April 11 and 18, 2026 – The Last Two Meetings of the Mayfly Project Philly’s 2026 Inaugural Season – Wissahickon Creek

Fun was had.

Well, the first year of the Philly-based Mayfly Project chapter is in the books.  We learned a lot, what worked, what might work better.  Honestly, besides the challenges of see-saw weather and low, clear water, I think this crew could carry out an expanded plan next year with great success.  Many of us may even get more practice in September working at a one-day event in Norristown Farm Park called All Kids Fish.  Two of our current mentors for Mayfly are leaders of that event, and they have been getting committals from mentors within our group.  I just have to make sure my work calendar is clear since my team covered for me at a few admissions’ open houses this spring so that I could do this thing.  There is a chance that a couple of our mentees will attend this fall event on scholarship too!  That would seal the deal for me if I could see K and H again this fall.  They would even make good peer mentors in Mayfly next year.  The youngest boy, S, may have had his experience this spring.  It might just be the age, or it might be that he tried fly fishing, caught a giant palomino as his second fish, and in his mind won fly fishing’s final boss battle. 

Real fly fishers.

We landed zero fish on April, 11^th, but the boys all had fun.  H fell in, and S fell in for a second time on April 18^th, so two out of three got their Wissy baptism.  K is a strong wader, so I was more likely to eat it than him.  We netted minnows, picked up dead suckers, saw water snakes and butterflies, found more bugs under rocks, walked in the woods to explore more of the creek.  I told the boys on Mentored Youth Day that all fly fishermen have to have beards, so I brought a costume beard the following week.  All the young dudes posed with facial hair, and a couple of them owned it.  H wore it the best, so I gave it to him at our last meeting as his certificate of completion!  It might have been the beard because H caught the only trout on April 18^th.  He tangled with three and landed one.  No skunk for the team!   Thanks, H and company for the win!  

Some mentors mentoring.

At the end this last meeting, to the surprise of most of the mentors even, the boys got all new gear.  Instead of taking home the combos they learned on, they got nice stuff with a reel-on-rod case, a nice pack with all quality tools like nippers and hemostats, and they even spent time filling a fly box to take with them.  Ken and Cathy, who provided waders for Mayfly from their stash from the aforementioned All Kids Fish generously gave the boys the waders they used this spring, much to our surprise and theirs.  They now have all the tools to hack away and watch YouTube like most new fly anglers.  Honestly, they and their caregivers seemed excited to make fishing again a priority, so I am hopeful they will get out again on their own.  I am confident that they have a memory to carry with them, and I certainly do.  There can only be one first year, one first class, and we got lucky that these mentee were that for us.  We could have done a lot worse, and we probably will in future years!

First year in the record books!