6th Annual Heber Valley Fly Fishing Festival

Event Takes Place August 7 & 8th with Proceeds to Benefit Disabled Utah Veterans

(Heber, Utah) The Fall River Fly Rods Company and Allen Fly Fishing are hosting the 6th annual Heber Valley Fly Fishing Festival & Kids Fly Fishing Derby on August 7-8th, 2015 at Hamlet Park located at the corner of S Johnson’s Mill Road and E Main Street in Midway, Utah. Festival hours run from 10am to 6pm both Friday and Saturday, with free live music and a community BBQ until 8pm on Saturday.

The Heber Valley Fly Fishing Festival is featuring an expanded offering of free fly fishing instruction and other family-friendly activities at this year’s event; the expanded line-up is due at least in part to the collaborative efforts of the event hosts, Fall River Fly Rods & Allen Fly Fishing, and the festival’s major sponsors, the Sundance Mountain Resort, Fish Heads Fly Shop, Travis Sylvester and Cabelas of Lehi.

Event organizer Julie Zicha states “The Heber Valley Fly Fishing Festival has doubled in size in each of the last two years, both in overall attendance and in the number of Utah companies and organizations participating in the event. Utah has some of the very best and brightest talent when it comes to the outdoors recreation industry in general, and especially in the fly fishing segment of it; we feel that it has been through reaching further into that talent pool each year that we’ve been able increase the amount of free content at each festival, which in turn attracts a larger audience. We’ve put together a great line-up of classes, along with a dedicated team of volunteers who’ve remained focused on introducing area youth to the love of fly fishing and building long-term relationships with the community via our free content & activities and by donating the event proceeds each year to a worthy local area non-profit. The proceeds this year will benefit Project Healing Waters of SLC, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for many disabled Utah vets and active duty service personnel”.

Anglers of all skill levels are welcomed to attend the event to learn new techniques and fine-tune their skills via the free classes, clinics and demonstrations being offered throughout the weekend by local fly fishing guides & industry experts. Clinics will be held both on & off the water covering both a wide-array of topics this year such as basic casting techniques, intermediate-level casting, “how-to’s” on nymphing technique specific to the Provo River, fly tying & leader building demos & more. The festival features a full-day “ladies- only” fly fishing course that has been designed so attendees can participate in the entire day of instruction, or individual segments based upon their needs. Advanced-level fly fishers will enjoy the two advanced-levelon-the-water demonstrations being given by world champion fly fisher Lance Egan, of the Lehi Cabela’s store; Egan will be covering “Advanced Dry Fly Tips & Techniques” & “European Nymphing” via separate demos & anglers are encouraged to pre-register for his clinics as they are expected to fill quickly.

Details for all classes offered by the Heber Valley Fly Fishing Festival may be found on their website www.hebervalleyflyfishingfestival.com & print copies of the schedule will be available at the event.

Festival attendees will have fly rods from across the entire spectrum of materials and actions available to them so they might see which best suits their fishing style & needs. Industry experts & fly fishing guides knowledgeable on local waters will be on hand from companies such as Allen Fly Fishing, LOOP, Flycraft USA, Sundance Fly Fishing, Cabelas, Rocky Mountain Outfitters & Fish Head’s Fly Shop to personally answer questions & share pointers. Much of the hottest gear on the market will available to demo & Fall River Fly Rods in-house bamboo & graphite fly rod designer/builder Jason Zicha is bringing his entire line of demo bamboo fly rods for those of you who dream of having a rod built especially for you.

The festival will also feature local artisans, book signings with Utah authors, casting competitions and a kids fly fishing derby. Bring your kids down for free youth fly fishing lessons throughout the day both Friday and Saturday with local sensations AJ and Jace Garcia of Twin Territory and to participate in the 3rd annual Provo River Kids Fly Fishing Derby. The derby is open to all area youth ages 15 and under and is scheduled to run from 11am to 3 pm on Saturday. Kids must have a parent or legal guardian with them at all times and those who are 14-15 should have a valid fishing license to participate. The festival plans to have a limited amount of gear available for youth who do not have their own and volunteers on-site to assist kids who are new to the sport. Prizes will be awarded the same day for top finishers by age and gender and winners will receive a new “Prelude” fly rod and reel combo courtesy of Allen Fly Fishing.

Registration will begin at 10:00am at Hamlet Park or children may be pre-registered by emailing Julie Zicha at Julie@hebervalleyflyfisingfestival.com . Anyone who participates in the free kids fly fishing classes and/or the derby will receive a FREE entry into a drawing for the one-of-a-kind Twin Territory graphite fly rod built by Fall River Fly Rods especially for this event.

Austin Haacke of Orem, Utah had this to say about the Heber Valley Fly Fishing Festival & Kids Fly Fishing Derby:

“As a parent, I look for fun activities that my children want to do. Fly fishing is not only a fun thing for them to do, but it builds their confidence and gives them something they can do to succeed in. Both of my children love being outside and fly fishing is a great activity that our whole family enjoys doing together. We love going to Heber each summer and going to the fly fishing festival. The kids love going onto the river and just having fun and each have been successful in the friendly contest both years they have entered. They talk about going next year on the way home from one festival that we were just coming away from.”

For more information on the free activities, class schedules or vendors scheduled to attend you may visit the Heber Valley Fly Fishing Festival’s website at https://www.hebervalleyflyfishingfestival.com or contact the event organizer Julie Zicha at 208-220-1827 or Julie@hebervalleyflyfishingfestival.com