One of the common themes in fly fishing throughout the country is community. Together, anglers come together to support one another, their fisheries, and crucial conservation issues. But what happens if you’ve never fly fished before and don’t know where to start? That is exactly the question Austin Campbell asked. His answer—Community Fly Fishing. He formed this organization with the goal of introducing new people to fly fishing, giving them the tools to succeed, and building a community all at the same time. Recently, we had the chance to sit down with Austin and learn more about Community Fly Fishing, his journey into the pursuit, and how he uses innovative tools, like onWater Fish, to create the best experience.
Flylords: How did you get started fly fishing?
Austin Campbell: I was born in Kansas and moved to Colorado in kindergarten. Living in Denver, Colorado, I started fly fishing when I was a little kid. I used to fish and explore around the Front Range, before heading east to go to school at Penn State. In the summers, when I came home from college, I started guiding with Wanderland Outdoors and Front Range Anglers. Soon after, I started up Community Fly Fishing as a nonprofit. My goal was to introduce people to fly fishing for free with zero barriers to entry.
Flylords: What is Community Fly Fishing, and how did you get started?
Austin Campbell: I started Community Fly Fishing in Denver about five years ago. Our biggest push is to get people into the outdoors and give people an opportunity to experience something new. We work with a lot of demographics that don’t have equal access to the outdoors. With that being said, our primary goal is to teach folks, provide them with the opportunity, and properly equip them to continue the sport if they so choose.
Since we started, we’ve grown nationwide and even have a few events coming up in Atlanta soon. We’ve even built relationships with the Bahamas Fly Fishing Industry Association and host a few camps throughout the Bahamas each year.
Flylords: Is there a specific demographic that Community Fly Fishing focuses on?
Austin Campbell: Like I mentioned earlier, Community Fly Fishing is designed to get folks who would otherwise not have the means to fly fish on the water. We strategically tailor our program to young adults. The reasoning behind this is to create a trickle-down effect. Essentially, by building community and teaching young adults how to fly fish, they can take this newfound passion and pass it down to younger generations. In doing so, we can open up the sport of fly fishing to a whole new group of people that otherwise may have never had the opportunity to try it.
We will also hold events in family settings closer to the Denver area so that kids and parents are able to have an opportunity to fish. These programs are typically hosted at Lake Lehow, in partnership with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Flylords: You mentioned attending Penn State. Did you take the fly fishing course, and did it inspire you to start Community Fly Fishing?
Austin Campbell: I actually did take the fly fishing course for two years. It was a ton of fun learning from George Daniels. But to be honest, the course didn’t really inspire me to start Community Fly Fishing.
A lot of the people in the fly fishing class had knowledge about the pursuit already. What I wanted to start was a program that would reach the demographic that had never fly fished before. My goal with Community Fly Fishing is to introduce complete beginners to the sport. A lot of our students have fished, hiked, or spent time in the outdoors, but have never fly fished due to the barrier to entry. That’s where we come in—to give a whole new demographic the opportunity to experience fly fishing without having to spend $1,000 a day on a guide or buy fancy gear.
How Austin Campbell is Using onWater Fish to Create Access for All
Flylords: How does onWater open new doors for members of Community Fly Fishing?
Austin Campbell: Two years ago, onWater Fish joined as a sponsor of Community Fly Fishing, providing a kind donation of one-year subscriptions to all CFF instructors, guides, and participants. This gives the individuals in our program access to all onWater+ premium features.
I call onWater our dictionary for introducing new people to fly fishing. It gives individuals the tools they need to go out and explore a new area, whether it be downtown Denver or some remote mountain stream. Features like the species layers allow new anglers to branch out on their own in search of the fish they want to catch. Then there is the interactive aspect of onWater, like dropping pins and exploring different map layers, which creates a fun interactive way for our community to get excited about fly fishing. At Community Fly Fishing, we teach our students how to fly fish, and onWater is the tool to inspire them to keep exploring and fishing.
Flylords: How did your recent event in Phantom Canyon open private waters to people who don’t typically have access to this area?
Austin Campbell: We actually partnered with the Nature Conservancy of Colorado to put on the event in Phantom Canyon. The water is privately owned, but the Nature Conservancy allowed Community Fly Fishing to come in and fish. For the anglers in our program who don’t typically have access to a stretch of water like this, it was awesome to see.
Once we started fishing, the onWater app served as our tool to show students the geological formations, their distance hiked, elevation changes, and spots to fish. We were able to pinpoint specific holes for instructors to take students to where they could enjoy a day of fly fishing. To cap it all off, showing students an interactive tool like onWater while fishing equips them with the tools needed to use it on their own down the road.
Flylords: How has the journaling feature on onWater, with people who attend these outings, helped them improve their fishing efforts in the future?
Austin Campbell: In addition to all the other tools onWater provides attendees with, the journaling feature enables them to replicate success on their own. We can drop a pin to a spot, and then the instructor can use the journaling feature to record catches, conditions, and setups. Then the attendees can get out on their own and look back to see what they used, what the conditions were like, and replicate success. Even though they only get so many days on the water with a guide, at least they have the information down the road to continue fishing with confidence.
A Community for All
Community Fly Fishing is just as its name implies, a community for new anglers to grow and learn how to fly fish. Since its inception, Austin has grown the program into a nationwide organization that allows people to get out on the water with no barrier to entry. His partnership with onWater has taken this one step further, enabling new anglers to learn how to fish with in-person instruction, while giving them the tools through the app to continue fishing on their own. For anyone interested in Community Fly Fishing and their programs, check them out, HERE.
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