Adventures for St. Stephen's New Fishing Club

St. Stephen’s new Fishing Club was hatched during last year's Senior Retreat by Mike Dolan, Film and Theatre instructor, and (former) security staff member, Chris Ernst. Dolan began by enlisting senior Jack Mabley, known to be an excellent angler. Mabley then recruited two other students, Andy Li and Dylan Mosler. The five became the founding members of St. Stephen’s first Fishing Club. Since then there's been a steady increase of members, through word-of-mouth and its Instagram @SSTX_Fishingclub. The club also has received great support from parent Joan Swartz, an expert angler and certified guide.

 

The Fishing Club began meeting fall of 2022. One of their first meetings was a fly-casting lesson Joan taught on the new field-hockey turf. On Jan.15, the club’s most recent outing was a trip to New Braunfels on Jan. 15 to fish for trout. Dylan Mosler led some club members down river where they had great success.  Dylan caught a rare Palomino trout, which is a genetically modified yellow trout used at the fisheries to help them count the stocking pools.

 

The club is not only for fly-fishing, not exclusively a fly-fishing club, but that has been our focus so far. As the club grows and evolves, members plan to include bait fishing, bait casting, spinning, and trolling.

 

After a fun day of fishing, the club stopped for a BBQ lunch on the way home, and they’re all excited to get back on another river or lake for more fishing.