Fly Social extends welcome to a younger generation of fly fishers

By Len Zickler

FFI President

Over the last couple of years, FFI leadership has been exploring a variety of ways to attract a younger and more diverse group fly an-glers to our organization. Membership oriented organiza-tions are generally in decline and we need to examine ways to more effectively reach a more diverse demographic. Other organizations and a few clubs have tackled this goal successfully and are do-ing a great job of attracting younger fly an-gler’s through more informal events. Clubs are finding success reaching new mem-bers through events such as brew ties, wine tastings, hackles and hops tying gath-erings, and pint night events.

People in general are rejecting the old “service club” _model of monthly Club meetings. While the old style meetings may be comforta-ble for the more mature crowd, they are not appeal-ing to the younger fly fishing community.

The intent is to devel-op an informal meeting for-mat to bring fly anglers to-gether in a relaxed atmos-phere to discuss topics of interest and support for local conservation efforts.

The June 13 FFI Fly Social in Seattle will be one of the first Fly Fishers Inter-national sponsored informal social gatherings.

It will include a brief introduction of FFI and an evening of socializing to dis-cuss FFI’s mission and vi-sion toward preserving the legacy of fly fishing for all fish and all waters through conservation, education and community.