Our History

Our roots began in 2007 with a few men and women living in Payson, AZ with a desire to create a non-profit fly fishing club. However at that time, the cost, the legal requirements as well as the effort to do so was beyond their capabilities. A creative solution was to create two organizations; Payson FlyCasters (PFC) as a fishing club and The Gila Chapter 530 of Trout Unlimited (GTTU) under the banner of the national Trout Unlimited 501c3 non-profit organization. This allowed PFC to operate as a fly fishing club, subject to one set of regulations and Bylaws, and GTTU to operate as a legal non-profit able to accept donations and organize fund raising activities in support of it’s mission of Education and Conservation subject to a separate set of regulations and Bylaws. This “hybrid” organization, with separate legal entities, separate officers, separate bank accounts, but a single Board of Directors. Holding combined monthly meetings served Rim Country well for many years, and flyfishing enthusiasts throughout Arizona became aware of and benefited from the efforts of this “hybrid” PFC/GTTU model.

Over time things change, while the finances were always maintained accurately and separately, operating the 2 organizations in a semi combined way grew more difficult. Likewise over time, regulations changed, and what was not possible in 2007 was now within reach of the members of the 2 organizations. In Late 2023 a review of the situation was authorized by the Board. After several months of education, and research of several possibilities, a recommendation was made to the Board to pursue reorganizing PFC into a corporation and applying for 501c3 non-profit status, and then combining the Mission, Finances, Board, and Officers into a single organization. The Board approved and in Q2 2024, Payson Fly Casters inc (PFC inc). was created as a new Arizona corporation, and six weeks later it received approval for it’s application to become a non-profit 501c3. This allows us to combine the previous organizations into a single organization PFC inc subject to a single set of Federal and State regulations.