The Gunnison Valley is very fond of its fishing, and fishermen are very fortunate to have the local environment to fish in. Mr. Percival and Mr. Phipps have taken the opportunity to teach fishing in our school’s academic system. Fishing and Tackle is the name of the class, and they started a version of this 20 years ago, however Mr. Percival took it over and modified it to what it is today 13 years ago. The class is open to  only Juniors and Seniors. Mr. Percival and Mr. Phipps teach the students how to build custom fly boxes, nets, ice fishing rods, fly rods, spin cast rods, tie flies, make jigs, basically every component of fishing.

There are 14 students in the class this year, and it is a year long class. It’s been a popular class every year Mr. Percival has been teaching it, getting a variety of kids each year. This year they have done one fishing field trip so far, but plan to do two more, one ice fishing trip, and a spring fishing trip.

Mr. Percival and Mr. Phipps have revamped the class so that the kids get the most out of the class.  The class is good because it welcomes people who have never fished, while also being enjoyable for people who have been fishing for their whole life. The class can help the students understand the differences between fly fishing, ice fishing, and the other varieties of fishing. Because the class is a year long  they can get all the different experiences of fishing in all the different climates.