.”
Banks joined after her husband Ken, an aquatic entomologist, tried to teach her to fish. Each session ended in tears or anger, so he suggested she join Fly Fishers. There were only a dozen women then, but now the club has about 80 female members.
Banks recently became the first woman to compete in the Western Native Trout Challenge, a competition to catch native fish species across 12 Western states.
Laurie Wisheropp, Paul’s wife, appreciates how the club gives her husband people to fish with, “which provides a level of safety and has kept his interest when he retired.”
“Fly fishing has been on so many people’s bucket list, so the club gets a lot of newly retired or empty nesters because they didn’t have time before,” she says. “The value is really in the community connection and making new friends.”
Connection is part of the mission, as demonstrated by the club’s educational and community programs.
For school-age kids, Fly Fishers partners with the Department of Fish and Wildlife to provide salmon and steelhead eggs to area classrooms for students to raise and release into the rivers.
“The teachers make wonderful lessons that incorporate math, reading, writing and the environment,” Banks says. “It’s so fun to bring them eggs. The kids are so thrilled. I think they’re even more excited than if we brought them puppies.”
For older youth, Fly Fishers sponsors the annual Bob Bittner Memorial Scholarship for a UC Davis student in fisheries biology or ecology.
The group offers classes for veterans suffering from PTSD and families at Camp Sacramento and other outdoor adventure camps.
Members volunteer for community service at river cleanups, the annual Fish Derby for mentally and physically challenged people, and Sportsman’s Exposition at Cal Expo.
“There are always four or five things going on each week and members volunteer for different programs based on their interests,” Banks says. “We even have a few members who used to be children in our youth programs.”
The club welcomes anyone interested in learning the art and enjoyment of fly fishing. Banks says being out on the water “can be almost spiritual.” Paul Wisheropp appreciates the educational aspect.
“By getting people aware of (conservation), if maybe there’s a proposition on the ballot, people will understand it,” he says.
“Because we live in such a great area with two major rivers and the Delta and lakes nearby, people may see fishermen out there when the salmon are spawning and wonder, ‘What are those guys doing? Can I be a part of that?’” Laurie Wisheropp says.
For information, visit cffu.org.
Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
