RiverStewards – Making a Difference
Hughesville High School Fly Fishing Club
As RiverStewards continues to showcase some of the organizations we have partnered with to help support some of their initiatives, the next one is the Hughesville High School Fly Fishing Club. This is a high school fly fishing club that is advised by David Weigle, with the goal of creating opportunities for students to learn and enjoy fly fishing.
David Weigle started his career as a sixth-grade teacher in the Eastern Lycoming School District; from there he moved into the Highschool in 2019 where he started teaching innovations and entrepreneurship classes. Now, he taches business and STEM classes, in addition to being the faculty advisor for the fly-fishing club.
The club itself was established in 2022 and has been operating for the last four years. While the club was only formed recently, David has had the idea to start one for a long time. He has had an interest in flyfishing since he was 8 years old when his father introduced him. Since then, has been self-taught through various ways, including watching old VHS tapes and DVDs of fly fishers.
After he helped students establish this club, he stumbled on the Scranton Mayfly Project and has been working with them for the past three years. He views the two similar, as they are both tools to serve and mentor kids.
While David is the only faculty advisor, there is also a booster club which helps raise funds for the club. As well as being the faculty advisor, David also works with the president of the boosters club, Gary Hockenberry, to create fundraising events.
The club has a few different events that they put on to raise money, one of those is their Burger Burn. This event is held on the first day of trout season, in Picture Rocks which is just north of Hughesville, and this past year they raised around $900.
Another one is their dynamic fundraising, which is their main avenue of fundraising. Since it is a high school club, and there are plenty of students in more than one activity, they know people get asked to donate to a variety of different things. To combat this and avoid donating burnout, they have contacts and send texts to people and ask them to participate (donate). Once people receive the texts, it takes them directly to a donation site where they can donate however much they want.
The club itself has a wide range of students, since the high school is conjoined with the middle school, there are kids from 7th to 12th grade in the club. Most students join due to having friends in the club.
During the year, there is no set program, but there are a variety of things that occur to help kids learn. For example, each month there is a tie of the month where a certain tie is given, and the kids can practice it. This upcoming year, there will be 8 different ties taught.
Along with the ties, they do casting skills and a fly-casting tournament, as well as having presentations for the students. Starting in October, on the second Saturday of each month, the club reaches out to different people who have fly fishing experience, and those people come in and do a presentation on something relating to fly fishing. After the presentations, the group will tie flies together.
This year, Anita Colton, who is a guide at the Hancock Fly Shop, will be coming in and talking to the group, where they will be doing some casting and tying as well. But more importantly, it is also an opportunity to get more girls involved as well.
While the club operates year-round, they are more active during the school year, and they slow down during the summer months when students are on vacation. Despite it being a hit or miss, there are still a few items that take place over the summer.
This year, they were invited to the Lycoming County Fair, which was held July 8th to the 18th. At the fair, they had a booth and served as a meet and greet opportunity, by showing their gear and rods, and having literature, brochures, and stickers available for those who stopped by.
David is hoping that this summer they can get some kids out to Milton State Park, which is on the West branch of the Susquehanna, to do some fishing. Last summer, they brought in David Rebuck, who is an expert in macroinvertebrate, to teach the kids more about macroinvertebrate in their streams.
On top of all the other things the club does, they have other projects to help better the community and get people involved. On of those is their Muncy Stream cleanup, which occurs every March. This event is open to the community, they have had people from Trout Unlimited help, along with David’s brother bringing the lacrosse team from Penn College to help. Muncy Stream is the club’s home stream, so this is a big deal for them, and David was thrilled to say that each year they are finding less and less trash in the stream!
Another project they do, is Friday Night Ties, which is something that the club started last year and is hoping to bring back this year. During this, they watch movies by someone who contributed to the fly-fishing sport and then tie a fly afterwards. The club also buys pizza for the kids during these events as well.
To learn more about the Hughesville High School Fly Fishing Club, check out their Facebook page by clicking this link here. If you enjoy fly fishing and are interested in helping youth learn the sport, feel free to reach out to the club as they are always looking for more collaborators!
