FISH ON! The Orvis Fly Fishing School Turns 60

STORY BY 

CLAYTON TRUTOR 

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE 

ORVIS FLY FISHING SCHOOL

Orvis has been the first name in fly fishing for as long as anyone can remember. The family-owned, Manchester-based retail and mail order firm turns 170 this year. The Orvis family started the business in Manchester in 1856 and operated it until 1939. The Perkins family, which currently owns Orvis, has been steering the ship since 1965. 

2026 is the 60th anniversary of one of Orvis’ most storied institutions, its Fly Fishing School, which is headquartered within the company’s Manchester campus. 

Since 1966, the Orvis Fly Fishing School has trained more than 35,000 students in the arts of casting, tying knots, fly selection, gear selection, and entomology. Orvis offers one and two-day fly fishing schools as well as specialty schools on advanced casting, fly fishing in specific conditions, and fly fishing for specific species. The school offers parent and child classes as well aimed at anglers aged 12 and under. 

The school is designed for anglers of all ability levels. Orvis provides all equipment, but students are welcome to bring their own gear. Lunch is catered and provided as part of your tuition. 

The Fly Fishing School in Manchester is the flagship for a larger network of Orvis Fly Fishing Schools. Currently, Orvis operates 17 Fly Fishing Schools across the United States. The schools run from April through October. School manager Kyle Leard says May and June tend to be their busiest months. 

It didn’t take the school long to cement its reputation as the space where people could learn the art and sport of fly fishing. 

“I believe that someone could walk in to the Orvis Fly Fishing School with no idea of what a trout looked like and go out the next week and catch one,” wrote Monty Montgomery of the Boston Globe after attending the three-day school in 1973. 

Tom Rosenbauer has worked for Orvis for more than 50 years, starting in the Manchester retail store before becoming an instructor in the Fly Fishing School. Today, Rosenbauer creates instructional videos for Orvis and hosts The Orvis Fly Fishing Podcast, which has run weekly episodes for more than 15 years and has been downloaded more than 28 million times. 

“The school’s gotten a lot more sophisticated, but the basic framework is not that much different. People learn how to cast, then how to tie the essential knots, and how to identify the various aquatic insects. Then, it’s lots of practice,” Rosenbauer said.

The combination of the Orvis store and factory, its corporate offices, the Orvis Schools (which also include its Wingshooting Schools), and the proximity of the Battenkill, the legendary trout river which flows from Vermont into New York State, make Manchester the epicenter of the fly fishing world. For more than a century, Orvis has been a major employer in Southern Vermont.

“The Battenkill and Orvis go hand-in-hand like peanut butter and jelly,” said Peter Kutzer, who taught in the Orvis Fly Fishing Schools for more than 20 years. He is currently Orvis’ Endorsed Operations Manager for the Eastern United States. He works with lodges, outfitters, and guides that have Orvis’ seal of approval. Worldwide, there are more than 300 Orvis endorsed operations.

“The school was the brainchild of the late Lee Perkins Sr., who purchased the Orvis company in 1965,” Rosenbauer said.

Back then, it was difficult to learn fly fishing if you didn’t know someone who did it already. There were no books or films, let alone the internet to show you how to fly fish. Starting a school made good business sense for Orvis.

“There were people back in the 1960s that wanted to learn fly fishing that had seen it on TV on the American Sportsman. They’d seen Ted Williams and Curt Gowdy do it on television,” Rosenbauer said.

People have been casting in the style of fly fishing for centuries, but the modern sport of fly fishing emerged in the late 19th century. Slowly but surely, fly fishing became a popular American pastime. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a well-known enthusiast of the sport. People who gave fly fishing a chance loved the challenge it presented.

“You’re holding the line; you feel the fish more. The fight with the fish is much more exciting with a fly rod,” said Kyle Leard, who became manager of the Fly Fishing School earlier this year. Leard, who grew up fly fishing with Kutzer in Southern Vermont, has worked for Orvis for more than 20 years and recently returned from a four-year stint teaching for the company in Colorado. 

Those interested in a deeper dive into the history of the sport can head to the American Museum of Fly Fishing, also in Manchester.

Perkins hired Bill Cairns, one of the country’s most esteemed anglers, to develop and operate the school. Cairns, who died in 2013, was a great raconteur and writer. He wrote for many national publications and authored two books on fishing. He soon established himself as Fly Fishing’s leading ambassador. 

Michael Strauss of the New York Times described Cairns as “being to fly fishing what Arnie Palmer is to the two-foot putt. He’s an expert in reading water, casting over a trout snout, and bringing in captives so gently that they can be released with nothing hurt but their piscatorial pride.” 

Cairns and Orvis Vice President Dick Finaly hosted the first Orvis Fly Fishing School in Manchester in May 1966. 150 people signed up for that first school and the school has been humming along ever since. 

It didn’t take the Fly Fishing School long to hit the road. In May 1969, Cairns hosted three one-day Fly Fishing Schools at the famed Abercrombie sporting goods store in Manhattan. Soon, Cairns and company hosted events in cities across the Northeast. 

The structure that Bill Cairns developed still animates the school. Initially, the Fly Fishing School lasted three days. Now the school is a one or two-day affair, depending on the package you buy. It all starts at the Orvis Fly Fishing Schoolhouse, which sits directly across the street from the Orvis Rod Shop and Retail Store, destinations in their own right. 

“We get right into the school. We talk about rods, reels, and lines. We talk about the equipment we need so that we can go fly fishing. Right after that we get right into casting,” Kutzer said. 

Fly fishing gear differs slightly from that of conventional or “spin” fishing. Fly fishing has no bobbers or bait. It uses a heavier line to cast flies, which look like actual insects and weigh almost nothing. Fly rods are long and much more flexible, which makes casting the centerpiece of the fishing experience. New fly fishers learn how to cast back and then forward in a rhythmic fashion that many anglers describe as therapeutic or relaxing. 

After lunch, the students head across the street to the Orvis pond to practice their casting.

“We spend a lot of time on the pond across the street casting. That’s the primary skill we’re looking to teach someone,” Leard said. Students get a lot of guidance as they learn how to cast. The Fly Fishing School has a 4:1 student to teacher ratio. 

When hiring instructors, Orvis focuses both on a candidate’s ability to teach casting and other aspects of the sport as well as the candidate’s ability to work with people.

The Fly Fishing School’s time tested and hands-on approach does not mean they shy away from modern technology as a teaching tool.

“In our two-day schools, we will actually videotape you casting. Then we’ll analyze the video with you. Show you where things could improve or highlight things that you do well,” Kutzer said.

“We want to show folks that you can fly fish for anything. Most people associate fly fishing with just trout fishing. But you can catch everything from panfish in a local pond to offshore fish. If you can catch it with the spinning rod, you can pretty much catch it with a fly rod,” Kutzer continued, noting that the pastime of saltwater fly fishing has grown rapidly in recent years.

Students start day two with a more extensive discussion of the gear they will need for fly fishing. They will learn how to tie flies and knots. They will learn how to tie a leader, a piece of monofilament fishing line that connects the fly fishing line and the fly itself. The leader is designed to present the fly properly for the fish. Students will learn how to use snips to cut line. They will learn about the gear necessary for fly fishing in rivers, including waders and boots.

Then comes what Leard calls “the bug talk.”

“We talk about insects and flies and get into a little more about the fish themselves and how to catch them. About the flies that we use,” Leard said. 

After lunch on the second day, the group heads down to the Battenkill. Orvis controls the water rights to a three-mile stretch of the famed river. The instructors do a demonstration on how to fish in moving water, and then the students get down to fishing.

“We’ll look at some bugs in the water. We’ll learn about reading the water. 80% of the trout live in 20% of the water. How do we identify that good water where those fish live,” Kutzer said.

Typically, a visit to the school includes a trip to the Orvis Rod Shop, where its fly fishing rods are made by hand, and Orvis’ retail store. 

The folks at Orvis describe fly fishing as a pastime for everybody, one which they take great pleasure in sharing with their students. 

“It doesn’t require much strength at all. It’s more muscle memory and learning process. Fly rods today are so good that it requires very little physical strength for most fly fishing,” Rosenbauer said, though he notes that sometimes getting to a remote stream or pond requires some strength to simply get there. 

Peter Kutzer says the best part of fly fishing is simply connecting with nature. 

“Fly fishing is something that helps your quality of life. It helps you to disconnect from all the hustle and bustle of what’s going on. It helps you enjoy some time outside,” Kutzer said.

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