At 8 a.m. on Thursday, October 29, a group of women will stand along the edge of a shallow rectangular pond off South Arroyo Boulevard. The session is open to complete beginners and experienced anglers alike. Two coaches named Mike and Mario will run them through a casting game called "Dry Fly," and there will be coffee and donuts. The Pasadena Casting Club calls it the Women's Casting Lab. It costs nothing and runs every other Sunday and Thursday from 8 to 10 a.m. The club scheduled the series to open with a Sunday session on October 25, which makes this Thursday its first weekday date.
This matters to people who live near the Lower Arroyo for a practical reason. On the club's October calendar, the regular public hours fell on Sundays. The Lab gives the pond a standing weekday morning, and that slots it into a week the Lower Arroyo already runs through two clubs founded in 1935 and 1947.
What the Lab Actually Asks of You
There isn't much to it. The club's event listing says equipment is available on site, so you don't need your own gear. You can bring a rod if you'd rather work on the one you already own. Non-members register online, and the listing asks them to include a phone number so the organizers can reach them. The club's own announcement is direct about who the Lab is for:
"Never picked up a fly rod? PERFECT. No gear or casting experience required!"
The same post says the sessions are "FREE for members AND non-members!" and describes the goal as "a consistent space where women can show up, learn together, support one another, and become part of the fly fishing community."
The key word is consistent. Before the Lab, the Women's Program's October dates on the club calendar were away from the pond.
A Women's Program That Kept Leaving Town
The October calendar shows the pattern. On Saturday, October 17, the women's group held an urban fishing meetup at Hansen Dam from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m., fishing for trout, channel catfish, largemouth bass, bluegill and common carp. The program then scheduled a two-day beginner clinic in Bishop with STM Guiding Service for October 24 and 25. That clinic cost $225 per person, rental gear was $40 a day, and it had a waitlist.
Those trips need a free weekend, a drive and a budget. The Lab needs two hours and a short walk down into the Arroyo. It moves the program's beginner work back to the club's own pond, on a schedule that repeats.
That fits the club's history. When the Los Angeles Times profiled the club in 2019, it noted that the two presidents before the one then in office had both been women. The same piece introduced fly-tying expert Naomi Okamoto.
Why the Pond Is the Asset
According to that same 2019 Times profile, Pasadena was one of only three clubs in California with its own casting pond, and the National Casting Championships were set to begin there that summer.
The pond is easy to underrate from the trail. The city's Lower Arroyo Master Plan describes it as a shallow, rectangular, lined pond of about 20,000 square feet, with a clubhouse and public restrooms, used to practice and teach fly fishing. The Times compared its size to about eight tennis courts. In 2019 it also described the city-run pond as free to use and open daily from dawn to dusk.
The club itself dates to 1947. Pasadena Weekly credits Herbert Shefflin as its founder and reports that early members practiced at the Pasadena City College reflecting pool before the club had a clubhouse and pond of its own. The clubhouse address today is 415 S. Arroyo Blvd.
Some of that history still turns up on the calendar. The club has an official fly, the Troebner Nymph, designed by former member Herb Troebner and published in the club's February 1983 newsletter. At the October 11 Fly Tyers Roundup, held in the clubhouse from 1 to 5 p.m. with no registration required, members tied that pattern. The club's homepage also shows an Intro to Fly Fishing clinic planned for November. Its details are posted as a graphic on the club's site.
The Week the Lower Arroyo Already Keeps
Upstream from the pond is the Lower Arroyo's other long-running institution. The Pasadena Roving Archers date their founding to 1935 and say they began offering free lessons in 1964. The club describes its range as the oldest continuously operated field archery range in the world. Its beginner class now lists a small fee, and the gear is provided free.
Taken together, the two clubs' public hours add up to a weekly schedule for anyone who lives within walking distance:
| Day | What | Hours | Cost and conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday, every other week | Women's Casting Lab at the PCC pond | 8–10 a.m. | Free for members and non-members; gear on site; register online |
| Saturday | First-Time Archers, Pasadena Roving Archers | 7:45–10 a.m. | $5 plus fees; gear provided free; advance registration, no walk-ins; no class on the first Saturday of the month |
| Sunday, every other week | Women's Casting Lab at the PCC pond | 8–10 a.m. | Same as Thursday |
| Sunday | Open Clubhouse at the Pasadena Casting Club | 10 a.m.–2 p.m. on the October 2026 calendar | Open to the public to try a fly rod; member casting help usually available |
Archery students meet at the practice range across the bridge from the parking lot, and the club notes that classes can be canceled for weather or events. The Casting Club's listing describes Open Clubhouse as a chance to "practice casting, talk with other members, and enjoy the clubhouse and the Lower Arroyo Seco." On the October calendar, the casting side's public hours fell on Sundays until the Lab added Thursdays.
The Trail That Ties the Two Together
Getting between the pond and the range on foot is easier than it was two years ago. In October 2024, the One Arroyo Foundation reported that construction had started on the Lower Arroyo section between the casting pond and the Colorado Street Bridge, and it sent daytime trail users to the maintenance road along the flood-control channel in the meantime.
That work is finished. The City of Pasadena and the foundation held a ribbon-cutting on December 7, 2024. The city's announcement listed erosion-control and stability work on the Lower Arroyo Loop trails, stone terrace steps near the Mayberry Parker Bridge, cleared trailheads, landslide stabilization, an outdoor learning area, stroller-accessible lower trails, and an upper-loop connection from the Mayberry Parker Bridge to the archery range. The foundation's January 2025 newsletter put the improved trail at 3.5 miles across the Upper and Lower Arroyo, with native planting and a community learning space.
Only the first phase is done. The city's FY 2026–2030 capital improvement program records Phase I as complete in FY 2025. It lists Phase II, which covers the Mayberry Parker Bridge and the trails next to it, as unfunded.
For now, the restored upper loop runs from the bridge to the archery range, and the stroller-accessible lower trails pass the pond. Someone in the Lab on Sunday can be back in the same canyon on Saturday at 7:45 a.m. holding a bow, without getting in a car.
The Lower Arroyo's clubs, its 1947 pond and the trails that link them are part of what makes the homes along this stretch of the Arroyo distinctive. If you own one and want to talk about how its setting belongs in its story, George Penner Team would be glad to hear from you. Contact us.