Dan Falloon
Terry McClymont can take credit for starting up a college—only without the essays and the deadlines.
The Kenora native has launched a website called “Faculty of Fishing” (http://www.facultyoffishing.com), which offers two live courses (Fishing 1 and Fishing 2) so far, with four more planned.
The current lessons are suited for those just starting out while more advanced lessons for experienced anglers are on the way.
“We want to make sure that we keep people in fishing, and the whole philosophy behind the program is to educate anglers about being more successful,” McClymont explained.
“The education goes beyond just fishing presentation,” he stressed. “It goes into all aspects of the industry and the sport.”
McClymont said the material in the courses isn’t necessarily new, but the selling point of the website is that the wealth of information is all in one spot and presented in a narrated, animated format.
“The information is out there, and it’s available, but this is a one-stop shop where you can come and it’s been set up [in] a learning format,” he remarked.
“The stuff’s available on the Internet, but you’d be searching four or five times as long for the information.”
McClymont also made sure to make clear the program emphasizes education, pointing out that much of the other fishing media outlets fall a bit short.
“A lot of the TV shows or magazines out there, a lot of them are built around the entertainment,” he observed. “[Faculty of Fishing] truly is a learning device.
“Even when we do the species specific [content], a lot of the slant will truly [have] a lot more [of an] academic approach to it.”
The site’s beginner courses stress conservation, suggesting best practices to ensure that fish caught to be released avoid the type of trauma that can make a return to the water lethal.
For example, the first 30-minute lesson covers how to properly hold a fish, which types of hooks cause the least injury to the fish, and how fish should be released.
“We understand that it’s very valuable to sustain the fisheries, and that’s going to be through catch-and-release programs, through proper handling,” McClymont said.
“Keeping the environment kept at a level where it can facilitate fish and their survival is important.
“It’s a proper fit with what we’re trying to do in educating people.”
The course provides more than just a laundry list of “do’s” and “don’t’s”—delving into such topics as the biology of the animals to make the logic behind the teachings clear.
“A person that comes through will be a very well-educated person in the end,” McClymont pledged. “We say that somebody going through, we say that you will be a better angler, and that’s because this truly is an in-depth academic program that will help someone understand all aspects of fishing.
“[It’s] not just time on the water but, for example, they would understand what rods and reels they would need to buy. They’d understand about lines and tackle.
“They’d understand about the fish, the rivers and the lakes that they fish on, so it truly is an in-depth program.”
According to McClymont, after the courses “Fishing 3” and “Fishing 4” go live, he’ll start to focus on more-directed training, including instructions for dealing with various species of fish.
“We’re going to have some stuff on bass and walleye and pike and musky,” he noted. “The first four courses will basically lead into the species-specific stuff.”
McClymont said although the material is presented in a straight-forward manner, some younger anglers may not have the base knowledge in biology and meteorology to be able pick up a significant gain from the courses.
“We’ve built the program around adult learning and, I guess, youth learning for older kids,” he remarked. “It caters to kids in the 12-14 years of age range, and older, up to 80 years of age.
“With the meteorology and biology of the fish, because it is in-depth, I think that any kid who was under that age would probably not fully understand.”
McClymont said he canvassed industry insiders for the site’s information, and also asked them to analyze the material before it went live.
“It’s very structured, it’s credible,” he affirmed. “We’ve used biologists, we’ve used meteorologists, we’ve used professional anglers, we’ve used some of the scientists from manufacturers to help vet the material and read the material.”
McClymont is proud of the site’s format, which is composed of narrated, animated slides so the lessons are presented cleanly and clearly.
“I had a 10-year-old go through and navigate the site, no problem,” he recalled. “The content is above them, but the ease of use is not.”
Every student who completes a course will be listed on the “Angler Alumni” page on the website, which lists 11 graduates so far.
McClymont said the idea for the website came after he took some online training for his aviation consulting company.
“Someone said, while I was doing that, ‘Why don’t you build a course just talking about the fundamentals and right into advanced training for fishing?’” he recalled.
“I looked into it a little bit, and saw that there was nothing out there to teach them the mountain of information that you need to know.
“I just started putting together a course and built [it],” he added.
McClymont said the big push going forward would be through Internet marketing, but also noted his site has a referral system for users to invite new members.
“Whether it’s an industry person, a website, or even a student, a person has the ability, if they refer students to us, to earn points,” he explained.
“They can then redeem those points at a later date for prizes.”
A user earns a point for every referral, and so far the prizes range from a soft-shell jacket for 40 points up to a Lund Pro V 1975 model boat for 20,000.
McClymont also made some noise by presenting the site at the Bassmaster Classic in Birmingham, Ala. last month, noting he made some connections with professional anglers he hopes to use in upcoming courses.
As well, he said some college fishing teams were interested in using “Faculty of Fishing” as part of their training.
