February 11, 2025
Yale Fishing Club – Recent Years: An Update
At 7:00 pm on Monday evenings in the blustery winter of 2019, our club’s eight or nine active
members would march up the stairs of Yale’s Payne Whitney Gym to the warmth of Club Sport Director
Tom Migdalski’s office on the 4th floor to tie flies for an hour or two. Most of our active club members were
experienced fly fishers, and we found fellowship over a huge, double-long wooden desk, which was
packed with pheasant tails, fur, yarn, thread, hooks, and Renzetti vises.
Weekends saw members targeting brown trout on the Farmington River, fishing the Thimble
Islands with 9-wt rods, and hosting other schools at the Edward C. Migdalski Trout Pond for the annual
match at the Yale Outdoor Education Center in East Lyme. When looking at the walls of the clubhouse,
we dreamed of stepping back into the 1950s and 1960s to sport the white bomber-style jacket worn in a
photo of Alain Wood-Prince ’57 with his tournament-winning 630-lb giant bluefin tuna, and partake in that
Intercollegiate Gamefish Seminar and Fishing Match, created by tournament director Ed Migdalski. Few
on campus believed us when we talked about the pond, the tournament, or the clubhouse. I truly think
that our club, with its satellite location in East Lyme, was the best kept secret on campus.
I’m pleased to say that the secret is out. After a hiatus from in-person events from 2020-2022 due
to the pandemic, our club saw a boom in membership and participation. Our club sport table at the
first-year/freshman bazaar saw plenty of signups, and by the fall of 2022, we were hosting multiple
fly-tying and casting sessions per week to accommodate the 35 or so active members. Most of our rookie
members were new to fly fishing, and it was a great joy to help teach these energetic Yalies how to
properly launch a hookless Clouser Minnow across the lawn courtyard opposite the gym.
Each active member had the opportunity to tie a boxful of freshwater and saltwater patterns over
the last year. Many caught their first trout on a fly at the pond’s Opening Day in April of 2023, when we
hosted nearby Conn College for a friendly competition. And these anglers are still seen around campus
sporting their Under Armour casting shirts, with “Yale Fishing Club” embroidered on the sleeve.
I graduated last May, but I have heard great reports from the current club president and my close
friend, Gus Buck, as the club just hosted (and beat) Dartmouth U. on Opening Day 2024. Another strong
first-year class has joined since I’ve left, with novice and experienced fishers bringing new energy to the
group. Long-time instructor/coach and bedrock leader of the club, Sean Callinan, continues each week to
share his expertise and passion for the sport of fly tying and fly casting, and we’re lucky to have him.
The spirit of fly fishing on Yale’s campus is assuredly alive, and the future is bright. Perhaps one
day we’ll sport the white bomber jackets of old, on our way to Nova Scotia. Although, sadly, the heyday of
bountiful codfish, haddock, pollock, and giant bluefin tuna are long gone. In the meantime, we still have
the Farmington River brown trout, the fall run of stripers and bluefish in Long Island Sound, and our
beloved pond and clubhouse to keep us occupied. See you on the river.
Benjamin Markert ’23
Fishing Club President 2021-2023