Students who attended the Club Fair that was held earlier this fall may remember the wide variety of clubs that were featured from student unions, to academic programs and fringe hobby groups. While many of the clubs presented were school-based or sports-based, a few found their passion out on the water as part of the Ida B. Wells Fish Club. 

The Fish Club is straightforward, “Do you like fish? You’ll like us,” says seniors Chloe Scarbrough and Hadley Weathers. Scarbrough and Weathers started as members of the Bird Club before the two realized their interests extended from air to the rivers and sea. “We asked around and found a lot of other people liked fish and we said ‘let’s make this thing happen,’” said Weathers. 

Since then a new club has been created, the Reel Anglers, a fishing enthusiast club run by senior Marcus Eikanas, who’s been a seasoned angler for years. It’s the second fish-themed club to be registered after the Fish Club, where Eikanas found differences between his focuses and theirs. So what distinguishes the Fish Club and the Reel Anglers? What does each club do? And what’s with the ‘Angler’ name?

“You can tell in the name ‘Reel Anglers’ it’s a fishing name, because you’re angling the ‘reel’, and it’s ‘real’ because we’re actually fishing,” said Eikanas. It’s a remark on the issue he took with the Fish Club not being based on fishing. “We got a runaround about whether or not it was about fishing. So I took it upon myself to get up to the club director and be like ‘Hey, can I get my own club?’” 

The Fish Club refutes the claim that they don’t fish. Weathers expects the club to go on some fishing trips in the spring. Yet the club does have a broader focus on fish than the Anglers. “It’s just general fish stuff, so yeah we do discuss fish and watch fish movies. It definitely includes general fishing too,” said Scarbrough.

Eikanas’ idea for a fishing club found support from many like-minded friends. “A lot of people I talked to were like ‘Hey we should get a lot of people together who all want to fish,’” said Eikanas. He recognizes the limits of the hobby because of the Portland area’s relatively inaccessible quality fishing, which makes for few Anglers in the school. Nonetheless, the Reel Anglers has grown into a supportive community of novices, pros, salmon-fishing experts and bass-fishing experts that all members learn from.

 “You’re never an expert in fishing, you’re always learning new things, and when you get a bunch of people together, you’re just constantly learning new things about different types of fishing,” Eikanas said.

Eikanas claims the main distinction between the two competing clubs is the study of fish vs. catching fish. “…It’s the -ing at the end that makes it a whole different thing. We’re going out fishing, not learning about fish,” said Eikanas.

The Reel Anglers base more of their activities outside of school in nearby lakes or rivers while their in-school meetings are set for planning. Recently, the club made their first large group excursion to a lake near Multnomah Falls in the gorge. The Fish Club had their plans complicated by the teacher’s strike in November, but recently had their first trip to the Newport Aquarium.

Scarbrough and Weathers advertise their club as a low-pressure community. “Just come once, you don’t have to stay,” they said.

Eikanas makes his appeal to anybody interested in becoming an Angler, “If you’re at all into fishing or want to be, this is a great place to come to learn about fishing and start that journey to become an angler, all skill levels are welcome,” he said.