A light brown and black woven fishing rod designed by Capt. Tiffany Vague.
Woven fishing rod designed by Capt. Tiffany Vague.
A skeletal pirate face with a black and red hat is the woven design on a fishing rod made by Capt. Tiffancy Vague.
A skeletal pirate face is the woven design on a fishing rod made by Capt. Tiffancy Vague.

A gift of fishing-related knowledge and skills is appropriate along the coast, and SBCC is offering inexpensive online classes.

You can give the gift of signing up someone (including yourself) for a class that will make them better fishers. Two are coming up, and one of them is already open for signups.

Best of all, it is offered online, so folks can take the class from the comforts of home.

DIY custom fishing rod building and rod repair is exploding in popularity, so opportunities to learn ways to begin and to improve one’s craft using state-of-the-art modern materials is in demand.

Rod building expert Capt. Tiffany Vague is offering rod building and repair classes online through Santa Barbara City College.

Capt. Tiffany worked as a charter boat crew member; earned her captain’s license and ran boats; managed a tackle store; put on hundreds of seminars; and along the way developed into a master rod builder with credentials like first place in people’s choice award and one of the top 10 rods internationally at the annual international rod building conference.

Her online class offerings begin with this introduction to rod wrapping class and in subsequent terms she will guide her students through intermediate, and then advanced skills, such as weaving fantastic designs, some of which can be seen on her website www.vaguerods.com.

Here is what you need to know to sign up for the online class:

To register it is necessary to set up a student account, if you don’t already have one, then register for the class using your student number from the registration.

Apply, register and obtain information for fee-based classes at https://sbcc.augusoft.net/.

Official title: Introduction to Custom Fishing Rod Building
Tuition is $49; there are no material fees.

Class ID is 25439 (this changes every term and is unique to each class; important to know).

Classes meet online via Zoom weekly, 5-6:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Jan. 23-March 5. Class maximum is 150 people. The instructor will send out a Zoom link to registered students either the day of or the day before the class first meets.

In April, I will be teaching a class called Experience Deep Sea Fishing, which is offered both in-person and online; class numbers are 25435 for in-person at the SBCC Schott Center in Santa Barbara, and 25436 for the online version.

Sign yourself up for these classes or sign up someone else as a gift. Seems to me the gift of knowledge is the best gift of all.

Capt. David Bacon is a boating safety consultant and expert witness, with a background in high-tech industries and charter boat ownership and operation. He teaches classes for Santa Barbara City College and, with a lifelong interest in wildlife, writes outdoors columns for Noozhawk and other publications. The opinions expressed are his own.