Fly fishers catch sustainability lessons during MayX

With their fishing rods in hand, the students of Mike Winiski’s “Fly Fishing and River Conservation” MayX course become one with nature.

Their rods and lines whoosh and whistle through the breeze – 2 and 10, 2 and 10 – and plop a fly into the burbling river. Their reels click click click click like the sound of the insects busy at work in the tall grass along the bank.

JJ Bartlett ’27 ties a fly on his fishing line before fishing the East Fork of the French Broad near Rosman, NC on May 20.

Winiski, director of the Center for Applied Sustainability Research, wants his MayX students thinking about their roles in nature, and how they interact with their environment. The course, part of the three-week summer MayX term, blends classroom instruction on watershed geology, river conservation, stream structure and the history of fly fishing with the actual experience of getting knee-deep in cool, flowing waters. Their outdoor adventures took them to the Reedy, Chauga, Cattooga, North Mills and French Broad rivers, along with national forests and state parks.

Alongside lessons in fish and aquatic wildlife biology and behavior, the class reads the writing of Norman Maclean,  author of “A River Runs Through It.” With each cast, they learn to blend natural sciences, sportsmanship, literature and conservation while sharing the experience with their fellow anglers.