Geof and Laura Wyatt
Caltrout Members since 1995
Why We Support CalTrout
Laura and I have been supporting CalTrout for years given our environmental interests and passion for fly fishing.
We became much more involved in the organization several years ago when we entered the Five Rivers Challenge.
The event got us much more familiar with several of the projects as well as the staff of CalTrout.
And, we had never had as intense a fishing experience as we did at Clearwater Lodge participating in our first “Challenge”!
I was first introduced to fly fishing by my father.He showed me the basics of casting with his old Heddon bamboo rod in our backyard in Santa Barbara.
I would bring the rod and reel with me on my Boy Scout Troop’s annual outtings to the High Sierra where I flailed away on alpine lakes.
Years later, I returned to the area and introduced Laura to fly fishing, one of my favorite angling memories.
This was before we were married and we went to Mammoth to fish Crowley, the Upper Owens and Hot Creek.
Since she didn’t fish, Laura declared “I’ll just bring a book and watch you”; but she got intrigued, and got into the river, declaring “If I happen to catch a fish I’m never going to hold it!”
Some of my favorite photos are of her on that trip proudly holding the fish she caught.
And, as a postscript, a year later we returned to Mammoth for another fishing adventure and that’s when I proposed and Laura said “Yes”.
Laura and I are impressed with CalTrout’s steelhead restoration projects in Southern California– specifically on the Santa Ynez River.
The river is a thirty-minute drive from Santa Barbara and has an incredible pedigree of supporting steelhead in the tens of thousands long before I was born.
I can only imagine what it would be like to drive that short a distance and have world-class trout fishing.
We are inspired by CalTrout’s mission of enabling fish, water and people to co-exist.
We need drinking water, but we also need an environment that sustains cold, clean waters.
It’s a sign of a healthy world when we can use our powers to allow other creatures to flourish, too.
Creatures that predate us.
"It’s a great feeling to get to know some of the people who work so hard to make CalTrout the vibrant organization that it is.
Recognizing the incredible work they do—making our state a better place for all of us—gives us the sense that I’m affiliated with the right group."
