Be a Kiddie Ghillie!

Sac-Sierra Trout Unlimited is looking for volunteers to instruct and assist kids as young as 4-years in fly casting. This highly rewarding activity requires only basic skills in fly casting. The only skill you really need is being good with kids.

As an active Trout Unlimited chapter, we attend many outreach events every year. At most of these events, we engage children as well as adults, sometimes very young children. For the kids, we bring our Canvas Creek. Out of blue tarps and cardboard and paper mache’ we create a 40-foot-long creek complete with cardboard fish. Each fish is a representation of one of California’s native trout, and sports a functioning mousetrap for a mouth. Using small “micro-caster” fly rods, with yarn for line and lure, each kid tries to get a trout to “snap” at his fly. To assist them, we give each kiddie sportsman a kiddie ghillie! 

 

Being an expert fly caster is not a requirement for a kiddie ghillie! While you need to have a basic understanding of how to cast a fly rod(and we'll help you with that, if you'd like to learn), your primary function is to help your “sport” put his or her fly in the just right spot, and get the fish to “strike.” Some of these kids will be quite young, and very excited, and totally focused on the fish and not the fly line. Your most valuable assets will be patience, and humor, and encouragement. The rewards of course are enormous. Finally, after helping to hook and land that monster trout, the ghillie’s job is also to ensure proper handling and release.

The events at which our Canvas Creek appears typically run about 6 hours and are almost always outdoors. We do our best to ensure reasonable shifts for our ghillies, with plenty of breaks and refreshment. 

If you would like to volunteer as a kiddie ghillie, please visit our Be a Kiddie Ghillie page and complete the form. One of our Canvas Creek River Stewards will get right back to you with more information.

See you on the creek!