Every month I get a chance to learn and share a new club in the River Mouth. It has been a great experience to learn about the differences and the similarities. It has brought my own club things to think about as we are always looking for ways to update our ways!
I had the opportunity to learn more not only about the organization but also about Tom Olinger, the President of the club.
Our mission:
Value to Our Membership
Service to Our Community
Dedication to the Resource
Now in our 41st year, we invite you to join us to meet and fish with other fly fishers, learn about our local waters and the latest techniques and help us keep the club vibrant and growing. For our club's community of women fly fishers, Sierra Fly Girls is in its 5th year of hosting socials, clinics, fish outings and guided trips.
Tom is the current President of the club, and I wanted to know how he got here:
Words from Tom Olinger, TTFF President
About TTFF:
Tahoe Truckee Fly Fishers has been the premier fly-fishing club in the Tahoe Truckee area since its founding in 1984. We have about 175 members, 225 including family members. Our membership is spread around the area; we say that roughly one-third of our members live in the Tahoe Truckee area, one-third live in the Reno area, and one-third live the Bay/Sacramento area. Many of our Bay/Sacramento members, like me, have second homes in the Tahoe Truckee area and belong to other clubs (Tri Valley Fly Fishers in my case). Our Mission Statement is a simple one, “Value to our Membership, Service to our Community, Dedication to the Resource”.
How did you get into Fly Fishing?
I grew up in small town Indiana where every kid had a basketball, bicycle, and a fishing pole. As a kid I fished local farm ponds for bluegill and bass with a spin casting outfit. I also fished at times with an older brother. I discovered my older brother’s discarded Shakespeare fly rod, with a broken tip, and I practiced casting in the back yard. I fished that old rod on the farm ponds and loved it.
I got away from fishing while in high school and college, but picked it up again when I moved to the Bay Area 40 years ago. One of my wife’s co-workers was from Montana and he introduced me to fly fishing in California. We’ve been fishing Lakes Davis and/or Frenchman together every spring and fall for the last 40 years now, and with his help, fly fishing has become a life-long passion.
How did you find the Club?
While I loved to fly fish, my job and its travel requirements, my family obligations, etc. kept me from fishing as much as I wanted. I had a retirement dream to have a cabin in the mountains where I could fly fish from. My wife and I built that place in Truckee when I retired in 2018. My wife then insisted that I join one or more clubs when I retired and so I joined the Tri Valley Fly Fishers and Tahoe Truckee Fly Fishers (TTFF). I love both clubs, and they’ve both been important to my happiness in retirement, but I became more active in TTFF via the people I met there early in my membership.
What is the structure of your Board?
Like most clubs, we have four officers that are Board members. We currently have three at- large Board members and four past club Presidents who serve on the Board. Board member responsibilities vary somewhat over time; in addition to being President, I currently serve as editor of our Fly Line newsletter, and other Board members serve as Outings/Clinics Lead, Speakers/Meetings Lead, Membership, Technology, Conservation, etc.
What are your Conservation and Community Efforts?
We have a number of conservation and community outreach efforts going. We support local charitable organizations with donations. The Truckee River Trout Unlimited chapter, Sierra Watershed Education Partnership, and Truckee River Watershed Council are some we’ve supported in recent years. A number of our members sit in leadership positions in these organizations; they’ve been strong advocates for conservation issues and Truckee River access which has been an important issue particularly in the Hirschdale area.
We also partner with the San Francisco Fly Casting Club to host an annual Youth Fly Fishing Camp on their private stretch of the Truckee. About 15 kids ages 10-14 participate in a three-day camp where we teach them the basics of fly fishing: fly tying, bugs/fish food, casting, gear, etiquette, conservation topics, and of course hooking and landing fish.
What Makes you Excited about TTFF?
One of the big advantages of our club is that we’re blessed to be in a great spot for a fly club, we have amazing fly-fishing opportunities in our back yard. We really try to take advantage of that with lots of fishing outings. A good example is what we call our “Summer Series”, a series of 6-8 half day fishing outings on different sections of the Truckee, Little Truckee, local lakes, etc. These are easy half day (or more if you like) get aways for local members. We also have frequent “Let’s Go Fishing” events where a member says, via our online Forums, “I’m fishing at Milton on Tuesday, anyone want to join me?”. These create lots of short notice opportunities to go fishing.
We also have great partnerships with local fly-fishing guides and local fly shops, many of whom are members of our club. Our local fly-fishing industry partners work with us to provide some great guided outings and clinics, they support our Annual Barbeque and Fundraiser, and our members participate in many of their events and programs.
Another aspect of TTFF worth mentioning is our women’s fly-fishing interest group called “Sierra Fly Girls”. The Sierra Fly Girls (SFG) group was founded in 2019 to promote women in fly fishing in the Tahoe Truckee area. SFG members participate in any/all TTFF events but also have women’s fishing outings and social events. Our SFG group has introduced more women to fly fishing and created a place where women can meet and socialize with other women fly fishers and enjoy fly fishing together.
And lastly, I’d like to acknowledge NCCFFI and say how much we value our membership in FFI. Membership provides many benefits such as access to great instruction on casting and fly tying and savings on liability insurance for our club. One of our Board members sits on the NCCFFI Board of Directors and several of our members participate in NCCFFI events such as the Yubafest and the Hall of Fame Dinner.
Thank you so much Tom for sharing a little about yourself and about the club and the programs you offer to members. There are always takeaways, learning that there are differences between clubs but things that are similar with the clubs and also our paths to those clubs- Thank you,
Penelope
Co-Editor and Treasurer, NCCFFI
VP, Russian River Fly Fishers