Cast Hope Kids Summer Fish Fest

Here at Cast Hope we have some huge news. We have taken a second step to follow up with the kids that we take out on free guided trips. Check out what Hogan wrote on the Idylwilde Blog about our first summer clinic. Here is the link: http://idylwilde.com/wordpress/ if you want to stay up on Hogan's rants & raves. To be honest there is some great fishing info in his blog and some just funny stuff that will bring a good chuckle. Below is what Hogan wrote about Cast Hope's first summer Fish Fest.


"If you do not know what Cast Hope (www.casthope.org) is it is the brain child of Nor Cal Idylwilde city guide and all around great guy Ryan Johnston. Ryan is one of my best friends and told me a few years ago he wanted to create a 501(c)(3) non profit to take kids fly fishing and expose them to fly fishing. I said you have a business degree from UC Davis and an MBA and you want to do what to raise your family and pay your mortgage?

Well with the help of his wife Bonnie, Todd “Slim” Cancilla, myself, and a dedicated board of directors Cast Hope has become a reality. Cast Hope takes kids on free-guided fishing trips with a mentor, advisor, parent, grandparent, whomever nominates the young person for the trip. Ryan’s initial idea was if you love something give it away and share it with other people and that is what we do. Through huge fundraising efforts, the support of the fly fishing industry, local California shops and Outfitters, guides, and just people that believe in what we are doing we have been able to take over 80 kids on guided trips on the Lower Sacramento River and Lower Yuba Rivers over the last two years.

Helping at Cast Hope Fish Fest

This last weekend we took a big step further towards our goal of sharing the sport of fly-fishing and positively impacting the lives of the youth in our area by hosting the first annual Cast Hope Fish Fest. What we did was invite 30 or so mentors and mentees whom we have taken on cast hope trips and whom we thought showed a genuine interest in fly-fishing to this event. We hosted the event on the banks of Deer Creek outside of Chico, ca and the goal was to follow up on that interest and give the mentors and mentees the tools to pursue fly fishing on their own. We did this by giving each mentor and mentee their own rod, reel, fly line, rod and reel case, tippet, leaders, and flies, then with the help of the cast hope guide staff we gave casting, entomology, and rigging lessons then followed that up with fishing on Deer Creek. This could not of been possible without the help and support of Reddington who donated a rod, reel, and line outfit with a case, Rio who donated leaders and tippet, and of course Idylwilde Flies who donated sindicators and a dozen or so flies to each mentor and mentee.

The event was a hit. While I have guided many Cast Hope dates the impact you make is at the one on one level and rarely do you get the feeling you are making a mass impact. The Fish Fest had that moment at one point for me. I had my group of 6 or so kids positioned in a run on deer creek (that had conveniently been just planted on thurs.) and I 1own…chaos later ensued as I worked the line un hooking fish and talking kids through landing fish, but it was a truly an amazing sight to see kids who a year or so ago had never seen a river let alone ever cast a fly rod hooked up on trout and having a ton of fun.

Thank you Zach, Patrick, Chris, and all the Idylwilde crew for believing in what we are doing enough to support it."

Well....enough said. I am so pumped that we are making an impact in Northern CA. I have posted some pictures from the event. Hope you like them. If you know of an at risk/ underprivileged youth that would benefit from this then send in an application online.

Tight Lines!