Happy 13th Birthday Fly Anglers OnLine, an may there be many more years of Fly Anglers OnLine, to come.
Fly Anglers OnLine’s first issue when on the World Wide Web on September 1st, 1997. Over the time from it’s tentative start, FAOL has been a weekly fly fishing magazine on the internet. It was the brain-child of Deanna Birkholm (now Deanna Travis) as publisher gave life her dream and creation, so we could all share in each other’s knowledge of all aspects of fly fishing. I came across Fly Anglers OnLine, in the early part of October of 1997. I think it was Week 5 or 6 of Volume 1.
It was a “Outside the Box” site with no advertisements, and no membership fees to view the contents of the site. All the articles have been written with no renumeration (money) to the writer of the article. The site is run off the contribution of Sponsors of FAOL, who were chosen for their honest, the quality of their product, and their reputation of “Customer Satisfaction”. Some of todays sponsors are also members of the FAOL group that hang out on the Bulletin Board and the Anglers Hut Chat Room.
Some Sponsor who are also Publishers offer FAOL articles from writers of books publish by the sponsor free of charge. Other Sponsor offer the prizes that are offered every month for some lucky FAOL member a chance to win some product being offered in the monthly raffle (I won a Sierra Tying Vise tthat I still use everytime I need to dress some hooks).
FAOL was the first online site to offer Fish-In’s so members could meet other members in some arranged location for a week for fly fishing. The expenses for the the members stay were that of the member, there was and still is no charge by FAOL to attend these events. Over time, there was a demand for more than on Fish-In per year by FAOL. So the Regional FAOL Fish-In’s came into being, if you want one where you like to fish, and willing to share your streams with others, you can contact FAOL for information on the ground work needed to get your Regional Fish-In posted on FAOL.
What has FAOL taught me??? Just about everything I know about fly fishing. It was in the Anglers Hut that Leon Chandler help me with my casting. It was in articles on FAOL I learn more about Fly Anglings history and the different aspects that combined with casting a fly rod encompass everything about fly fishing (entomology, stream lore, fly tying (the different subjects are endless)
It was Dan (Old Rupe) Rupe that help me construct my own knotted tapered leaders, It was Al Campbell with his Fly Tying Series that taught me how to not just to tie a fly pattern, but how I could use the knowledge I gained from his lesson to dress other patterns of flies not covered.
FAOL most of all is about you, as well as everyone else who has their own vivid memories of how they came to FAOL for the first time, and knew they found a home. Some even discovered that they love writing about things they know and they become published writers on FAOL.
Very few sites onto world wide web last a year, even few last two or three years, FAOL has lasted 13 years, and is still going strong…
~Parnelli
Chartered Member of “Friends of FAOL” (there are only 4 of us, and our names are at the bottom of the list)
