2027 dates are out. Financial aid applications open in September and close the last day of February.
A week built to teach young people about another culture by putting them inside one. Not the tourist attractions. The people, the work and the daily life that make a place what it is.
A fly fishing camp for teenagers. One week at a lodge in a fishing village, for students 14 to 22.
Six hours a day on the water with guides who grew up on it. Then the part that changes them: an afternoon in the mangroves, dinner at a guide's family table, a circle on the dock where a fifteen-year-old says what they're grateful for, out loud.
Show up on a Saturday. Leave the next Saturday a different person.
Fish for Change, our featured film: the full story of one week in Guanaja.
Four things the week is built to grow, and which part of the week does the growing.
Fly fishing is a curiosity sport. You have to think like the fish. The scavenger hunt takes that off the water: a hundred questions about the place they're standing in, and an afternoon spent asking strangers for the answers. They come home more curious about the world, and about the people in it.
Most of them fly to another country alone for the first time. If that doesn't build confidence, I don't know what does. Then the circle every night: say what you're grateful for, out loud, to a group you met on Saturday. Kids who won't speak on Monday are leading the discussion by Friday, and they take that voice home.
Students come from a dozen states and a handful of countries, and a local student joins every week. Boats rotate, so nobody spends two days with the same person. Dinner is at a guide's table, with his kids. There are a lot of ways to do life. Get close to a few of them, fast, and you can connect with anyone, from anywhere.
Most kids who drift away from fishing never lost the love. They lost the people to do it with. Every group leaves with a chat of eight or ten kids from different states and countries, all obsessed with fishing, and it is still going years later.
From Heather, Founder and Executive Director
"Growing up, I always lacked a community of peers in the sport of fly fishing. Fishing was something I shared with my dad, but I craved friends who shared the same passion for the outdoors. Fish for Change created a space to build a community in young people in this sport, and it made fishing so much more than just catching a fish."
Heather grew up fishing South Florida with her dad, ran the IGFA kids' camp as a teenager, and started trip leading for Fish for Change in 2018.
Sleepaway weeks for high school and college students. The price covers the lodge, meals, guiding and the program.
Mangrove Bight, Guanaja, at Fly Fish Guanaja Lodge. Where it all started.
June 5th to 12th, Girls WeekJune 12th to 19th, High School BoysJune 19th to 26th, High School BoysJuly 3rd to 10th, High School Boys
Mangrove Bight, Guanaja, at Fly Fish Guanaja Lodge. A week just for girls who fish.
June 5th to 12th, High School Girls
Great Harbour Cay, Berry Islands, at Soul Fly Lodge.
June 25th to July 1st, High School Boys
Xcalak, on the Belize border, at The Xflats.
July 10th to 17th, High School BoysJuly 17th to 24th, High School and College, Co-ed
A road trip with Fly Fishing Costa Rica: jungle rivers, tarpon, a jaguar study.
July 30th to August 8th, High School and College Boys
Teacher, club, or a family that fishes together? We can build a week for a closed group in any of our locations. Tell us what you have in mind.
50% of students come on a need-based scholarship.
We never want these programs to be cost-prohibitive. Aid runs from $500 to a full ride and is decided on need and drive. Applications open in September and close the last day of February.
Students and parents, unedited.
"A week I thought I would spend out on a boat fishing turned into a week of simply living. Something I said on the last night was I finally felt like I just lived."
"Fish for Change really is only 9% about fishing. It is about infinitely more, through fishing."
"I didn't know that most of the time off the water was the time I really enjoyed the most. I had the best week of my life with people I've never met before and now are friends forever."
"As Heather says, the days feel like weeks and the week feels like a day. I arrived at Mangrove Bight and within 24 hours, I had a new family."
"I feel blessed that your organization has provided him the opportunity to see other parts of the world, given him the perspective of how other people in the world live, and instilled in him a love of the environment and an understanding that taking action makes a difference."
"Less than 24 hours in, we were all fast friends laughing and joking with each other in the kitchen over cheerios."
"Already I think it has made me so much more comfortable talking to strangers and making friends!"
Every program runs at cost. Donations pay for scholarships, the local guide apprenticeship, conservation projects with partner organizations, and the admin cost of running our programs.
Thank you to the partners who fund scholarships and put gear in students' hands.
