The Art of Fly Fishing

The Mohican Fly Fishers Club is a group of men and women from the Mid-Ohio area who enjoy the sport of fly fishing. We operate to promote and foster fly fishing, fly tying, casting, and other related fly fishing activities. We are an affiliate club of Fly Fishers International. Our home water is the Clear Fork River.

Thanks to everyone who helps keep our rivers clean.

Established in 1994, Loudonville, Ohio

Monthly Meetings

Meetings are held the second Wednesday of each month at 6:00 p.m. at the American Legion in Bellville, Ohio (77 Bell Street, Bellville, OH) unless otherwise noted on the calendar.

Visitors are always welcome!

The Clear Fork River

The Upper Clear Fork River is one of the few rivers in Ohio that stays cool enough to support trout population year around.

Mohican Fly Fishers Club is a group of anglers who enjoy the sport of fly fishing. We operate as a nonprofit organization to promote and foster fly fishing, fly tying, casting, and other related fly fishing arts such as rod building or net making. The club encourages fly fishing for all fish in all waters and focuses on the diversity of fishing as the seasons change.

Our History

The Mohican Fly Fishers was started in January 1994 in Loudonville, Ohio and the first meeting was led by Walt Dutka. During the second meeting, officers were elected: Ron Kyle was the first President; Brian Odenkirk was Secretary; Dan Mosher was Treasurer; and Jim Hineman wrote the newsletter.

The meetings were held at Rader’s Restaurant in Loudonville, but before the end of the first year, the club relocated to the Gorman Nature Center in Mansfield, Ohio. In early 2008, the club relocated to the American Legion in Bellville, Ohio. After all these years of existence, our club is becoming more well known and membership is growing.

Conservation & Community

We are an affiliate club of Fly Fishers International through The Ohio Council. We provide a voice for fly fishers and act unilaterally and in conjunction with other conservation organizations, including the ODNR, to protect, promote, and improve the Mohican Valley Fishery.

From spring through fall, members have assisted the ODNR in its stocking program and temperature monitoring, built rock dams for trout, and assisted in river clean-up days. We do aquatic macroinvertebrate surveys for Richland Conservatory Soil and Water to help monitor the water quality. For the past few years, the club’s home fishing water, “The Clear Fork of the Mohican River,” has been defined by the EPA as being one of the cleanest rivers in Ohio.

Fishing the Clear Fork

The most publicly fished area of the Clear Fork River is inside the Mohican State Park between Pleasant Hill Dam and State Route 3. This area is known to club members as the “Lower Clear Fork.” The river had been stocked with brown trout yearly since 1992 and since 2018, has been stocked with harvestable rainbows. It can be fished all year long if water level permits. Bass, crappie, bluegill, carp, and saugeyes are readily caught in the river, with an occasional muskie falling prey to some unexpecting fisherman.

The stretch of the Clear Fork River above Pleasant Hill Lake is known by the club members as the “Upper Clear Fork.” The upper Clear Fork is one of the rivers in the state that is cool enough to maintain a trout population year around. This area is mostly private property, and the status of being a club member in good standing may help with access to some of these fishing locations.