Walter& Group..........
We have received thanks from Joe Libeu and Guy Manning for our efforts to date. Here is an important message from Guy. All should know the history of this club and its activities :-
Gordy
Gordy and John and others.
I would personally like to thank the both of you and any
others who have contributed to the rebuilding of the Long Beach Casting Club.
Joe’s initial request was heavily understated as to the impact the club has had
on the fly fishing community in Southern
California.
For instance:
The club was founded in 1925 and
has become what is probably the most successful fly fishing instructional
organization in the U.S. It offers 5 weeks of beginning casting, 3 weeks of
advanced casting, an “on the river clinic”, 4 weeks of rod building, and 15-20
weeks of fly tying each year. All of these are free and open to the public. Last
year the LBCC members contributed over 2400 hours of volunteer time to fly
fishing related events.
The club is involved with Project
Healing Waters and works with the local VA hospital 1 mile up the
street.
The club contains at least 10
MCI’s including 3 BOG’s and 1 BOG Emeritus (more MCI’s than any other state or
club in the nation) and I no longer know how many CI’s. This is due to the early
efforts of Allan & Barbara Rohrer and is continued now through the efforts
of Joe Libeu, John VanDerhoof and Bob Middo.
Probably the biggest impact I
remember from my early days in the sport and as a member was that even though
there were 3 fly shops in the area (including Bob Marriotts) it was the Long
Beach Casting Club that was considered the leading place to learn about fly
fishing in all of Southern California. Though it is a casting club and offers
tournament casting it has always been the top casters who were also the top
fishermen and educators in the club and in Southern California. Many of us
taught at the different fly and outdoor shops in the area.
It would be a shame for our sport to lose such an
organization because of an inability to rebuild. I understand that even with the
best insurance they could get that the cost of rebuilding, to the club,
will be in excess of $50,000. Although the club house is unusable they are
sticking to their schedule of all classes and casting events for the public by
utilizing city park facilities.
I for one, owe a great debt of gratitude to the club for
making my journey in the fly fishing world a highly accelerated and highly
informed one. Again, I thank all of those who have and can contribute to the
clubs rebuilding fund through cash or other donations.
Guy
Manning
FFF Master Certified Casting
Instructor
Moderator FFFCCI Yahoo
Group