Bob Dionne has been fly fishing for 30 years. He’s done so mostly in western Maine, where the Skowhegan native has spent his entire life. But the past six years, Dionne’s work at Aardvark Outfitters in Farmington has given him a second life as a fly fisherman.

For 17 years, Dionne was a middle manager at a foresting manufacturing company. When he lost his job due to downsizing, he opened the sporting goods store he always wanted and turned to what he loved, which just happened to be a growing fad.

“I think I needed [fly fishing] to meditate,” Dionne said. “I needed it almost to survive… For me, it worked out great being downsized. I recommend it highly.”

Ken Reed became a guide in Millinocket for much the same reason. An angler since his childhood in the Catskills, Reed started as a chef, then opted to trade labor for love.

“I was burned out,” he said.

When Reed started his outdoor-oriented business, Blu-Dun Guide Service, six years ago, it was small time. A taxidermist in the winter, his work as a guide from May through October inevitably benefited from the growth of fly fishing nationwide.

“There has been a big demand since the movie, `A River Runs Through It,’ ” Reed said. And he’s not the only one.

Many who have made fly fishing their business, like 16-time national fly fishing champion Joan Wulff, have credited the popular 1992 film by Robert Redford as the reason the sport has run wild among women, pulled people out of the city, and enjoyed a life as an affluent activity.

“Most of my clients have better equipment than I do. They have the means to buy the equipment,” Reed said. “They are professionals with good-paying jobs. They can afford a guide for two, three, four days.”

National Fishing Week is June 3-11, and since the sport gained the promotional period in 1979, it has never had it so good.

Two years ago, anglers nationwide outnumbered golfers two to one, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. Last year, fishing surpassed hiking and basketball in popularity by almost as wide a margin as participation numbers jumped seven percent to 46.7 million, while hiking had 28 million participants and basketball had 30 million, according to NSGA.

In Maine, figures are up as well.

The number of fishing licenses among Maine anglers has soared since 1995 with 103,557 residents holding permits five years ago compared to 111,682 last year. Among non-residents, there were 12,576 license holders in 1995 and 13,729 in 1999.

“My business has grown, I would probably say 32 to 50 to 75 percent. It doubles each year,” Reed said. “That first year, probably the whole summer I’d say I took out a dozen [anglers], all out of state. Last year, probably, I was just a fishing guide 60 to 70 days. I took out a lot of people. I couldn’t tell you how many. This year, I’m pretty well full right through.”

Reed estimates 30 to 40 percent of his business is with beginner fly fishers.

Dionne said half his business comes from people new to the sport.

At L.L. Bean, the best-selling fly fishing equipment these days has been among first-timers, according to L.L. Bean media representative Dave Teufel.

“[Fishing packages] for new people getting into fly fishing, [and] those for children have been selling very well,” Teufel said. “The under-$100 outfits that get new people into the sport have sold very well. Also, adventure travel has been big. We’ve been seeing a lot more people going on [L.L. Bean] fly fishing trips to the Bahamas, even Patagonia and Chile.”

Nationwide, retail sales of fly fishing equipment jumped 9 percent from 1997 to 1998, according to Leisure Trends Group.

Greg Friel, a registered guide who has been teaching fly fishing for 15 years, has seen the potential for the sport’s growth among the younger generations in East Millinocket.

It was only because Friel, a physical education teacher at Schenck High School, wanted to avoid study hall duty that he implemented his fly fishing course two years ago. He recruited six. By the end of the school year, he had 48.

This year, Friel only allowed juniors and seniors into the class. Now he’s trying to find a way to expand the course, for which students are given credit.

“I don’t see my students out fishing, but then I fish the West Branch of the Penobscot,” Friel said. “Two of them just came in here today to borrow packs to go fishing. We’re trying to do different things, offer an extra session. The numbers are there.”

Dionne said teaching one to fly fish is not easy, even if you’ve opened your own store with the latest equipment and worked with people of all levels. It wasn’t until he became a certified instructor that he had success.

“Pretty much, the way a person [first] learns is a friend teaches them. The friend makes every attempt to show them how to cast. It looks like they’re doing one thing, they’re really doing something else,” Dionne said. “The friend is doing their very best, except the [beginner] doesn’t know what they are doing. It gets very confusing, generally frustrating for both people.”

This is exactly what happens, as a preliminary lesson from a life-long fly fisherman and a subsequent seminar at the Penobscot Fly Fishers Club proved for this story.

A certified instructor knows what the wrist needs to look like at a given point in time. This is why trained instructors can explain the mechanics of a cast much quicker than even an expert fly fisherman can and, in so doing, shorten the learning curve.

But difficult to master or not, Maine guides say the sport’s popularity will spread, because after you’ve tackled the technique, the rest is about relaxation.

“Our lives are complicated, moving quickly. I think with fly fishing, it is the best excuse to wander around a river,” Dionne said. “It does something that we as humans need. The activity lends itself to a mindset that you don’t get in any other activity.”