Teaching, not guiding

At The Academy, we are all extremely generous and kind-hearted, but we are not here to make you a sandwich, crack open your beer, tie on your fly, tell you where to toss it and land your fish for you! We have plenty friends that are some of the best guides in the industry, and do an amazing job putting anglers on fish all day long. However, at The Academy, we are focused on educating and developing proficient and confident anglers. We are teachers with years of field level experience that want to pass our passion on to others! Our mission is “to enable our students to be self-sufficient in fly fishing so they can enjoy the sport on their own any time, any place”. Often times, fly fishing can be coupled with an elitist attitude, overrun by “Big Boy” retail companies, and can be expensive. However, at The Academy we promise a friendly and comfortable approach to instruction. We are a small but fierce business where our local instructors love to teach and are here solely to grow the sport. All instructors are Red Cross certified in First Aid/CPR ensuring well being in any fishing conditions. We believe in serving our community and offering a price that is affordable to get more anglers on the water.

Teacher - student approach

Teaching isn’t a hobby or profession for founder and lead instructor, Jason Mattick, it’s his Passion!  Jason has been molding young minds for over 17 years as both a teacher and coach. Teaching others is what makes Jason tick, no matter the subject or skill. From coaching celebrities how to ski in Tahoe, to being an accomplished high school math teacher, and everything in between, Jason has coached many in various walks of life. He’s also created his own tutoring company and coached high school football players to the most elite level, D1 college and NFL.  Now, he is answering the call from many past and current students and connections in the area to start teaching his true passion, fly fishing! At the Academy, you will only find Jason’s highly effective, high energy, instructional practices. He has developed a proven, detailed curriculum, and will have course expectations and requirements outlined to ensure success for every student. Each enrollment is limited to 6 students (with 3 instructors) to keep the student to teacher ratio at 2:1. All students will be given a field journal to take notes during classroom and field instruction. “There are no dumb questions” is always our motto, and small class sizes ensure a differentiated experience for each student.  

A lifetime skill

Fly fishing is often perceived as “complex” and “too difficult”, which our mission is to prove this is simply not the case. The Academy will simplify and streamline all routines, techniques, and skills to ensure you're putting fish in the net. All students will leave The Academy with the skills, knowledge, and a proper foundation to build a lifetime skill on! Interested in taking a course together with your child? Your spouse? Enroll two or more students and receive a discount! It is our guarantee that each student will be proficient and confident with every step of a fly fishing outing before completing the course. It is also our pursuit to see Academy graduates continue to pass on the passion of fly fishing to generations to come, even becoming future Academy Instructors!