The League's History
The Dame Juliana League Fly Fishers was formed in the winter of 1970-71 by seven dedicated fly fishermen living in and around Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, about 35 miles west of Philadelphia . The founding members who drew up the club's first by-laws included Dr. Ogden Frank, Jack Mickievicz, Ken Fulton, Tom Finkbinder, Richard Estler, Dick Allebach and Frank Wilson. American Angler author Jack Mickievicz was the first President and provided the "glue" in the early days that held everything together.
Our club takes its name from Dame Juliana Berners, a 15th century Benedictine nun who wrote one of the first essays on fly fishing entitled "A Treatyse of Fysshynge Wyth an Angle" published in 1496. We also adopted nearby French Creek, in northern Chester County, as our official home water. Our vest and logo was designed by Dick Esther using a drawing of the first wet fly tied and fished by Dame Juliana in England several hundred years ago. |
  Woodcut from the Treatyse of Fysshynge Wyth an Angle. |
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Although member camaraderie was shared at our monthly meetings and fishing trips, the club initially established itself as a working club.
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During those first ten years, stream improvement projects on French Creek took a lot of our members' time. In the late 70's, Ken Yustack took over as Chairman of our Stream Improvement Committee and did a fabulous job in organizing several projects. |
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His untimely death in an auto accident was a tragic loss. In his will, he left some money to the club to carry on stream improvement work. Ken was greatly missed and left a real void in the leadership of our stream improvement program for several years.
During this time period, the Dame Juliana League also worked with the Kimberton Fish & Game Association, the Chester Valley Sportsmen's Association, local landowners and Ray Bednarchik, the area's Waterways Conservation Officer for the PA Fish and Boat Commission, to establish the Delayed Harvest Fly Fishing Only area on French Creek (later renamed Catch and Release Fly Fishing Only). |
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The 0.9 mile stretch of Fly Fishing Only water has been float stocked by club members, in cooperation with the Commission, since it was established. It is a great piece of water with good insect activity and diversity of runs, riffles and pools.
The late 1980's and early 1990's were not good to the club as membership declined and enthusiasm in many activities waned. A major oil spill in French Creek from an overturned tanker trailer also took its toll and fishing suffered greatly.