When the Student Becomes the Teacher

I was not a stellar student in school. I was a good kid; I just had the attention span of a squirrel. Comments from teachers on my report cards often included both “a pleasure to have in class” and “could apply himself more”. Hey, I was a charming slacker. There are worse things.

So imagine my surprise when I woke up recently and realized I was going to be a teacher. 

Last fall, my wife had seen something about Sierra College looking for people to host “lifestyle” classes. Stuff like arts and crafts, photography, genealogy. She suggested I pitch a class on fishing our local lakes. Since I wasn’t going fishing that day and had nothing else to do, I went to the school’s website and filled out their form: 

I am a lifelong angler, and for the past 5 years have owned and operated a fishing guide service for Northern California, focusing on trout and salmon. I am fully licensed, bonded, insured and have a US Coast Guard license for operating boats with 6 or fewer passengers for pay. 

Never shy about name-dropping, I made sure to point out:

I am also a twice-monthly fishing columnist for Gold Country Media, which owns and distributes local news publications (both online and in print) for Rocklin, Roseville, Auburn, Folsom and Lincoln

And then, the pitch:

The course would introduce prospective boat anglers to the basics of fishing for trout and landlocked salmon in northern California lakes like Folsom, Berryessa, Collins, Amador and others. Instruction would include fishing with downriggers, using electronics, appropriate rods, tackle, bait and other pertinent information

I honestly did not think it would fit in with more mass-appeal classes for, say, yoga or birdwatching. So imagine my surprise a month later when I got an email that the course had been accepted. They even gave it a name: “Basic Boat Angling For California Trout and Salmon”- 4 weekly sessions on Sundays starting March 1st at Sierra College, with a 5th class on the water to go over everything we just learned. 

And now, I’m low-key freaking out. I’ve been doing Google searches for lesson plan templates and haranguing teacher friends for advice. I’m hitting up fellow anglers to come guest-speak because I’m just smart enough to know how dumb I can be. I’m planning to set up a white board to work on my atrocious handwriting. I’m looking for a sport coat with patches on the elbows. I’m working on eyeballing people over the top of my glasses. Most stressing of all: as of this writing, six people have actually signed up, which is six more than I expected. 

So, if you’re interested at all in learning basic boat techniques for chasing trout, kokanee or landlocked chinook salmon from a guy who, uh, means well, consider taking this class. I will do my best to impart some of the knowledge I’ve amassed over the decades in my tackle box brain. What I miss or flub up, my angler-guest-speaker-friends will likely cover. Plus, I don’t hear well, so you can easily make jokes and copy off each other when my back is turned. 

The one thing I DO think I will be able to successfully convey is my absolute passion for the trout and salmon fishing opportunities in our region. They are some of the best in the country- maybe the world- and all of it reachable within just a few hours. Plus, the places that hold these fish are all beautiful. Hey, there are no ugly places to fish but Northern California has a surplus on glittering lakes and tree-studded shorelines. 

To sign up, or just to find out more information check out Sierra College’s fall ‘26 Kaleidoscope catalog https://www.sierracollege.edu/academics/community-learning/

then search for “Basic Boat Angling For Trout and Salmon”. Oh, and if you happen to have a jacket with patches on the elbows, it’s an automatic A.