(Utah Outdoors - June/July 1999)
A minister with a passion for fly fishing teaches his two sons to love the sport with equal fervor. Fly fishing forges a special bond among the three. Fly fishing is a metaphor for life.
Any of this sound familiar? It should, because Robert Redford's hit movie, “A River Runs Through It,” is built around those themes. But it also might be familiar if you happen to know the Bear Samples family of Park City — Utah’s own version of the famous Maclean family. However, the boys in the Samples family are a lot younger — and therefore not as wild and crazy as Norman and Paul (Brad Pitt) Maclean.
Berris “Bear" Samples is minister of the Park City Community Church. He’s also Utah’s only (this is a mouthful) Federation of Fly Fishers Master certified fly-casting instructor. He teaches about 200 people a year how to fly fish.
His two sons, Geoff, 18, and Tyler, 13, are both champion fly fishers in their own right. In August, Geoff, who just graduated from high school, will travel to Ireland as part of Team USA, junior division, to compete in the World Fly Fishing Championships. He’ll chase big sea-run brown trout on an Irish lake with nearly 30 other teams from around the world. Geoff and Tyler have been fly fishing since they were tots.
Samples has traveled the world fly fishing and ministering. As an Army chaplain on active duty for 14 years, he’s lived in many places and has fly fished all of them. “Like many Others, I grew up fishing, taught by my father,” Samples said. He began spin fishing at about age nine. He was living in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in the mid-1960s, and started watching the American Sportsman and Lee Wulff fly fishing on television. “I was intrigued that they could catch a fish with that style of fishing,” Samples said. “I didn’t even know a fly fisher, but by about age 13 I was determined to become one.”
He read about fly fishing in Field & Stream and Outdoor Life. “I went out and bought as good an outfit as I could afford, a fiberglass rod with an automatic reel. One day I caught a very large smallmouth bass on a poppybug and I was hooked on fly fishing and all the magical stuff about it.”
Graphite rods revolutionized the sport in the late 70s, Samples said, with light equipment easy to use by anyone. He started tying flies, building his own rods, and became thoroughly immersed in the sport. Samples went on active duty as a chaplain in 1984 and went after steelhead and salmon in the northwest. He spent five years in Germany, teaching himself the language by reading German fly fishing magazines.
He quickly learned that Germans and Europeans in general take their fly fishing very seriously. “It’s more of a passion with them. They are quite the artisans, real perfectionists,” Samples said. “Everyone who takes up the sport becomes an expert caster. They tend to select one sport and devote themselves to it. If you become a fly fisher that is your lifetime pursuit and you spend your time and resources on it.”
Samples also learned to cast like a European. “They have a distinctive casting style, more of an oval cast, to the side and then over the top. The American style is more overhead." Samples helped establish German/American fly-fishing clubs and fished in Norway, the British Isles, Austria, and elsewhere. He was one of the first Americans to go to Czechoslovakia to fish after the Iron Curtain fell. “Those former communist countries have a great tradition of fly fishing, " Samples said. “The top teams in the world come from Poland and Czechoslovakia."
When the Federation of Fly Fishers developed its rigorous instructor certification program in 1994, Samples became a certified instructor. He has now attained Master certification status, the only one in Utah and one of only 40 in the United States. “Even the basic instructor certification is really hard,” Samples said. “We recently tested a group and not one person passed.” To become a certified instructor, you have to have a full knowledge of casting, line tapers, leaders, types of fly rods and their actions, and how they are used. You take a written test and a performance test measuring all sorts of specialty casting and distance casting. You are also tested on how you teach casting.
Geoff Samples became the youngest certified instructor at age 15. He made it on his first try. The Master certification is for those who will be teaching other instructors. “You take an oral exam, which is very difficult," Samples said. “You literally have to be familiar with the contents of every good book on casting. You have to know all the styles and interpret and critique casting videos and integrate all the methodologies. You take a performance exam, oriented toward presentation casting, manipulating the rod to inject slack and drag-free float.”
Samples and his sons also cast professionally for Sage Rod Company, representing the company at fly fishing conclaves, at tackle shops, and a variety of other meetings and shows.
So how does fly fishing fit in with ministering to people’s spiritual needs? “I think it fits really well,” says Samples. “There have been countless fly fishing ministers throughout history, especially in America and the British Isles." Fly fishing is a quiet, pastoral, peaceful sport, Samples said. “It fits perfectly with the Christian message. After all, we’re talking here about God’s creations, the beauty of the outdoors, and conservation. Family values are espoused through the sport. It is individual, but it is also a sport you share with others, especially family. It draws families closer together and is a tradition that is carried on."
Geoff describes how his father would take him to bluegill ponds when he was only five years old. “He'd hook a fish and hand me the rod to fight the fish and bring it in. I also remember him sitting me on his lap as he tied flies. I’d watch him and then create my own strange creations.”
For the Samples family, fly fishing is not just about catching fish. “It’s really spending time together, photography, camping, traveling, hiking. It’s a well— rounded sport. Fly tying in the winter. Rod building. Entomology, conservation. All those things tied together. "
Fly fishing is obviously more participatory than spectator sports. “There's a lot of personal satisfaction in the sport, " Samples said. “And a lot of camaraderie. It’s a pretty close-knit community. "
Geoff Samples says he enjoys the mystery of fly fishing. “There is always that anticipation of a hit, of a big fish taking your fly. And you can enjoy fly fishing on many levels, from just a casual experience to the professional level.”
Geoff would eventually like to follow his father’s footsteps into the military, perhaps as a pilot in the Air Force.
So how did the Samples family settle in Park City? “After we left active duty in the Army, we heard the Park City Community Church was looking for a minister. We applied along with a couple dozen other people and were hired about three years ago. We love it here. "
With many of the world's great trout streams within a 500-mile radius, Samples argues that the Salt Lake area is the best place in America for fly fishers.
Perhaps one of the Samples boys will become a writer like Norman Maclean and will chronicle the family’s fly-fishing adventures.
Bear Samples will be writing a regular casting column for Utah Outdoors magazine, helping fly fishers correct their casting mistakes.
