Wild Bear Nature Center is excited to host a brand new series of workshops dedicated to the art of tying flies for fly fishing. The series of workshops will be hosted at the Very Nice Brewery in Nederland starting on March 31, 2022, and will be hosted on Thursdays from 6 - 8 p.m. from its inception to the end of the seven week-long series of workshops.

The workshops will be taught by Art Abramson, who was born and raised on the Keweenaw Peninsula in Northern Michigan. He has been fishing for trout since he was seven years old, with over fifty years of experience in fly fishing, tying flies, building rods, and foresting.

Having moved to Colorado in 2001, he has served as a skiing instructor for both Eldora and Copper Mountain in the winter months. In the warmer months Abramson likes to go camping and fishing. He also serves as the fly fishing educator at Wild Bear, teaching children ages 10 - 12 about fly fishing once a week over the summer.

Sarah Travers, the nature education coordinator at Wild Bear, says of the workshop that if you are able to attend all seven weeks, you’ll have a nice guidebook at the end of it all not only on how to tie flies but also about how to analyze the ecology of the area around you and utilize that knowledge to decide what flies you’re going to use on that particular day.

She says that the recent partnership between Very Nice and Wild Bear will allow visitors of the center to see it as more than just an education center for children, as the center is currently trying to grow its adult and family programming. She believes that the partnership will be mutually beneficial to both parties and will help to expand their communities.

The first workshop on March 31 will be an Introduction to Fly Tying. Following that, on April 7, there will be a workshop on Tying Nymphs. Next, a workshop on April 14 is dedicated to Tying Dry Flies, and a workshop on April 28 is dedicated to Tying Terrestrials.Then, a workshop on May 5 is dedicated to Tying Streamers, and a workshop on May 19 is dedicated to Tying More Patterns. The final workshop on May 26 will be dedicated to Tying it All Together.

The workshops are available to anyone ages eight and up, although anyone who is under eighteen will need to be accompanied by an adult in order to attend. On June 4, the workshop group will also attend a fly fishing day to test out their flies and apply their knowledge from the workshops. The workshops cost $30 per session or $175 for all seven workshops.

The Wild Bear Nature Center fly fishing workshops will be hosted at Very Nice Brewing Company, 20 Lakeview Drive #112 in Nederland, from March 31 to May 26, 2022, on Thursdays from 6 - 8 p.m.. To book one or all of the sessions, visit www.wildbear.org/fly-tying-workshops.