WHAT IT’S REALLY ALL ABOUT
Fly Anglers Online is rather an anomaly in the field of fly fishing publications. On one hand FAOL is a weekly fly fishing magazine replete with articles on fly fishing, fly tying and similar fly fishing related material. In addition, FAOL is a web-based bulletin board – a monitored public forum where items are bought and sold, ideas are exchanged and friendships are made. While the editorial aspect of FAOL is what was, and continues to be, the driving force behind the original creation of FAOL, the bulletin board/forum is what makes FAOL unique in this genre. While FAOL is not the only online publication that supports a bulletin board type format when you read the posts on our bulletin board you find a sense of community not found in similar forums.
This unique situation has been evident to me on many occasions and a couple events that took place just recently reinforced how real the sense of community is between forum participants.
The first example is the recent FAOL Fish-In on Michigan’s Au Sable River. During the preceding months a few readers decided to conduct a fund raiser and purchase a ‘memorial bench’ to commemorate JC Birkholm, the late husband of the owner and publisher of FAOL. JC was a proficient caster and casting instructor and many of the regular readers of FAOL and those that attended the various ‘Fish-Ins’ over the years were beneficiaries of his skill as a teacher of proper fly casting techniques. Using items donated by various readers of FAOL they raised three thousand five hundred dollars to purchase the bench and have it placed along the banks of the Au Sable River at Gate’s Au Sable Lodge. Prior to this FAOL readers raised money to place a similar bench along the Au Sable for Al Campbell, a major contributor to FAOL who died of a cancerous brain tumor. [You can find many of Al’s and JC’s contributions to Fly Fishing education in the Archives section of FAOL]
Most recently FAOL readers have been mourning the loss of Cary Morlan [Linemender], a fly fisher, friend and mentor of many of our readers. Cary was a constant figure at the FAOL Fish In at Rocky Ford Spring Creek near Ephrata, Washington where FAOL readers have been holding an annual get together each May for the last several years. His recent death, as the results of a motor cycle accident, has been a blow to many of our readers that came to know him through his participation in the Fish In at Rocky Ford. When you read the heartfelt outpouring of regret and remorse on the FAOL bulletin board you know that he touched the lives of many people.
These are but a few examples and there have been many others, in addition to offers of assistance, prayers for members struggling with cancer and other diseases, and just general camaraderie among people whose only contact may be through the FAOL bulletin board.
Sporting publications are filled with articles about how to, where to, when to, and even why we do. There are plenty of articles promoting something new, and far too many articles promoting someone’s ego. There are web sites, blogs, twitters, and Facebook pages galore promoting something or someone but the essence of the thing really has little to do with most of all that. New fly patterns, the latest rods, reels, lines, etc., the big fish that you caught on your trip to Pago – Pago will all be old news tomorrow, and, besides yourself, who really cares that you can double haul 150 feet of fly line into the wind and uphill?
Fly fishing is a journey, and at the end of the day what really matters are the people you meet along the way. It’s less about the results and more about the process. It’s really about people like JC, Al Campbell, and Cary Morlan; people that, in some way, touched our lives and made the journey and the process that much more meaningful.