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SANTA BARBARA FLYFISHERS CLUB HISTORY


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*  This article is from a Newsletter interview of Mike Clevenger by John Burk in 2010. 


Mike Clevenger, the father and founder of our flyfishing club, seems relaxed and soft-spoken as he casually reveals some of his past to me. His grandfather and father mined silver and gold around Telluride and Gunnison, Colorado.



As a youngster, he helped shovel coal to power some of the equipment. His father moved the family to Southern California for the oil business and later to Houston where most of Mike’s childhood was spent. 





He related a story about how he first got started fly fishing. ” I was a Boy Scout, about 15, and four of us decided to skip the summer Scout Jamboree and go on our own adventure. 



We rode our bikes a 1000 miles from Houston to Denver, and these were one-speed, fat tire bikes. We worked around on some ranches up there to get some money ns then hitched rides down to Durango and the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. We rented some burros and packed-on for about a month along the Pine and Rio Grande Rivers. We took basic staples but hunted and fished for most of our food.



We saw no one but one sheepherder. It was here that I first fly fished. We had taken some fly line and flies and cut willow branches for poles and lived off the fish. We had such a grand time, we did it again the next year too.” 




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Mike went to college at the New Mexico School of Mines where he earned a B.S. in Geophysics. Shortly after college he married “Billie” and they have two children. His son, Ralph, a freelance nature photographer, and Susan an art teacher at La Patera and Hollister schools. 



Mike first started work in the oil business in Houston, then joined United Geophysics and requested work overseas. The family travelled worldwide for the next 10 years. He then transferred to the home office in Pasadena where he stayed and rose to be President and CEO of the company from 1977 to 1981 when he retired. They moved to Santa Barbara in 1993. He joined a related company and worked for five more years, then he really retired in 1986.  



AI-generated content may be incorrect. While in Pasadena, he was chairman of the fly fishing Conservation Committee of the Pasadena Casting Club. After commuting to Pasadena for a year to club meetings, he got together with Mike Mouropolis, Neal Taylor, Pat McAvoy, Rick Paaske and Jerry Ichikawa and started our club, the Santa Barbara Flyfishers. He said with a smile, “At our very first meeting the speaker was Neal Taylor and we had 125 people show-up and it was raining cats and dogs. Dave Whitlock was the speaker at the next meeting and we had 145 attend. The club had begun.”  

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First Board of Directors 1995:



  • Secretary -Victor Grandidier 
  • Treasurer-Pat McAvoy 
  • Conservation - Lew Riffle & Terry Fernandez 
  • Programs - Ted Long 
  • Outings - Steve Miliam 
  • Raffles - Dean Wareham 
  • Youth - Terry Walker 
  • Fly Tying -Carl Carrillo 
  • Historian - Christine Anderson 
  • Fund Raiser - Andy Lee 

PAST PRESIDENTS

 

  • Mike Clevenger 1995-1998
  • Andy Lee 1998-2001  
  • Otto Schleich 2001-2003  
  • Joe Carrillo 2003-2005  
  • Jean Sedar 2005-2009  
  • Lew Riffle 2009-2022  
  • Vince Narez 2022-3 - present

 

Meeting Places: 


  • SB County Schools (1st Meeting) 
  • Italian-American Boot Club 
  • Louis Lowery Davis Center 
  • Westside Community Center  
  • Goleta Community Center  
  • Rusty’s Pizza Parlor-Goleta  
  • Goleta Library 
  • MacKenzie Center 


Club Awards: 

 

The club presents awards to those members who have gone the extra mile to help the club or community.  The Awards Committee meets to nominate possible recipients and presents them to the board for approval unless a recipient is a board member in which case the Awards Committee decision is final.  

 

* Note: The Board of Directors recently approved renaming the awards to honor the contributions of three members who gave years of devoted service to the club.

 

Mike Clevenger
Fly Fisher of the Year Award

The first and most prestigious award acknowledges outstanding service to and within the SB Flyfishers. It may be given in recognition of years of service. (Mike was the heart and soul of the club for 25 years. He passed away in 2020.) 

 

 

Neal Taylor Conservation Award

As so named, this award recognizes outstanding contributions in the field of conservation. (Neal was a master caster, storyteller and instructor. Many club members got started by taking his fly fishing classes. He was the conservationist at Lake Cachuma for years, guiding boat tours while displaying his love of nature. He passed away in 2011.)  

 

 

Diane Honaker
Distinguished Service Award

This award recognizes the outstanding contribution an individual makes to the club or community to promote the sport of fly fishing. (Diane was our Program Chair for years, meeting our monthly speakers, taking them to dinner and often booking fishing trips with them. She passed away in 2022 leaving her many rods, reels and flies to the club for our 2023 fundraiser.) 

 

*Past Award Recipients: 



Fly Fisher of the Year 

  • 1995 Neal Taylor 
  • 1997 Mike Clevenger 



Conservation Award 

  • 1996 Craig Fusaro 
  • 2000 Joe Carrillo 
  • 2005 Lew Riffle 



Distinguished Service Award 

  • 1998 Terry Walker & Lew Riffle 
  • 1999 Otto Schleich & Ted Kauth 
  • 2000 Jean Sedar 
  • 2001 Guy Wright & Lou Ternullo 
  • 2003 Martin Peterson, Ron Wilmot & Lou Ternullo 
  • 2004 Mark Johnson 
  • 2005 Terry Fernandez & Patrick McAvoy 
  • 2006 Christine Green & Jim Dougherty 



* If you have received an award or know of someone who has been omitted from this list, please contact Larry Basham so we may add you to the list of recipients!

1995-96 Club Members who are members today (2025)


  • Charley Beals  
  • Tom Bolton 
  • Ron Buzard  
  • Pete Castellanos 
  • Missy DeYoung  
  • Elaine Daugherty 
  • Terry Fernandez  
  • Whitey Kauth (for dad Ted) 
  • Glyn Martyniuk  
  • Ian Miller  
  • Rick Paaske  
  • Lew Riffle 
  • Jean Sedar  
  • Frank Soos 
  • Mark Stimson  
  • Lou Ternullo 
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