\MEMBERS: If you have a friend or relative who should be out fishing, please forward this to them and encourage them to come to one of our meetings. Bill
By Bill Prater
If you’re of a certain age - retirement age that is - and wondering what to do with all that free time, I have a great alternative to mowing grass and knitting: You know what I mean: Join the Loveland Fishing Club and go fishing.
Not counting the eventual arrival of spring, you couldn’t find a better time than now to either get out your dusty old fishing gear or buy some new stuff. And just join the club for breakfast on Fridays in Loveland or Fort Collins and talk about what we’ll catch when it gets a bit warmer. Whether you’ve fished all your life or not sure what to use for bait, you can likely find other folks with shared interest.
We’re coming up on the 4th anniversary of a time we’d all like to forget, when Covid-19 forced social groups like a fishing club into dormancy. The stuff’s still around, but we’ve learned to live with it, as well as the flu, pneumonia and RSV. We’re back hanging out together, maybe not hugging each other as much, but enjoying one another’s company.
Interested? Here’s a link to the Loveland Fishing Club blog, https://
From an initial dozen or so charter members, the club grew to about a hundred men and women by 2020. Those numbers shrank by half during Covid, but they’re growing again. We’re actively recruiting new members, especially ones who like to volunteer for things like taking kids and old folks fishing.
You’ve hopefully heard of the Loveland Kids Fishing Derby, one of the biggest free fishing events in Colorado for kids 15 and under. And we’re also pretty sure that the Loveland Fishing Club Senior Derby, focused on providing a day of fishing and outdoor fun for residents of assisted living centers, is the only one of its type in the country. It’s open to all seniors, but our special guests are residents of a dozen or more retirement centers in Loveland and surrounding towns. Whether they can walk to the water on their own or get there with a walker or wheelchair, we help them fish and join them in a picnic.
You don’t have to be an old timer to wear our coveted fishing caps. But you should know that most of our fishing and other activities take place during the week, including the general meetings at Chilson Center, at 2 p.m. on the third Tuesday of every month.
The idea for the Loveland Fishing Club hatched in the fertile mind of our first President, Tom Miller, who belatedly completed a second term in 2023. Tom brought the idea for a senior fishing club with him from Southern California, where he had been a senior manager of the California parks system until retirement a long, long time ago..
The intent was simple: get together once or twice a week and fish, with little regard for competition, a particular species or fishing style. Along the way, we’d share angling knowledge, carpooling expenses and medical advice.
We’re always looking for and encouraging newbies to serve on our board and in other volunteer positions. Come join us.
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