Opinions, musings, ideas, pearls of wisdom
Fishing in San Francisco?
by Alayne Meeks
Fishing in San Francisco?
by Alayne Meeks
Well, not exactly fishing, but casting. The first time I heard of casting ponds was when someone asked me if I went to the casting ponds while I lived in San Francisco. "No," was my answer since I hadn't fly-fished when I lived in the city. When I asked, "What are casting ponds?" little was relayed except that there are ponds in Golden Gate Park where fly-casting competitions are held. So one afternoon, I found my way to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park to find and learn about the famous but, until now, unknown to me casting ponds.
A windy Monday afternoon found me in an empty parking lot just down from the lodge that houses The Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club (GGACC). Up a few steps and around the backside of the locked lodge, there are three very large shallow pools lined up in an area about the size of a football field. Able to walk around all four sides of each pool allows for many anglers to practice their casts where floating hoops, similar to our Confab hula hoops, tempt the caster to drop his/her fly line right into the middle of the ring. And I did just that, or at least the casting part; the getting in the ring proved as challenging as our own casting hoops had been. Still, with the wind blowing and crows flying overhead, I felt that I was having a delightful mountain experience even though the wind would occasionally bring the sounds of the city traffic into this protected urban wilderness.
After playing for a time and walking around all the ponds, I packed up my fly rod and headed back by the lodge to see if I could glean any information I might have missed on my way in, but I only found a feral kitty sitting outside the front door. Crying at me, we chatted for a moment and while I told her no one would be able to help her since the lodge was locked, the front door opened and a nice gentleman talked to the kitty (because the club cares for her), and then noticed me standing there. "Here to cast?" he asked. "Yes, and you have lovely practice ponds." Then as the graciousness of fly fishermen was not lost on this man he asked, "Have you seen the inside of the lodge before?" "No, I hadn't." Happily his next response was, "Well come on in and have a look around." Stepping inside the doorway I found a lovely mountain cottage in Golden Gate Park where all the activities of a casting club occur: fly tying, dinners (they have a kitchen), meetings, and special events all find a welcome city retreat where I've since been told their 25 cent coffee is the best in San Francisco.
The GGACC was founded in 1894 and is the second oldest fly fishing club in the country. Their first tournaments were held on Stow Lake but the depression era Work Projects Administration (WPA) built the present lodge and casting ponds in 1938 after the San Francisco club learned that the WPA had built ponds for the casting club in Portland, Oregon. The walls are decorated with the flies made by club members, fishing books and how-to videos fill the bookcases, and there is even a glass encased Winston rod, the last bamboo rod made by Doug Merrick of the R.L. Winston Rod Company once based in San Francisco. This club and its members have had much to do with innovations to the sport of fly fishing such as designing new fly lines, fly patterns, and standardizing fly lines by weight so that rods and lines are easier to match. Volunteers keep up the ponds and lodge which is usually open on Tuesday, Thursdays and the on the weekends and the club still maintains a second lodge on the Truckee River. Restrooms are available and were open on the day I dropped by. So when someone recommends a trip to San Francisco when you'd really rather be in the mountains, try to build in some time on the casting ponds across from the bison paddocks where a fly line is seemingly always welcome.
The GGACC's web site gives a nice overview of the club and its history at www.ggacc.org/history/history.html.