In the mid-1970s, Bill Morrison was a teenager reading about fly fishing in Field & Stream magazine. He borrowed his grandfather’s fiberglass rod and bought some cleats at Security Sporting Goods, the only sporting goods store in Alexandria at the time. Then he went out to the family farm pond and taught himself to fly fish.
For the past 50 years, he has been fly fishing in and out and passing on his fly fishing knowledge to other anglers.
On Wednesday, Fly Fishers International recognized Morrison, of Pineville, as one of two honorees for the 2022FFI Fly Fishing Skills Education Award. The ceremony was an online event held via Zoom. The event recognized fly fishermen from across the country, including Alaska, New England and Florida, Morrison said. It was nominated by the local people and some others in New Orleans. Last year Morrison was named “Fly Fisher of the Year 2021” by the Gulf Coast Council of Fly Fishers International.
Fly Fishers International is one of the largest fly fishing associations in the world with 300 member clubs, including the Kisatchie Fly Fishers, of which Morrison is a member. FFI has around 12,000 members in more than 20 countries. FFI presents 10 awards each year for casting, fly tying and education.
“This was an incredible honor for him,” said his wife, Debbie Morrison. “He was recognized for his accomplishments in fly casting and his willingness to share his fishing skills with others and promote fly fishing.”
Morrison has been a member of the Kisatchie Fly Fishers for six years and said the award was more about the club’s educational efforts. The club has about 90 members.
“The club has a pretty extensive educational program where we teach fly casting, fly fishing in general, fly tying,” he said. “We meet twice a month at the Westside library. Those educational efforts were part of the reason for this award. Of course, many people in the Kisatchie Club are part of that education.”
The club meets at 6:30 pm two Mondays a month at the Westside Regional Library. Before each meeting, they practice fly casting at 5:30 p.m. The club has several FFI-certified casting instructors, like Morrison, who can help people learn the “pros and cons” of casting.
“We have a fly tying class on the second Monday of the month,” said Morrison, who usually leads or has someone else teach. “We have a real active fly tying class every month for the club. And we hold an ordinary meeting every fourth Monday of the month.”
He also runs the Kisatchie Fly Fishers Club’s annual Fly Fishing 101 and chairs the club’s Tying Committee.
His bio on the FFI site states that Morrison created a series of “how to” videos for other clubs to use on how to hold meetings and bonding sessions using Zoom and shared his experience in remote learning.
Among his many projects was the initiation of the club’s annual “Mixed Bag Contest.” As fishermen catch a diversity of species, they can use a database to learn about the fish and their habitats.
“It gives us great satisfaction and gratification to see other people learn about fly fishing and enjoy the sport we love so much,” Morrison said.
Louisiana has a wide variety of fly fishing opportunities, from saltwater marshes in the south to local lakes and streams in central Louisiana, he said. Fly anglers can catch the same species as anglers with conventional gear, such as carp, bluegill or largemouth bass.
For saltwater fly fishing, the Big Lake area south of Lake Charles and Pointe-aux-Chenes south of Houma offer excellent kayak and fly fishing, Morrison said.
“Many of us fish the marsh out of kayaks with our fly rods because they work so well for getting up in the shallow ponds of the marsh,” he said. “But those two areas are my favorite areas for saltwater fishing.”
When it comes to freshwater fly fishing, he likes all the typical spots that conventional anglers fish. Local spots like Kincaid Lake, Cotile Lake, Sibley Lake in Natchitoches, Spring Bayou in Marksville and the Cane River are excellent fly fishing areas, he said.
“A lot of people in Louisiana think fly fishing is just for trout in the mountains of Arkansas or Colorado,” Morrison said.